IT工程师申请美国MBA的优势和劣势是什么？

iunknown

Honestly, as an engineer applying to business school, you don't have much advantage at all.  Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills, which business schools value highly.  Schools don't care for people who can do fancy calculus or fix a complex machinery.  They want people who have dealt with other people in complicated situations, people who have reached out and impacted others in a positive way.  In addition, engineer applicants are a dime a dozen, and you are also competing with all the ABC engineers and Indian engineers (and there are a LOT of them...).  I think a lot of applicants from China and India forget that advanced degrees aren't transferable across fields; just because you have a masters or a PhD in something else (even from a good university) doesn't automatically make you a good candidate for MBA.

So your strategy should be to demonstrate that despite the fact that you are an engineer, you still possess the same interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills that business schools want.  Have you organized teams to fundraise for a non-profit  cause?  Have you used your persuasion skills to convince people to do things one way or another?  Those are the things they want to hear about.  I'd stay away from emphasizing your masters and your "technical skills".  Doing that just further proves that you don't get it - that you are just yet another boring engineer who dwells in the technical world and can't really handle the business world.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/5/15 2:32:55)

为啥每次出这种贴都有啥也不懂得但是拽的像258万的不知道那个行业的某人出来踩一脚？ 啥叫“Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills”？这只是你个人的偏见吧？
楼主别听这帮人瞎扯，ENGINEERING BACKGROUND应该算是出了marketing, consulting, finance以外的最大的BG坑。
有图有真相。

michaelchenma

engineering background和工作是做纯技术的还是有区别的。好比我undergrad 电脑系所有毕业的中国学生都去做金融了（赶上好时候了），还有我的系大部分的同学，现在都已经在high-tech做business development, sales engineer, marketing and operation。再抛开创业和做IT consulting的，这么纯搞技术的真不是很多。

但是我们都算engineering background.

michaelchenma

外行来评估一下好啊。ReGirl07这种外行perceived的engineer的缺点，正式非engineer（比如adcom）对engineer群体的认知，也正是engineer applicant需要address的问题。

这东西没有对错的问题，只要能帮上忙就好。

为啥每次出这种贴都有啥也不懂得但是拽的像258万的不知道那个行业的某人出来踩一脚？ 啥叫“Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills”？这只是你个人的偏见吧？
楼主别听这帮人瞎扯，ENGINEERING BACKGROUND应该算是出了marketing, consulting, finance以外的最大的BG坑。
有图有真相。

-- by 会员 iunknown (2010/5/15 19:33:41)

REgirl07

"ERCEIVED" does not mean it's reality.  And someone not from the industry is precisely qualified to tell you what the perception of a 3rd party is.   If you go ask admissions consultants (I think Sandy on BW forum is very good..and blunt), they'd tell you the same thing.  Feel free to ignore what I said if you don't like it, but that kind of accusatory comments is uncalled for.

Also, your graph misses one very important point.  It simply states % of current MBA students, but it does not account for % of people ACCEPTED from those industries.  For every 10 bankers/consultants applying from GS/MS/M/B/B, I'd say 100% of them would get into a top 10 program.  But what % of engineers get into a top 10 program?  My engineering friends would tell you it's a much lower number.  Also, what is the source of that?  I think H/S/W all have around 7-8%, and that includes people who were not pure engineers but worked in high tech companies (i.e. technical marketing at Microsoft).  It's best to look at the actual class profiles posted by the schools than at some generic info sheet.  But again, my two cents, so feel free to ignore.

