Non-MBA Grad school programs & recruiting

Hi all,

I graduated from a top 20 school and have been a consultant at a Big Four for two years. I have been thinking about b-school but more technical (and non-MBA) programs in data science or information systems management have been also looking attractive. I'm aware this forum is mostly for those interested in an MBA but wanted to get some facts/opinions from some knowledgeable people:

If you're wanting to go into tech related fields rather than the traditional b-school student's ibanking/consulting path, is MBA still the best option? Given that one of my undergrad majors was business management, is it not worth repeating the basic courses I'd have to take?

When it comes to recruiting, are the same level of positions available to both MBA and Masters students in other areas? I would have about 3 to 4 years of work experience under my belt.

4 Comments
 

would you have any detailed information regarding recruiting at these school/programs? And similar schools in the east coast?

Some statistics are available on their websites generally but I'd like to hear from people who have personal experience rather than just numbers.

 
Best Response

I've known people who did non-MBA/MSF/MMS masters, from what I garnered from those conversations there are two usual recruiting streams: 1. whatever the program is geared towards and 2. a DIY job search. For example people do go into finance out of SIPA/HKS, mostly into pub fin it seems, but some go into more traditional roles, the same seems to be true across the board at top schools.

When it comes to tech recruiting if you want a business job go to a top MBA end of story. Learning is a secondary objective in b school you're there for the network and the recruitment, if you happen to learn something that's icing on the cake. My honest advice is if you want to move up in the tech world go to an MBA with a strong tech presence e.g. GSB, Sloan, Haas or even UW-Foster if you want to be a product manager or in biz dev.

 

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