The following email is from a Software Engineer who is interested in moving into product management at a Tech company after getting an MBA. His email showed me the power that available information about business schools can have in guiding people in their post-MBA plans. I’m hoping that my response helped to clear things up a little for this reader.
One big piece of advice for everyone reading this is that your post-MBA plans should be based on what you really want to do, not what you think a particular business school will set you up for. The last thing you’d want is to take yourself off track in your career because of a situation that you believe is preordained for you by a Bschool. Rather, you should pursue the degree and then put in as much extra legwork as needed to find the way to your desired career. You may run into some obstacles along the way, but you’ll be much happier once you find the job you want.
——-
VV wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I’ve been following your blog for quite sometime now, and I must admit its a gem of a place to get informed and inspired. I would be grateful if you could spare some time and shed light on some of my queries. Here is my story.
I am an Indian software engineer working on telecom networks for past three years(IIT grad). In the long run, I want to either start a tech company of my own or become a product manager of a hi tech startup. I am considering an MBA as a platform to swith roles from developer to managerial.
The dilemma which I am facing is that B schools placements does not highlight people who make a move into product management directly. Most of the graduates end up in consulting or finance. So my plan is work for 3-4 years in consulting (say product management consulting for hi tech sector) and then move to product management in startup. I would like to what kind of opportunities are available in consulting industry to make such a move. If possible, please elaborate, what kind of work consulting firms do for hi tech companies, and how can that experience help me in my long term goal, and what kind of consulting assignments/functional area I should target specifically.
If there is any path other than consulting please let me know. ( How would a generic consulting like say strategy assignment in FMCG company help me in getting a product management profile).
Your views are eagerly awaited.
Thanks & Regards,
VV”
——-
My response:
VV,
What’s going on, man. Thanks for checking out my blog and for your kind words about it. I’m glad that you’ve found it interesting and I hope this email helps you think through the issue you’re facing with your career aspirations.
Your message highlights one of the big issues that I have with the way that business school publish career information in their marketing materials. In order to put together percentages for career paths of graduates, many schools simply consolidate a set of post-MBA jobs under a single general category, like “Technology” or “Marketing”. This method works in most cases because most B-school students are aiming for post-MBA positions in Consulting or I-Banking, but it falls short for people like you who want something more specific in a different area. Schools will probably always publish their information in this way because it works for the majority of students, but that certainly can cause confusion for the rest of the applicant population.
OK, so let me ease your concerns by saying that you CAN move directly into a product development position after completing an MBA. I know many people who have gone into product management positions at places like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco and those firms all recruited on campus at Stanford GSB, so it was relatively easy to get access to them from what I saw. Others were able to find similar positions at firms that didn’t come on campus, including at start-ups, by doing a little research on their own to uncover the opportunities. Once you get to business school, you should leverage your school career services office for help with this sort of search. That office should have lots of resources to help you and can also tap into the alumni network to move the search forward too.
If you REALLY want to do a stint in Consulting before transitioning over to product management, you have several good options available to you. I would recommend targeting consulting firms that do work in IT consulting to get a combination of strategic thinking, a technology-and-business foundation, and an understanding of how those fit together. Some firms that immediately come to mind as having a strong focus on technology are Accenture, Booz-Allen, DiamondCluster, Bearing Point, and AT Kearney. Some of the more generalist firms have functional practices with an IT concentration (i.e. McKinsey’s Business Technology Office), but it sounds like you’d only do a couple of years in Consulting, so you might want to look closely at the more IT-focused firms.
The big message that should come through here is that you shouldn’t let your career goals be directed by what you think a business school will set you up for. If you’ve got a genuine interest in Consulting, then go for it and I wish you the best of luck with that, but your message doesn’t give me the impression that this is the case. The great thing about business school is that anyone can go in regardless of their background and move into almost any career he/she wants (except for those requiring a JD, MD, or PhD) two years later. So, if you want to do product management at a start-up, then set that as you short-term career goal and figure out how you can move straight into it by leveraging an MBA. You might be doing yourself a disservice and slowing down your possible career progression otherwise.
