Can an MBA Help with a Tech Career?

Wondering if an MBA help with a tech career? Absolutely! Technology companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook highly value MBA graduates for their versatility, communication skills, and strategic thinking. Discover five ways an MBA can advance your tech career.Technology companies, like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, are among the biggest employers of MBA graduates.

While other industries have been hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, technology firms will continue to hire MBA graduates in 2021, according to GMAC’s Corporate Recruiters Survey.

Tech firms value MBA graduates for their versatility, communication skills, strategic thinking, and ability to navigate the challenges of technological disruption. They’re looking for data-savvy MBA graduates to shape their organizations and drive their growth.

Will an MBA help you get ahead in tech? The answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’. An MBA will help you explore a variety of tech career paths, from the big tech companies to Silicon Valley startups.

1. You’ll learn how to manage data

Big tech companies have redefined the way that data is harvested and managed in order to help companies make decisions. Leaders who know how to manage data, and use it to solve problems, are likely to build successful tech careers.

An MBA will not just help you build important data analytics skills, it will teach you how to apply it to business scenarios and make data-driven decisions. This attracts many professionals with engineering or mathematical backgrounds looking to develop the leadership skills to complement their technical knowledge.

2. You can hone your entrepreneurial instinct

Despite their mammoth size, many tech companies still operate like startups, aiming to be agile, lean, and adaptable, and value employees with entrepreneurial—or intrapreneurial—instincts.

Leadership is more horizontal and employees take on a great deal of responsibility for their own work. Employees who take the initiative and bring innovative ideas to the table really stand out.

Developing these entrepreneurial talents can start on an MBA. Many MBAs aspire to be their own bosses, fostering a more entrepreneurial approach at business school, as well as opportunities to launch your own ventures.

3. You’ll learn to lead and work in a team

In a CNN interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person.”

Tech companies value good leadership. For some, leadership skills come naturally, but for others, they’re something you have to learn, practice, and hone.

This may be particularly true for candidates who come from technical backgrounds. An engineering degree will teach you all the technical knowledge you need to work in tech, but it may not teach you the soft skills you need to lead and work in teams.

4. You can get work experience at a tech company

Gaining work experience as part of your degree can be one of the most rewarding returns from studying an MBA. For students eyeing up notoriously competitive placements at companies like Google and Facebook, this can be particularly fruitful.

Business schools will give students opportunities to do consulting projects at large companies, as well as the tools and contacts to land top placements, which can be the first crucial step to advancing your career in tech.

5. You’ll gain durable skills

The business world moves quickly; technology moves even faster.

Longevity in the tech industry requires durable skills that will remain relevant, and more importantly, will allow you to navigate change. Given that business schools produce the leaders of the future, it’s important that MBA programs teach skills that will endure shifts and changes.

On top of traditional subjects like finance, accounting, and marketing, an MBA will teach you to master communication, creative problem solving, and innovative thinking, among other useful skills which will serve you well throughout your career in tech.

While tech companies approach new ways of how technology can change our lives, they require humans to continue to drive these innovations and implement these changes.