|
|
|
|
|
|
by msgerbush
3662 days ago
|
|
|
This is obviously a personal question, but as someone looking to transition from an engineer to more of a technical business leader, what would you consider the most direct and fulfilling path? It sounds like the ultimate goal is becoming a CEO/entrepreneur, but do you think the"increasingly unfulfilling" years as a CTO are necessary/unavoidable? How do you continue to get the sensation of building things, as you become further removed from the actual execution? Thanks for your comments here, as an engineer considering an MBA and general career trajectory, this has been really helpful. |
|
|
If ultimately you want to be an entrepreneur, then try to sign on as an early/founding engineer with a qualified and capable business team. You'll learn most of what you need to do it yourself by proximity. Alternatively, consider one of the better incubators/accelerators as a way to draw a living salary while executing over time with support from your peers in the program and mentors.
If you want to be CEO of Cisco, suck it up and be a non-building technical leader. Eventually you'll be able to absorb or grow your scope into a profit-centre of the business (engineering is usually a cost centre), and if you excel at that you can climb the rest of the way. This is really the only end goal for which it makes sense to do an MBA.