The SmartTechie organizes career workshops across India on a regular basis. In every workshop, country heads of global corporations share with us their magic formula for success. Several experienced techies, like you, attend these workshops to shape their careers. In almost every workshop we have noticed that techies want to know whether or not a management degree is a part of the magic mantra. The answers from experts have been varied. In this issue we present views of engineers, managers and country heads on this subject.

Quite interestingly, this issue comes out at a time when campus placements at the top B-Schools across the country were overrun with job offers with striking compensation packages.

Sumptuous salary package should not be the driving factor for a techie to enroll for a management course. Only if one has a flair for business and wants to break out of the technical, R&D, Development world, should he/she explore the MBA option. One should note that majority of the heads of IT companies in India do not have an M.B.A. And more interestingly just one percent of the total IT jobs for engineers require M.B.A!

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal notes, a good career for MBA students means a job in Asia. Ambitious U.S. business-school students are looking East towards India for full-time jobs. Adventure of working in Asia coupled with a chance to gain experience in a region that is increasingly important to U.S is the new phenomenon. Knowledge of Asia, especially India, could help propel their careers, they believe.

A techie should be aware of such global trends, see what he/ she is excited about, where his/ her inclination is towards and then make a planned decision.

Do send us your views on how much are M.B.A. programs really helping engineers?

Pradeep Shankar
editor@thesmarttechie.com