Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#31

Post by occultcry »

nopinsight wrote: post #24
kakekickball wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, thanks for the comment. Yes, I grew up in SE Asia and moved to US at the age of 23. Did you find some sentence structure unusual or was it lack of article use that gave you hint ?

I'd recommend getting a writing coach. I also grew up in Southeast Asia and only started to speak and write in English as an adult. There are a number of major grammatical patterns that we tend to struggle with, since our languages are quite far removed from English, historically and culturally. For me it took a few highly-educated native speakers pointing them out in my own writing to truly understand many subtle ru…

Any recommendations?

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#32

Post by jstandard »

spydum wrote: post #23
biocomputation wrote: post #11

Definitely don't get an MBA if you're not actually interested in learning the material covered by the program. I also didn't get a pay raise, and I didn't use the connections I made, but learning the material was extremely helpful: market forces, positioning, statistics/analysis, strategy. I still skim email newsletters I get from McKinsey & Co. / Wharton a few times a week, and HBR has some incredibly good articles…

This is something I have discussed with others: why bother to pay for an mba in this day and age? Concepts and terminology can be learned at a library/online. Honestly the ONLY appeal I can foresee is the social connections, which tend to benefit more only if you land a top school. Surely there are better ways?

What is missing from learning the concepts on your own are the different perspectives and problem solving approaches from fellow students. Over time, this has a big impact on your personal toolset to see problems from multiple angles you simply wouldn't have considered before.

Quite often during case study discussions one or more of my peers was from the industry being discussed and provided an insider look at the problem. In other situations my professor was a leading industry expert or seasoned executive in the subject matter.

Do you pay a premium? No doubt. Cost/benefit is a very personal decision in the case of an MBA.

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#33

Post by ActsJuvenile »

ksec wrote: post #25
ActsJuvenile wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good catch about the non-native thing! I felt the same as soon as I read first two lines of his post. Anyway, in my experience there are only two guaranteed paths to break in to "Executive Management": 1) You need to bring in a client who contributes big revenue $ to your company or division's bottom line. Or, 2) Develop the next big rain-maker product or service. MBA can help you become a manager, associate, or AVP…

Offtopic: Which part of the post gave away he/she is a non-native speaker?

For me it was his choice of words; he is phrasing all questions using SE Asia vocabulary.

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#34

Post by [deleted] »

skierscott wrote: post #2

I'm a second year graduate student in CS and also debating getting an MBA. I currently study optimization and machine learning, and in the future I'd like to lead a team of people studying similar topics. Initially, my goal was to stay an academia and become a professor, but now I believe I'd like to be in industry doing similar tasks.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#35

Post by joshux »

skierscott wrote: post #2

I'm a second year graduate student in CS and also debating getting an MBA. I currently study optimization and machine learning, and in the future I'd like to lead a team of people studying similar topics. Initially, my goal was to stay an academia and become a professor, but now I believe I'd like to be in industry doing similar tasks.

leading a team of people doing machine learning has nothing to do with an MBA.

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#36

Post by eb0la »

Looks you're doing a cost-benefit analysis of getting an MBA ;-)

In my country, you need an MBA to get into mid-upper level management positions just because almost everybody is having one just to differentiate from others.

The cost of getting an MBA - paid by you - is nearly the same of running a business for 2-3 years. And it also reflects you have knowledge about managing business when your own money is at stake.

A lot of people wants an MBA for the connections: get an MBA because you want to hear and discuss a lot of different points of view o a lot of business subjects in a short (1 year) time. Connections are useful if you can make use of them (like making business together with other people).

Re: Ask HN: I am torn between whether I should do MBA or not. Thoughts?

#37

Post by wageslave2 »

You are an engineer and choose management long ago. Your life does not matter to the progress of the world. You must be in capable of coding. So the best thing for you is to do mba because there is nothing note worthy you can do. At least by this way you will stop worrying. I am stating factual observation of the world.
Post reply on HN