Hey Corinn here, founder of speckled - the tool that helps PMs build the
right thing at the right time.
Today, we're going to be talking about
MBA's.
This seems to be something that pops up a lot.
I was browsing the product management subreddit the other day, and I swear every
other post was about, should I get my MBA?
And these posts really irked me for some reason.
I don't think that everyone should get their MBA.
So today we're going to be talking about maybe when you should consider
getting your MBA, versus when you may want to consider other options . Now,
the hard thing about an MBA is that it takes two years of your life.
It's two years where you're not getting paid, assuming you go full time.
Another thing is you're also probably paying close to six
figures for the privilege.
And on top of that, once you graduate a PM job, is not a guarantee.
Now that being said, going to business school could be a lot of fun.
You can make a lot of friends, you can expand your network.
You'll probably be exposed to more potential opportunities because
there will be recruiters on campus.
And you're going to leave with a nice three letters behind your name that even
if you don't go into product management can be applied into other roles.
So, that being said, do you need your MBA?
I think this really depends on your career goals.
If you are going for the head of product at a FAANG company, you may need your MBA.
There's going to be a lot of competition for that gig and having those three
little letters is going to help you check off a box that may get
you into that role eventually over someone who doesn't have their MBA.
Yeah.
Now say you're going for head of product at a smaller software company.
Do you need your MBA?
Probably not.
If they don't have this crazy rigid ladder of Ascension towards the highest product
roles, you're probably not going to need your MBA, your experience, and your track
record are going to speak for themselves.
Another thing I kind of want to put out there is even if you're a fresh
graduate of an MBA program and you're applying for the same role as someone
who is an experienced product manager and say they have two, three, four
years of successful product management experience under their belt, they've
launched a things, they've grown things.
They're probably going to get the job before you do, that MBA is nice,
but when you're hiring a product manager, you want to know that they're
going to be successful in the role.
And as an MBA, you have that potential and you've shown that you can complete
case studies, but you haven't quite yet shown that here's a product.
I can take it from zero to one to 100 and really get this thing off the ground.
So just keep in mind that while the education part is great, there's
still an experience component that you're going to need.
So that brings me to my next point, if you're not sure about getting your MBA
and if you haven't been in a product management role before, I would definitely
say get into a product management role before you consider getting your MBA.
Yeah.
Maybe you might not get into a product management role at a FAANG company.
Maybe you have to God forbid work at a smaller company , which is
actually really great because you can do a whole lot more stuff.
But try to get some experience because it may turn out that product
management is not what you expected.
I think that is the case for a lot of people who get into product management.
They think that it's this great glamorous role where you get to
be the mini CEO of your product.
When in reality, it's fraught with anxiety and stress and managing stakeholders,
and lots of really kind of not fun stuff that doesn't necessarily require an MBA
just requires a lot of people skills.
That's my opinion, you know, if you want to go for the
FAANG top dog , get your MBA.
If you're not sure if product management is right for you, if you're okay
with not working at one of these big, big tech companies and you don't
want to spend two years of your life paying six figures to go to school.
Um, I would say pass.
At least temporarily until you are more sure that an MBA is
the true best step for you.
So that's my opinion.
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And in the meantime, if you're deciding to get an MBA, I hope you,
I hope you make the right decision.