[scarface74]

I was moving from engineering to product management and thought it would help my resume to get an MBA, but I was pleasantly surprised how useful in many other regards the process and learnings were.

I went to graduate school to get an MBA from a decently, regionally respected program after one year working full time. I went the part time MBA route. I dropped out because of $reasons after almost finishing.

What I learned from my MBA didn’t have any immediate rewards during the early parts of my career as a software developer, but it really started helping a lot for more senior architect roles - “architect” by title or responsibility - and helped me talk to CxOs and punch above my titles.

I never put anything about graduate school on my resume.

The first time I thought about going back and either getting an MBA or MS in Comp. Sci, I realized that getting either wouldn’t get me an appreciable bump in salary over just self study in technology and aggressively job hopping in my local market.

In two years when things settle down and my youngest is in college and I could realistically think about doing it, it still wouldn’t make much financial sense. I’ll have the skillset, the resume, and the certifications along with my business knowledge to make more as an overpriced “implementation consultant” than I could with an MBA. Especially since I am not willing to move to any of the financial centers and I would basically have to slowly work my way up.

Most development managers are making much less than consultants in my market. Heck when I was a Dev lead, I was making less than ordinary software developer contractors that I hired.

[fma]

I'd be curious on your thoughts on this:

I have an undergrad in Computer Engineer, grad in EE from a big state university.

My employer is willing to pay for another Masters (nice perk...). I have 10 years working experience and work in Atlanta now - so I can do the Georgia Tech Executive MBA, or, their online Computer Science degree.

Assuming I have time (have a 2nd baby on the way so debatable)...and it's free. Is one more worthwhile than the other. And although the G. Tech online degree is available for free, the pressure of deadlines would actually ensure I complete the courses and not just watch a few hours and stop...like I've done already.

[scarface74]

Actually, I'm also in Atlanta and I have been for over 20 years and I think I have a good understanding of the local tech scene and salary.

It depends on what you want to do and whether you want to stay in Atlanta.

From what I can tell from talking to recruiters, looking at salary surveys, and friends who are also in their 40s who have been aggressive about their careers longer than I have and eschew management, the ceiling for individual contributors and low level architects/dev leads (statistical ceiling without going way out on the bell curve) is around $150-$160K total comp and that's pushing well into the 4th quintile.

You can gradually get over that hump by being an "implementation consultant" for a consulting company, but still you may be looking at around a top end of $180K - $200K. It also may require a fair amount of travel.

I'm not sure which would open more doors or what doors you are trying to travel through. Personally, I have no desire to get into management and want to stay hands on. More money is always nice, but not strictly necessary for me. The cost of living in the 'burbs in Atlanta is so low compared to what you can make as developer with 10 years of experience, it's not really worth the extra headache for me to take on more responsibilities right now.

If a company was willing to pay for my education, I would definitely go the Executive MBA route. It is so easy to teach yourself almost anything in computer science once you have the foundation and I don't think you get much "credit" for getting academic credentials in computer science as you would get for business.

Besides, the online computer science degree from GA Tech is cheap - $7000. The EMBA is $80K. A $7K reimbursement is nothing.

[otoburb]

You should figure out why you want the next degree. If it's credentialing, then having a non-technical graduate degree would cover your "breadth". If you want to be exposed to a different audience and learn from different businesses and perspectives, MBA.

However, want to really double-down on the technical path (or simply want to learn more technically and credential up at the same time), then by all means go for the free GT OMSCS, although with a graduate EE degree I have to say that it feels a little redundant. Perhaps you have a burning or specific research topic you'd like to deep-dive through one or more independent study modules in the OMSCS program, in which case that answers the "purpose" question.

Would your company sponsor a graduate degree outside of GA? If so, you could also potentially consider a higher ranked program and fly in, although your partner will probably veto that idea due to your second incoming child. My point here is that this may open up other options you didn't consider, depending on your financial situation and your real purpose for going back to school.

I think that any part-time program is harder when you have a newborn. Depending on the timing of your second child, and job stability, you may also want to consider whether you should postpone the next graduate degree for a year when your second is most likely to be sleeping through the night(s) again.

[fma]

My employer (very large employer...) has partners with other universities for free grad degree. Including Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Illinois for MBA. It's more traditional, as in...recorded lectures, go to a testing center.

The draw of the G. Tech OMSCS is it's more self paced. I can take 1 class per semester while the other traditional I believe would be 2+ classes per semester.

My current position is more management/team lead, and being in a 'large company' my tech exposure hasn't been competitive (case in point...free grad degree, even though I have on already). I've solved a lot of business problems using older tech. The OMSCS would give me the exposure, plus the pressure to actually finish lectures and projects.

My Masters in EE was actually more hardware oriented. Circuits, networking, DSP, etc... I stumbled into web & software dev. I'd do the OMSCS courses in AI, Security & Data Science - I have an interest in those, anyways.

Good point on postponing. I won't start till Fall 2019 - but I think the G. Tech executive MBA I can start in the Spring if I get all my paperwork together, but that would be suicide haha.

[scarface74]

I’m not disagreeing with your reasoning for going OMSCS route, but if the company is going to pay for it either way and support you studying, why not take advantage of it to the fullest and have them reimburse you for the eMBA?

At some point in the future if my life allows for it, I would do the OMSCS degree just for the hell of it and it’s only $7K.

Edit: A degree in STEM serves basically two purposes - education and credentials. You already have good credentials and you could teach yourself anything you want in CS.

Even more of a reason to go the eMBA route.

[fma]

Yeah I agree. With 10 years as 'individual contributor', the last 2 as team lead, an eMBA might serve me better. Tech is coming to our office next week to present/recruit for eMBA, so this article and your response is perfect timing. Thanks!

[bitL]

You can do both GT's OMSCS and UIUC's iMBA...

[taude]

A couple of my direct reports are working on their masters from G-Tech online. I'm not very impressed with the curriculum (or at least the classes they're taking). I'd probably go the MBA route to cover your higher-degree, and fill in specific technical training with an area that interests you for work, like a data science course from Stanford, or whatever....

[mathattack]

The CS degree is 5X as hard. It will be more immediately useful. The business degree will be more useful long term if you expect to land in a non-Tech role.