Software Engineer (FAANG) to top-5 MBA? Is it worth it? Exit Ops?
Background: I'm a 26 y/o software engineer at a FAANG company, and I'm on track to become an engineering manager in the near future. I'm very good at software engineering as well as dealing with people/other engineers – in other words, my job is going (very) well. However, I find myself desperately craving a more business-side role involving finance, biz strategy, etc.
I genuinely enjoy the subject matter of finance/investing – I spend about 3-5 after work each day reading and obsessing over it. (This isn't to say the practical work environment of a typical financial firm is something I'm necessarily interested in...)
Additionally, I'm interested in business strategy and, for lack of a better term, "higher level" thinking, as it pertains to the success of a business. I find engineering – at nearly all levels – to be myopic (on a relative basis).
I am considering getting an MBA from a top-5 (perhaps 10) school, with a preference for HBS and Wharton, or maybe MIT or Columbia. This would be an entry point into a broader set of career opportunities (with the obvious downside of forgoing a FAANG salary for two years, erasing my savings to pay for the MBA, and doing a partial career reset. The upside, I would hope, is obvious in the long run.)
Question: Does anyone here have advice for this type of situation?
Is my thinking more or less correct than an MBA may be helpful in this case? Or, is the grass always greener and the benefits of an MBA not worth it given my current projection? (In tech, many directors, and even higher, simply climbed the ladder over time.)
Some may say: "You are killing it in your current position; keep doing what you're doing because you have an edge over many other tech people, given your soft-skills + technical skills. Good things will happen if you continually and aggressively look for opportunities."
Others may say: "You will hit a ceiling, and by the time you do, it's too late. No matter what soft-skills you may have, you also need to have a rigorous set of academic credentials to "de-risk" yourself and showcase your non-technical interests."
Thoughts and alternative viewpoints appreciated.
Getting an MBA from a top school would be a way to hit “reset” and get into a strategy type role. And with a software engineering background, if you go back into a FAANG it could make you a pretty attractive candidate as you’ll understand the firm from both a high level business perspective and the technical side of things.
That said, take a look at the strategy / business development type executives and directors at your current FAANG firm. Do they all have their MBAs, or did some of them come from a more technical background? It might be good to grab coffee with some of these people and get their thoughts on their career development. In addition to those folks, also see if you can find people more junior in those roles (both with and without a tech background) and chat with them for their view.
I recall a rather long thread on WSO where one guy was an mba hire into a FAANG, and complained that because he didn’t come from a technical background and it’s really the people with software eng b/g that are respected at his firm, that he felt he made a mistake joining one out of MBA. However, he might have been in the finance division, and he also was someone that was aiming for IB and didn’t get in - so his thread might not be the most helpful for you.
Thanks for your input. I think doing some further research and meeting with people, internal to my firm, and seeing what turns up may be very helpful. Good advice.
As a corollary to your second point – I think it's safe to say that if you intend on being successful at a tech firm, an MBA alone won't be any sort of "golden ticket". Most high ranking people do have in-depth engineering experience somewhere on their resume, even if it was 20+ years ago and tangential to their current line of work.
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