MBA after PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum and here is my background. I am 29 years old, finished my PhD in Mechanical Engineering from a decent ranked university in USA. Currently, working in a very reputed firm's R&D center in India as a researcher for the past 2 years.
Of late, I started feeling that I hit a ceiling in terms of technical contribution and job satisfaction. I don't see my contribution creating an impact or nothing dynamic happening in my research field. Its becoming very specific but not challenging. I feel like a cog in a big wheel.
R&D hierarchy is almost flat with no career growth. I can go just 2 levels up even if I spend my next 30 years. The pay is good but not great. Leave apart developing new skills, I am forgetting the skills I learnt in my PhD. I am at a dead end and don't know what to do. I don't want to spend my next 30 years doing what I do now.
During one of my training sessions, I interacted with a statistician and came to know more about finance and analytics. I started getting interested in economics/finance, analytics and management in general. More I read about these areas more I am interested in making a career switch. I want to do this ASAP before I get old.
Many people suggested me to do MBA with a specialization (finance/econometrics).
Will PhD hamper my chances of getting admitted into MBA?
Will MBA help me in making a career change?
If at all I plan to apply, I will do it for Fall 2015 (will be 32 and having 4.5 years of experience). Am I too old by then?
MBA is a lot of commitment in terms of money and time. I don't want to make another costly mistake now.
Please help me with your thoughts/suggestions and how I can make the career switch happen.
Thanks in advance guys.
Where do you want to work, India or the U.S.?
Preferably U.S. but open to working anywhere...
Will PhD hamper my chances of getting admitted into MBA? Not likely. although you may want to inflect your goals a little bit and think about how you can go about making this change without "throwing away" all that you have gained from your Mechanical Engineering studies. You don't want it to be "Well, I just didn't like that, so there does five years|" if you know what I mean
Will MBA help me in making a career change? Probably.
If at all I plan to apply, I will do it for Fall 2015 (will be 32 and having 4.5 years of experience). Am I too old by then? "Too old" is relative. If you could apply a year or two earlier it would be better. But at 32 you can still apply, but do be aware that it makes thing tougher for you.
M.Tech and MBA both are specialized degrees M.Tech is suitable for a product-based industry where technical skills are required MBA is a management course that will enhance your managerial, communication and presentation skills.After all Choice is entirely up to you and it all depends upon your interest .
MBA increases the job prospects of candidates & gives them lots of opportunities.We all know how how the Indian job market is and that's why we required some professional skills, to get high profile jobs and for the same reason many engineers prefer doing **MBA after engineering. **
Engineering PhD switching to MBA Finance (Originally Posted: 09/09/2010)
Hello everyone,
I'm new to posting here, but have always found this forum to be immensely helpful when seeking advice regarding school or career. So, I would appreciate it if would help evaluate my chances for an MFE or an MBA, with finance emphasis.
I'm currently a first year PhD student at a Top 5 engineering school (CalTech), majoring in electrical engineering. It wasn't easy for me to get here - my university accepted only about 5% of applications for the PhD program this year. However, I've become somewhat jaded by the fact that engineers don't make that much money, so I would like to switch to the finance industry. Yes, I apologize, but, it's all about the money (I don't come from a particularly wealthy family).
Some background: I have a BS and MS in electrical engineering, with a 4.0 GPA for my MS and BS. My GRE scores are Q: 800, V: 700, AW: 6.0 (all >90th percentile). I also have internships at Intel, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and quite a bit of consulting experience. I have no full time experience.
My question is: given my background and motivation, what are my chances in making into one of top MBA schools, with an emphasis in finance?
Thank you all for your help.
why dont you just try to graduate from your top tier phd program and aim for quant job? great pay as a quant..and perhaps you can move into trading after
What do you want to do in finance? Getting an MBA won't be as helpful as a Phd if you plan to go into fixed income research.
You would be insane to transfer out of the PhD program you are in - you will be better qualified for most finance gigs than any finance MBA.
With a PhD in Electrical Engineering, you'll have SOLID applied math skills which should get you a gig at places such as DE Shaw, RenTech. These are quant shops which don't require or seem to fancy any finance education. Pay starts at 300Kish.
Another route you could take would be to move to electrical engineering industry, and try making your way to buy side equity research or something like that. For this, a PhD will not be very useful. Drop out, work in Industy, get a CFA.
If I were you, I'd leverage my quant skills. There will be much more competition in the second route.
There are many finance/investing firms which don't really fancy MBAs. They seem to be the scientific/quant shops. IMO, you're much better off finishing off your PhD, networking and applying the scientific method to Finance instead of spending another 150K on an MBA.
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