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This general argument is so tiring, and really dismissive and ignorant of the capabilities of other people who do work outside of the realm of engineering, as well as being ignorant to the actual content and usefulness of an MBA education. All this argument really signaling is "business bros have dumb monkey brains and can't learn technology but the engineers are so smart that they can learn business." So many flaws with it: 0. MBAs are Masters degrees, which means that they're the second degree of those who have them. For example, Tim Cook's first degree was an Industrial Engineering degree, and his masters degree was an MBA. So the idea that someone who has an MBA is incapable of learning how to do technical work is essentially backwards. 1. How many tens if not hundreds of thousands of self-taught no-degree engineers are out there coding right now? If a person without an engineering degree can write code, build technical products, etc, what makes you think that a person with a business degree can't learn or understand technological concepts? Aren't some of the most famous technical founders of Silicon Valley college drop-outs? If Steve Wozniak could design the Apple II without having finished his engineering degree couldn't someone who happens to have a business degree do the same? 2. What makes you think that the information within an MBA is trivial to learn and apply effectively? Do engineers know when to structure the company in a matrix organizational structure versus a foundational organizational structure? Do engineers know how to apply organizational behavior techniques to diagnose and resolve group psychology issues like demotivated teams or poor product quality? Do engineers know how to evaluate the business and political climate of a different region to decide what type of business structure to enter into when expanding internationally? Do engineers know how read the financial disclosures of a company to evaluate whether they are a healthy company, how much their valuation should be, whether they should be acquired? Do they know how to prepare a balance sheet, statement of cash flows, or income statement? The list goes on and on - even if an MBA won't confuse you with Fourier transforms, the time investment to learn all the concepts is similar to any degree with similar credit hours. 3. How much in-the-weeds technical work do you think top management is doing at engineering companies anyway? 4. An MBA is a breadth degree just like your typical computer engineering or computer science degree. Just like engineers, people who get MBAs build most of their skill set through on-the-job experience. For example, in computer engineering you might learn about power systems, transistors, microcontroller programming, digital circuit design, and analog circuit design, but it's unlikely that you would do all of those things in one career path. In the same way, an MBA is a foundation in a number of topics: accounting, corporate finance, organizational behavior, operations, information technology, entrepreneurship, etc. The measure of the person who has the degree isn't just the content of the degree, it's where that starting point leads them and how effective they build their career on top of it. |
The better question is, do MBAs?
> How much in-the-weeds technical work do you think top management is doing at engineering companies anyway?
You don't have to be in the technical weeds to be making decisions where technical considerations are important.