Help me figure out what type of careers are possible!

September 21, 2007 11:20 AM

Explain to me what career paths for an MBA, Masters and technical certifications can lead to.

I'm a 25 year old IT professional in NJ. I graduated in 2004 from Syracuse University with a bachelor of science in Information Technology/Management. Since then I've worked for companies such as AIG, Pfizer, Merck, Nokia and a small hedge fund. My last few positions were contracts as opposed to full-time due to the scarcity of jobs in these fields. I've done a little bit of everything from lowly help desk, managing small scale projects, vendor relationships, IT managing info systems, change control and technical writing.

I'm starting to consider continuing my education with graduate school or an MBA. I find the biggest problem with most programs or masters degrees is that you never really are presented with a clear idea of what careers opportunities each afford you.

I've never been a fan of (or that good for that matter) programming. I'm really much more of a people person that someone who's stuck in a cubicle all day programming.

Some of the things I really enjoy:

-project management
-writing
-interacting with people
-video game culture
-Developing new ideas
-Stocks/stock market
-vendor relations
-managing teams/people

What can you do with an MBA? A Masters in Technology? What kinds of fields, jobs or career paths do each of these afford?

The idea of being a CTO for a company really appeals to me. Being the person who makes strategic decisions of the technological direction and implementations of a company always seemed like a very interesting job path. What is the path to being a CTO?

I feel like I'm 25 and I'm nowhere farther really than I was when I graduated 3 years ago. I have "real-world" experience but it's not enough to find a solid full-time job than I can be happy in and grow career-wise.

Also any recommendations on programs/schools in NJ?

posted by PetiePal to Work & Money (2 answers total)

I think an MBA gives you a solid understanding of how the business world works. I took a lot of IS classes in business school and really enjoyed my class on Information Strategy. Also, you learn how to manage and how to work as a team. Really, you can do anything with an MBA. Classmates of mine are doing everything from finance to working in the foriegn service to video game design to non-profit marketing (that's me!).
posted by radioamy at 12:46 PM on September 21, 2007

Former IT guy turned product manager here. There are many companies that are looking for technically adept folks to be product managers. An MBA will help you learn the business side of things and that for me has been a real help in my new role. I'm in my second year of an Executive MBA program and I've found about 80% of what I've learned is applicable to this job. In particular the finance, operations, and marketing has really helped me to excel. Also, the amount of presentations that are required really helped me become more polished when doing pitches to the executive team. I'm much more at ease in front of a crowd and that is an important skill as you move up the food chain.
posted by white_devil at 4:41 PM on September 21, 2007