Alicemama

本人非engineering background，但从来不 “perceive“ that engineers in general have worse communication and leadership skills than finance-background consultants??? 相信商学院有经验的教授也不会任意default engineers 的soft skills 差人一等。很不喜欢那些说话滔滔，但全是花边；更崇敬那些说话精辟到位的人。这和专业背景有关吗？




为啥每次出这种贴都有啥也不懂得但是拽的像258万的不知道那个行业的某人出来踩一脚？ 啥叫“Engineers are perceived to have worse communication and leadership skills”？这只是你个人的偏见吧？
楼主别听这帮人瞎扯，ENGINEERING BACKGROUND应该算是出了marketing, consulting, finance以外的最大的BG坑。
有图有真相。

-- by 会员 iunknown (2010/5/15 19:33:41)

[/quote]

stq

"ERCEIVED" does not mean it's reality.  And someone not from the industry is precisely qualified to tell you what the perception of a 3rd party is.   If you go ask admissions consultants (I think Sandy on BW forum is very good..and blunt), they'd tell you the same thing.  Feel free to ignore what I said if you don't like it, but that kind of accusatory comments is uncalled for.

Also, your graph misses one very important point.  It simply states % of current MBA students, but it does not account for % of people ACCEPTED from those industries.  For every 10 bankers/consultants applying from GS/MS/M/B/B, I'd say 100% of them would get into a top 10 program.  But what % of engineers get into a top 10 program?  My engineering friends would tell you it's a much lower number.  Also, what is the source of that?  I think H/S/W all have around 7-8%, and that includes people who were not pure engineers but worked in high tech companies (i.e. technical marketing at Microsoft).  It's best to look at the actual class profiles posted by the schools than at some generic info sheet.  But again, my two cents, so feel free to ignore.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/5/16 6:13:45)

这版上可是很容易踩雷的。。lol...

exemplify

非常感谢大家的热烈讨论。我觉得听听不同的声音是件特别好的事情。我说说我对我自己和周围的IT工程师的一个观察，以及申请MBA的劣势，我在国内。
--1.沟通能力确实有欠缺，和做市场的，做销售的等等经常需要和人交道的人相比。我在学校的时候，其实是比较的活跃的，参加过很多活动，在参与集体活动的时候，也比较有建设性，经常会变成小组的实际的领导者。但是几年的 IT工作，真的很少和别人沟通和交流，自己感觉这方面的得能力下降挺多的，而且也缺少了这方面的冲动。另外，就是最近一年解除了一些商学院的读书的学生和从业人员，最大的一个真实感受：都很aggressive在小组活动和讨论的时候，也都是很想展现自己的所谓的leadership。即使他们的想法也许完全都是bullshit.
我觉得这点似乎和我作为一个工程师的出发点似乎不太想同。我尽量从结果最优化的角度来思考和行动，有时候自己甘愿做一个不重要的角色。

--2.另外就是IT工程师想要通过MBA转行。这个问题在我咨询的过程中，似乎数次被挑战。
一方面这是一个真实的情景，另外就是国内这样的申请者特别的多，IT人士想转行的好多啊。这其实就是国内的一部分的现状。尽管我这个行业还算不错，即使是测试也因为微电子专业软件的测试。测试和开发和应用的起点都是硕士。但是这个行业没有著名的大公司。和微软和google,Sun,IBM等公司相比，少了很多知名度。另外，确实这个行业也不需要MBA。这在我申请咨询的时候，也发现了，是一个劣势。

--3.第三就是想问问有没有在微软，google,， IBM等公司的朋友。从程序员出发，读完MBA之后，去这些大企业做管理层，这样的可能性有多大？
他们的管理层，更在乎你的技术背景呢，比如MIT的博士，顶尖的专家，还是更在乎你的管理的经验？或者两者同样重视。

这些认识似乎片面，等待打击的拍砖。

不管怎么样，大家的回答给了我很多的启发，谢谢大家。

stq

3.第三就是想问问有没有在微软，google,， IBM等公司的朋友。从程序员出发，读完MBA之后，去这些大企业做管理层，这样的可能性有多大？
他们的管理层，更在乎你的技术背景呢，比如MIT的博士，顶尖的专家，还是更在乎你的管理的经验？或者两者同样重视。

-- by 会员 exemplify (2010/5/16 10:01:52)

都是差不多的情况，公司内部往上走，特别是技术类研发人员，不需要MBA.
技术人员要往比较管理方面转，也不需要MBA,
拿微软来说，Software develop Engineer最好的途径是转成Program Manager, 写写spec,管理管理项目。。
而MBA招进来的人，更多是Marketing背景，做的是Product Manager, 研究市场。。纯技术背景读个MBA转行进入Product Management,见过几个Kellogg的，但不多。

iunknown

"ERCEIVED" does not mean it's reality.  And someone not from the industry is precisely qualified to tell you what the perception of a 3rd party is.   If you go ask admissions consultants (I think Sandy on BW forum is very good..and blunt), they'd tell you the same thing.  Feel free to ignore what I said if you don't like it, but that kind of accusatory comments is uncalled for.

