Advanced Business Education for Developers? 19
DreamTheater asks: "With what I consider a battery of solid technical skills, I find myself increasingly interested in business skills to match. I am looking at MBA programs in either Technology Management or Operations Management. Has anyone pursued an MBA to enhance their career as a developer? If so, how has it affected you?"
Re:Get ready ... (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Get ready ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Wasn't sure whether to mod parent as funny or flamebait, so am responding instead.
I have an BS in management; during my undergrad days I took a couple microcomputer classes, because I saw what my father was doing with computers to run his business better. I fell into a tech job through the back door & have been doing it for 12 years now. One thing I've learned is I have no interest in running a company or being a manager (other than doing my own one-man-show thing).
That first company that gave m
Re:Get ready ... (Score:2)
Re:Get ready ... (Score:1)
Someone I know did their MBA through Heriot-Watt [ebsmba.com] in Edinburgh - because they are a well-established university, they gave credit for previous studies, and only had exams (no assignments). (They weren't in IT, though).
There are many different self-study (correspondence) MB
Might be worth a try (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Might be worth a try (Score:1)
ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're already solid in technical skills, you might want to looks at an MBA in general Management or some non-technical concentration. With concentrations like Technology Management, you'll have to take some dumbed-down technical survey courses that will offer absolutely nothing new to you. You're better off spending that time pursuing the business skills you're looking for, be that accounting, people management, project management, marketing, etc.
If you're not up for a full-blown MBA program, you might consider a graduate certificate. For example, Penn State offers non-credit certificate programs [psu.edu] in very specific areas like HR Management, Project Management, Leadership Development, Supply Management, etc. Your local university might have something similar.
More on that theme (Score:2, Insightful)
This is a good point -- and actually, you should definitely spend some time thinking about what *kind* of business skills you want.
I've been thinking of going for an MBA myself -- not because I want to get into project management, HR, etc., *myself*, but because my software designs would be better if I knew more about how the business works, and *could* work. I've lear
Go for it (Score:3, Informative)
Frankly, I'm probably too old to keep my edge as a C++ programmer (and the older I get, the better I was), but this way I can use my technical experience for something useful. Of course I now have to rely more on other people's technical judgement and sometimes they'll get it wrong where I'd get it right - that can be a bit frustrating.
The course itself can be a lot of fun. There's a lot more analytical work than you might expert. I found the most interesting bit to be the strategy case studies. Sometimes it's possible to come up with a solution which is demonstrably better than the "standard" one.
(*) "programme" in the sense of a group of related projects
Anti-offshoring insurance (Score:2, Interesting)
Hopefully, if you go in with a technical, cynical, skeptical background, you can be exposed to the MBA-think and come out unscathed, having rejected the more moronic theories and concepts.
Look before you leap (Score:2)
Dammit (Score:1)
Maybe Not an MBA... (Score:1)
Have you thought about maybe mixing in some university-level online coursework in business? If anything, investigate some of the offerings beyond an MBA, and see if you can find a few alternatives before deciding.
Best of luck!