A persistent question by most of the software professionals, nowadays, is whether they should join an MBA course. After 2-3 years of service, he might often be in a dilemma about his professional stand. He starts thinking whether he will remain just a coder or will climb further up in the professional ladder.
When we refer to professional growth for a techie, we generally refer to his managerial aspirations. For becoming a manager, he might need an MBA or career guidance. How useful will this degree be or whether there will be any monetary benefit in terms of salary, these are the questions which haunt the professionals.
In this write-up we will discuss about all these aspects:
- Why techies need an MBA degree?
- What is the need for IT management?
- What to know about MBA in Analytics?
- IT Management Degree
Before we jump into the core topic, i.e. what should be the MBA specialisation for techies, we shall first try to know a little about whether the techies need an MBA degree at all.
Why Techies Need MBA Degree?
A survey conducted among the bigwigs of the industry, shows that more than 80 percent of them do not have an MBA degree. This statistics however refers to those leaders, who started their journey much before us. As per experts, success in IT does not depend on an MBA but is definitely guided by GE factor. GE or Getting Executed attitude is quite mandatory.
In the last few decades, engineers who graduated from universities were happy about their new lives as developers, coders and programmers. Team leads and project managers were the last designations they could think of. Cut to the present day scenario, employees are viewing career opportunities, which they thought impossible, even few years back. India is now sourcing more complex work and even hard core technologists are thinking of degrees that could take them to becoming a CEO. Thus, MBA is becoming a necessary tool, if the techies are viewing themselves in the CEO’s cabin, a few years later.
What is the Need for IT management ?
- One should always be aware of the fact that in case of IT industry, management is not just management of business in the conventional sense, but also managing technologies. Typically, in a technology company, a great amount of the revenue gets spent on research and development and other engineering activities like designing, architecture, coding and customer specification. Thus going for an MBA, specialising in managing Information Technology or IT management in short form, is very much needed.
- IT management ensures that every technology resource and the associated employees are properly utilized. This utilization should also be in a manner that will provide great value for the organization. Effective IT management will help an organization to optimize both the resources as well as staffing, adoption and implementation of the best practices and improve the business processes.
IT Management Degree
- IT management degree is a multi-faceted program that helps in landing not just one but many tech positions. An IT manager is responsible for charting out the IT goals within an organization and then work with both technical and non-technical teams, to execute these goals.
- He must stay updated about the latest technologies and should be able to communicate the deliverables to the department managers and the employees. Managing a technical team is about being a creative decision-maker and extracting the best out of the code writers and the analysts.
- Employment opportunities in IT and Computer and Information Systems management are projected to increase at an alarming rate till 2026. As more and more organizations are shifting their business idea to a digital platform, the future is indeed bright for a techie having an MBA in IT management.
What to Know About MBA in Analytics?
Presently, most of the aspiring management students are thinking about the highest paying specialization in MBA. For the techies also, this is a burning topic of discussion. Analytics is one of the branches, which is attracting all of them, especially the techies, as they can utilize their analytical skills to the fullest.
Earlier, students from various fields like Maths, Computer Science, Statistics and Economics were given a priority by the industries looking for analytic professionals. Nowadays, employers go a step further and look for an MBA in Analytics, even in case of software professionals, as things have changed in the last few years. The only reason is that they need professionals who are not only proficient in analytics but also has strong business management acumen.
Having a technology background is an excellent opportunity to get into an MBA in Analytics. There are various technical aspects in the course, which can be well handled by students who are already proficient with the nuances. A lot of data are being stored and gathered by the organizations from various sources. These data have to be transformed to information that plays a big role in decision making. A specialization in business analytics will help in learning various data and models to help in making the informed decisions about the business.
Takeaway
Having said all, we can readily conclude that an MBA in IT management or Analytics would be a great choice for the techies. This would ensure a great career growth, best utilization of skills and of course a lucrative pay cheque.