Also, your graph misses one very important point.  It simply states % of current MBA students, but it does not account for % of people ACCEPTED from those industries.  For every 10 bankers/consultants applying from GS/MS/M/B/B, I'd say 100% of them would get into a top 10 program.  But what % of engineers get into a top 10 program?  My engineering friends would tell you it's a much lower number.  Also, what is the source of that?  I think H/S/W all have around 7-8%, and that includes people who were not pure engineers but worked in high tech companies (i.e. technical marketing at Microsoft).  It's best to look at the actual class profiles posted by the schools than at some generic info sheet.  But again, my two cents, so feel free to ignore.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/5/16 6:13:45)

您当然可以有您自己的意见。我也可以认为您的意见是您个人的偏见而已。


比如您英文不好还特爱用，中文不好还回我的中文贴，您看我就不给您下” perception“


至于各行业的申请比例，我真不觉得engineering back ground会比finance/consluting多。Engineering出路大把的，没多少人在MBA上折腾。


另外在我那个图里面marketing, consulting都是单列的。Engineering就是值得是RD,包括不包括PM我就不清楚，请大家看清楚再回。谢谢

iunknown

非常感谢大家的热烈讨论。我觉得听听不同的声音是件特别好的事情。我说说我对我自己和周围的IT工程师的一个观察，以及申请MBA的劣势，我在国内。
--1.沟通能力确实有欠缺，和做市场的，做销售的等等经常需要和人交道的人相比。我在学校的时候，其实是比较的活跃的，参加过很多活动，在参与集体活动的时候，也比较有建设性，经常会变成小组的实际的领导者。但是几年的 IT工作，真的很少和别人沟通和交流，自己感觉这方面的得能力下降挺多的，而且也缺少了这方面的冲动。另外，就是最近一年解除了一些商学院的读书的学生和从业人员，最大的一个真实感受：都很aggressive在小组活动和讨论的时候，也都是很想展现自己的所谓的leadership。即使他们的想法也许完全都是bullshit.
我觉得这点似乎和我作为一个工程师的出发点似乎不太想同。我尽量从结果最优化的角度来思考和行动，有时候自己甘愿做一个不重要的角色。

--2.另外就是IT工程师想要通过MBA转行。这个问题在我咨询的过程中，似乎数次被挑战。
一方面这是一个真实的情景，另外就是国内这样的申请者特别的多，IT人士想转行的好多啊。这其实就是国内的一部分的现状。尽管我这个行业还算不错，即使是测试也因为微电子专业软件的测试。测试和开发和应用的起点都是硕士。但是这个行业没有著名的大公司。和微软和google,Sun,IBM等公司相比，少了很多知名度。另外，确实这个行业也不需要MBA。这在我申请咨询的时候，也发现了，是一个劣势。

--3.第三就是想问问有没有在微软，google,， IBM等公司的朋友。从程序员出发，读完MBA之后，去这些大企业做管理层，这样的可能性有多大？
他们的管理层，更在乎你的技术背景呢，比如MIT的博士，顶尖的专家，还是更在乎你的管理的经验？或者两者同样重视。

这些认识似乎片面，等待打击的拍砖。

不管怎么样，大家的回答给了我很多的启发，谢谢大家。

-- by 会员 exemplify (2010/5/16 10:01:52)

你是做silicon validation 的吧? 我可以跟你讲我们公司的product marketing 很多都是silicon validation+MBA转的，至少我认识的10几个，80%。