Engineering or Business for VC?

Engineering by all means. Business education tends to be quite vocational and you'll pick up the skills you actually need in any finance capacity on the job anyway. The advantage of engineering is two-fold: 1. it helps you develop an analytical, problem-solving mind much more so than a business degree and 2. it provides you with a technology-focused skill-set that is hard to come by after your studies (in other words, generally accepted wisdom is that you can pick up finance/business skills on the job while it is quite difficult to pick up engineering basics on the job).

Also, once in VC you may want to launch your own business at some point. As most successful businesses tend to be based on great new products, a technological background will help you to actually drive or influence product design (while most businesses created by business majors that I have seen recently are no-brainer copies of any sort of e-commerce business).

Caveat: I've got a business/finance education background and engineers may see things the other way around.

Definitely engineering/CS undergrad over econ or business. There are even some firms that require an undergrad engineering degree to even be considered for an interview (headhunters have told me this directly).

That being said, most people at the partner level have MBAs, so VCs seem to value business degrees as well

I see.

Wondering if graduate degree in engineering, 3~4 years of industry experience @ Top high tech company with a MBA could be a good strategy for VC?

Any idea?>

Depends on the role and bschool. If you're a PM and go to HBS or Stanford your odds are much better than say if you work in HR and go to a no-name b school.

Thanks for the comment.

I hold B.S. & M.S. in ECE from a top school.

I am currently working @ one of the high tech (e.g. Apple, MS, Google) as Hardware Dev. Engr.

Not sure if I have to be PM with MBA to do VC?

Would it be fine enough doing Dev. Engr with MBA to give a shot for VC?

Thanks for your insight & info.

How about IB TMT? What is your thought on this considering my "plan" & background?

Is there anything else you have in mind that I can leverage my background?

I'm in the reverse role. Went to undergrad for EE and am now in a PM role at a high profile start up (think Twitter, SpaceX, Nest) and got promoted to lead a team within my first year on the job.

If VC is my end goal, would an MBA be a good path to take? Or grow with my current company? I believe there is a lot to learn, but the management structure is started to get more solidified, leaving less room for career growth here.

Thanks for the feedback.

Any advice on how to network with the VC community (and getting in front of headhunters)? I'm in southern California, which has had a rising startup scene as of late. Still not nearly as big as SF, I would not mind making that move at all though.