Do you guys think an MBA makes sense in my situation?
Hey guys, so I’m currently 25 and making about $175k base as an Associate at a T2 consulting firm.
I went to a decent state school (not big 10 or anything that big) and had a 3.3 GPA and always thought about trying to get to a top school for my MBA, but now that I’ve landed a post-MBA role in consulting at a quality firm, I question if it’s worth it.
I know I could use it to jump into something like product management at a MAANG company, but would I even see a bump in comp at that point? I’m expecting about $230k all in (including signing bonus) for my first year.
Plenty of people have gone from T2 consulting to MAANG PM without an MBA and plenty of people have gone to business school for Tech PM and struck out at MAANG. If you only value the recruiting aspects of getting an MBA, I would get a PM job at the best tech company you can right now. 2 years of experience will do you more good from a compensation perspective and will greatly raise your odds of breaking into big tech.
I would agree with this, an MBA is not necessary to move to PM nor is it a sure-fire bet since it's a competitive job coming out of MBA
In addition to going for PM right away, there are also teams at big tech companies that hire lots of ex-consultants and often offer the ability to transfer internally to PM. I bring this up since PM can be challenging to go for as a consultant, since (a) historically a good number of ex-consultant PMs haven't done very well which makes some tech companies hesitant to hire into that role, and (b) very few consultants actually have the experience / skills that tech companies are looking for
However, reading your language it sounds like you're not really sure what you want to do next -- that's totally okay, nothing wrong with making $200k+ for a couple more years while you figure it out (and "I want to stay in consulting" is a perfectly acceptable answer). But you should spend some conscious effort to determine what you really want to do next -- that's the only way to determine if an MBA is a good idea to achieve the specific goals in mind
Absent a clearly developed reason for doing an MBA, I wouldn't do one though. The direct and opportunity costs are very high
How did you land T2 with a 3.3?
Corporate banking -> consulting at a boutique -> lateral to post MBA role at T2
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