The email responded to in this message is from yet another former engineer who is looking at business school and consulting. You know, there seem to be a lot of techies making this transition and there isn’t a lot of information out there to help them. I hope the responses that I come up with and post here are helping to fill in that gap in information.

Before moving on, I would like to make one request of everyone out there who might send me an email with questions in it. Please take the time to read through my past entries before asking a question. After almost-4 years of doing this blog, I’ve written about a long list of topics and several of the reader emails that I get ask me things that have been covered on here before. A few minutes of skimming through the archives might provide clarity on questions that you might have before you write an email to ask.

——–
NV wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

Happened to see your blog and noticed your enthusiasm in helping others with the career decisions.. I appreciate the efforts you put in. And your blog is pretty informative..

Would really appreciate if you could give your opinion on the following:-

1. Do I need an MBA??

I am an engineering graduate working for an analytical consulting firm in India for past 2 yrs as a senior analyst and prior to this was with a big IT firm for an year. ( I don’t see any point in coding ! .. business excites me more)

And I want to get into one of the mentioned below
a. strategy consulting in India/UK/US..
b. marketing department of big fmcg firms
c. brand management
d. A bigger role in analytical firm in India/UK/US

If not an MBA is there any other way I reach where I want to ??

These are few careers that I know will excite me.. Is there any place where I can find more about the different careers that exist and what is required for them?

2. Is analytics the future of consulting??

3. Are there any more careers which spawn out of analytics??

4. Could you eumerate advantages of an MBA (experienced by you) ?

5. Do the returns justify the cost of US MBA (given that I am an India this a HUGE amount for me! )?

6. Is it possible for you to connect me with some more industry seniors (analytics/consulting) so as to get their opinions as well

Thanks in advance

NV”
——–
My response:

NV,

Thanks for checking out my blog. I like the way you numbered out the questions that you were asking so I can easily address them one-by-one over time and send you a response. I’m not an expert in analytics, but I’ve given you my read on the questions that you’ve asked below:

1. You might be able to get to those careers you listed without an MBA, but it might be very difficult to do so. Given your current work with the analytics consulting firm, you might be able to transition to a bigger role at a different analytics firm without much trouble, but you might have to start over from the bottom to work your way up for the other three careers…and that’s if you even have the chance to get in on the ground floor. You would need to build a network of contacts to get your in and that would be difficult without the MBA. Honestly, I believe the MBA is the most direct path to where you want to get. You’ll learn a ton that will help you excel in your business career and, as I’ve said on my blog before, the MBA is the ‘great equalizer’ that will prepare you for any number of careers that you might want to pursue.

To find more information on these careers and what is required for them, your first step would be to do a series of comprehensive Google searches using your four desired career options as keywords. After that, check out sites that have information on a range of industries, such as Vault.com, to see what sort of data you can find about in-depth career options and their associated requirements. Finally, take a look at some industry publications, like ‘Consulting Magazine’, to learn about individual companies that could serve as potential employers.

2. The question about analytics being the future of consulting is an interesting one because I’d say that it is the future AND the present of consulting…at least strategy consulting, that is. In many cases, when consulting team considers a business problem, a wide range of data is analyzed to pull out a variety of insights about the client and their current state (e.g., customer data, sales of different products, employee perspectives, etc). Once the team has found these insights, they can work on innovative ways to diagnose the root of any problems and develop methods to resolve them.

This is how things happen and my guess is it’ll work the same way in the future. The main difference in the future may be that clients might keep track of more in-depth and useful information in more robust formats and systems, which could aid in developing deeper insights about the client situation. One rule of thumb that I’ve heard in regards to Consulting is that more data is always a good thing and, in the future, analytical tools and techniques will become even more important to process the mountain of data that clients will accumulate.

3. Careers that spawn out of analytics??? Hmmmm…now you’ve got me stumped with this question. A few job possibilities come to mind, but they’d be guesses at options for you. The first option would be a Data Analyst role (at a place like CapitalOne) where you use analytical tools and techniques to mine data and extract insights that can be used to guide the organization’s strategy…this sounds like what your firm is already doing though, so it might not be the best option. Another possible career would be something in Investment Banking or Financial Services, where you would analyze financial data and help determine whether an acquisition, divestiture, or investment should take place.

Honestly, I don’t think I’m much help to you on this issue, so you might want to check around on the Web via a Google search or a keyword search on some popular online job sites (Doostang.com, Monster.com, Hotjobs.com, etc) to find out what other jobs pertain to analytics just to get a longer list of possible career ‘next steps’.

4. I’ve been asked several times to list the advantages of an MBA by readers and have responded in many entries. I recommend that you review the archives of my blog to find my perspectives on this question. In particular, look for an entry that I wrote during the summer of 2006 where I recapped my top-10 lessons learned from business school. I can’t remember the exact date of that entry, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

5. I’m probably the wrong person to ask for an objective opinion on the value of an MBA because business school did SO MUCH to get my career on track. I understand that a US MBA might be significantly costly for you, but it is well worth it, especially given the transition that you’re trying to make.

If the cost is an issue for you, consider pursuing post-MBA jobs in the US and UK, instead of making an immediate return to India an option. That way, you’ll earn more money and can try to pay off those school loans as quickly as possible. After paying off/down the Bschool loans, you can return to India with a strong educational credential, several years of US/UK experience that you could apply in India, and a lot less debt than you might expect.

6. I wish I could help you out with connections to senior people in the industry, but don’t connect people in my network to other parties unless I know those parties personally. Instead, you might want to join local consulting community groups in your area (if there are any) and leverage the connections you make there to get more opinions on your questions.

I hope these responses are helpful to you as you sort out the next steps in your career. Take care and good luck.

-Marquis