Few years back I wrote a post about what to choose between an M.Tech or an MBA and with rapidly changing environment I think it’s time to revise the topic in present context. I myself was looking for an MBA few years before and more recently. But I took time to evaluate and assess what is important and how much I can spend on it and what is return on investment. After thinking a lot and evaluating and reevaluating what I want in life I felt that it’s not an MBA I am looking for. The similar kind of question must be addressed by many in their mid career. I will try to shade some light how I reached to this decision.
There are few questions one need to answer to reach to a right decision on M.Tech or MBA. Most of the times I felt the real reasons are kept behind or under considered while thinking about moving ahead. Here let me take you through them one by one.
1. Why do you think that you need a change?
If you are working and have this question in mind, then there are two possibilities. First one is you have a comfortable job and have been comfortable for long time and now feel like losing grip on the technology that landed you in this job. Oh boy the tech landed you for this job is also not in main stream and squeezing opportunities. Yes that lead to second situation, may be you feel unstable at job or looking for a career growth or shift due to different situations, like current job is boring, you are not learning enough and the technology you are working in old and opportunities are getting less every day and every year.
If you are student and looking for answer to question of M.Tech or MBA then there could be two different reasons behind or three. First one, you feel that you dont have sufficient knowledge or could acquire sufficient knowledge during your studies. Second one, you actually dont even like engineering just did it because you had to (anyway you did a good job by doing engineering you will realize it later). Lastly you not able to find a good job even after giving hell lot of effort.
In any of these situations if you are extremely serious about moving ahead I would recommend to go ahead with M.Tech except that you feel you are totally not for engineering. Mostly students and people in mid career miss that learning opportunity otherwise they are just fine. They just need to move out and start learning everything will be fine for them.
If you fail to land in a job or looking forward to make a move into new technology instead of M.Tech I ask you to look into some professional courses like the one offered CDAC and other. Do read CDAC education and job opportunities for more details.
2. Long term worries vs short term worries or goals
The worries are actually different one need to clearly identify and address them to reach to good decision. By short term worry I mean that you have a difficult boss, or tough project going on, salary is low, working hours are long or some other reasons. For these reasons if you want to move for M.Tech or MBA wait a second, I think you need time and patience not MBA or M.Tech. Similarly if you are student and not finding a job after long search and you want to move with M.Tech or MBA, I think its a wrong way. You need to find some professional short course that land you in a job not MBA or M.Tech.
Yes if concern is long term, we need to look into it. By long term concern I mean, the technology you are working is going to absolute. For example with me few friends were working on 3G networks and in a span of three years they all were fired because they could not learn 4G or LTE network systems. If you feel something bad is coming up if you stay comfortable, I think it’s time to jump. Now you will have to ask yourself what is compelling you to make this decision. If its legacy technology, or boring routine work, or you feel that it’s time for some real scientific contribution than just making tiny money for living. Then it’s time to look for M.Tech or a direct PhD.
If you see yourself working for an established firm for a long time and don’t like technology (details like designing and coding systems) anymore, I would recommend you to checkout for an MBA.
For student who just graduated and not looking for some smaller jobs and some quick bucks, I always recommend higher education. Of course in a better place than you already studied. This bought me to one of the best companies in the world and with a lot more confidence and chances to grow faster and higher than average bachelor and master degree holders. I also realized with time higher education is becoming more valuable in top companies in the world. Now almost all of fortune 500 companies have excellent positions for PhDs for their domains.
3. How much money you spend and what you will get in return?
Remember both MBA and M.Tech cost money. My approach is simple these days, I just calculate what I get for the amount of money I am paying for and is it worth that money and time or not. I give myself good time to understand and calculate this and most of the time I felt this help me make good decisions.
For working class and experienced reads it’s easy to make their ROIs. As they know market and know what they can do and know how much risk they can take on their finances for the returns. But when it comes to fresh graduates, they might just look at the fee as a must thing to do as their parents will be doing it or some bank if they are entitled for loans. Still I would like every one of you to sit and give it a thought does it worth your time and money? can you earn a higher pay to recover your money? or it’s just that you are doing it as you dont know anything else to do?
If your answers are clear then you will make use of your time and make value out to your degrees. Otherwise, you will remain in a confusing state after completing one more degree.
4. Is there any alternative ways to achieve what you want to do?
From most of the cases I learned that the guys asking me about M.Tech or MBA actually don’t want or not looking for either of these. They just know only these alternatives for their current situation or concern. What I recommend you to take a bit of time and understand and ask yourself why do you think you want to do M.Tech or MBA? And How will you achieve it after you complete the course you want to select. There could be plenty of alternatives to reach your ultimate goals.
For example, someone is looking for an MBA, ask themselves why I want to do MBA. The answer is they want to start a company. The next question popped up was why the heck someone is thinking about starting a company wants an MBA then the answer could be want to move close to Silicon Valley and the school I want to go is close to it. Well I dont any other way to land there.
Given this, the alternatives could be first make prototype taking your time. Contact some incubators there or join some funded research programs or join a startup for a while to know how it works. Save MBA money for your startup.
Likewise, ask yourself, do you really want it and try to find all alternate ways to achieve your final goal then hit all the ways to reach there in an optimum and efficient way possible.
5. Remember Both Tech and Management provide equal opportunities.
This is totally a myth that an MBA would get you to top with just an MBA. I tell you after a decade experience in one of the world’s best companies, your contribution and ownership will get you opportunities not your degrees.
I have seen MBA’s from Harvard and Stanford struggling to find the purpose and position here. Whereas, people with BS and hell lot of experience in engineering performing great as VPs and Executives.
Remember you can never beat someone’s contribution of 20 or 30 yrs with a degree, yes but more ownership and dedication. Therefore it’s worthless to think that an MBA or M.Tech would change your life upside down. What change your life upside down is your contribution, your dedication and your sense ownership.
Spend some time and take good decisions. Hope this helped you to fix your direction. For more article related to M.Tech advices do check M.Tech advices and for refer to advice on post B.Tech confusions for reading. Dont forget to like us on FB and follow on google plus. You can get updated on mail by subscribing us.
Sir, is it worth doing MTech just because of lack of job prospects given that my concepts are weak. I got admission on the basis of GATE score which I didn’t qualify.
I perfectly agree with your opinion…. It’s those situation-based decisions which land us to long term troubles, although, helping us to overcome that situation…..
Zahid… I am highly grateful to you and your website for guiding me and bringing clarity regarding M tech (Why and Where) to be done….. I was a B Tech pass out (2013) from an ordinary engineering college hoping of landing into a job but many factors (including you website) shaped my thought towards going for an M Tech….. Though, I got a job that year and was lucky enough to proceed with M Tech parallely.
Now, when I look back at my decision of going for an M tech, I feel fortunate to have taken that decision…..
Thank You and May God Bless You For All Your Endeavors…..