Ask HN: Do you need a MBA to be a Engineer Manager/Director?

1 points by yeetman21 ↗ HN

4 comments

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No
Indeed. It’s not even clear that it would be helpful and especially not as compared to an extra 2 years of hands-on engineering or engineering leadership experience.
I’ve pondered this for a while and determined it’s better to make the investment. Strictly speaking you may not need it in some companies, but more often than not, you’d have a promotional advantage by having one.
I’m doing my MBA now and have 10 years of professional software development experience with commercial projects. Only after I started my MBA have many tech lead and tech director opportunities opened up, and several companies advertise a clear path to management