I hope what I’ve written here is helpful to you. Take care and good luck with your business school applications.
-Marquis
One big piece of advice for everyone reading this is that your post-MBA plans should be based on what you really want to do, not what you think a particular business school will set you up for. The last thing you’d want is to take yourself off track in your career because of a situation that you believe is preordained for you by a Bschool. Rather, you should pursue the degree and then put in as much extra legwork as needed to find the way to your desired career. You may run into some obstacles along the way, but you’ll be much happier once you find the job you want.
——-
VV wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I’ve been following your blog for quite sometime now, and I must admit its a gem of a place to get informed and inspired. I would be grateful if you could spare some time and shed light on some of my queries. Here is my story.
I am an Indian software engineer working on telecom networks for past three years(IIT grad). In the long run, I want to either start a tech company of my own or become a product manager of a hi tech startup. I am considering an MBA as a platform to swith roles from developer to managerial.
The dilemma which I am facing is that B schools placements does not highlight people who make a move into product management directly. Most of the graduates end up in consulting or finance. So my plan is work for 3-4 years in consulting (say product management consulting for hi tech sector) and then move to product management in startup. I would like to what kind of opportunities are available in consulting industry to make such a move. If possible, please elaborate, what kind of work consulting firms do for hi tech companies, and how can that experience help me in my long term goal, and what kind of consulting assignments/functional area I should target specifically.
If there is any path other than consulting please let me know. ( How would a generic consulting like say strategy assignment in FMCG company help me in getting a product management profile).
Your views are eagerly awaited.
Thanks & Regards,
VV”
——-
My response:
VV,
What’s going on, man. Thanks for checking out my blog and for your kind words about it. I’m glad that you’ve found it interesting and I hope this email helps you think through the issue you’re facing with your career aspirations.
Your message highlights one of the big issues that I have with the way that business school publish career information in their marketing materials. In order to put together percentages for career paths of graduates, many schools simply consolidate a set of post-MBA jobs under a single general category, like “Technology” or “Marketing”. This method works in most cases because most B-school students are aiming for post-MBA positions in Consulting or I-Banking, but it falls short for people like you who want something more specific in a different area. Schools will probably always publish their information in this way because it works for the majority of students, but that certainly can cause confusion for the rest of the applicant population.
OK, so let me ease your concerns by saying that you CAN move directly into a product development position after completing an MBA. I know many people who have gone into product management positions at places like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco and those firms all recruited on campus at Stanford GSB, so it was relatively easy to get access to them from what I saw. Others were able to find similar positions at firms that didn’t come on campus, including at start-ups, by doing a little research on their own to uncover the opportunities. Once you get to business school, you should leverage your school career services office for help with this sort of search. That office should have lots of resources to help you and can also tap into the alumni network to move the search forward too.
If you REALLY want to do a stint in Consulting before transitioning over to product management, you have several good options available to you. I would recommend targeting consulting firms that do work in IT consulting to get a combination of strategic thinking, a technology-and-business foundation, and an understanding of how those fit together. Some firms that immediately come to mind as having a strong focus on technology are Accenture, Booz-Allen, DiamondCluster, Bearing Point, and AT Kearney. Some of the more generalist firms have functional practices with an IT concentration (i.e. McKinsey’s Business Technology Office), but it sounds like you’d only do a couple of years in Consulting, so you might want to look closely at the more IT-focused firms.
The big message that should come through here is that you shouldn’t let your career goals be directed by what you think a business school will set you up for. If you’ve got a genuine interest in Consulting, then go for it and I wish you the best of luck with that, but your message doesn’t give me the impression that this is the case. The great thing about business school is that anyone can go in regardless of their background and move into almost any career he/she wants (except for those requiring a JD, MD, or PhD) two years later. So, if you want to do product management at a start-up, then set that as you short-term career goal and figure out how you can move straight into it by leveraging an MBA. You might be doing yourself a disservice and slowing down your possible career progression otherwise.
I hope what I’ve written here is helpful to you. Take care and good luck with your business school applications.
-Marquis
I read, re-read and re-re-read your blog. Very very useful. Did you do masters in “Management of Time”? It seems so.