Hello,
I am an engineering working in Alberta, Canada and I have my P.Eng. designation. I have spent the last several years working in the oil and gas industry and prior to that in the utilities industry. I am applying for a full-time MBA program at Queen's School of Business in Ontario, Canada. I am doing this now because it is the last major academic task I want to complete prior to settling down and starting a family.
Over the last 2 to 3 years I have been researching the MBA and have had the privilege of finding several people who have completed the program in various ways at various times in their careers. Some have gone back part-time or full-time earlier in their careers, some part-time or full-time later in their careers. Some have gone to non-Canadian schools and others to local programs. Some switch industries after graduating while others stayed in the same industries. I have found some people who swear it was the best thing they did, others who have regrets about the time it took away from young families, and still others who swear it wrecked their lives and cost them at least a million dollars in lost wages and opportunity. If possible I recommend you take the time to call up various schools and ask to be put in contact with alumni. Also, let people know you are considering it as quite a few people know someone who has an MBA that would be willing to discuss their experience. For the price of a cup of coffee and some of your time you can discover a lot. Most people want to discuss and share their experience and jump at the opportunity to do so.
Most of the individuals I talked to swear the MBA helped them get to where they were at, but finding that person who swears it wrecked their life was truly the icing on the cake. It let me see the other side. I eventually concluded it was a combination of unrealistic expectations and bad timing with the job market. I would tell you more, but unless you do it for yourself it is just more babble on the internet.
In the end I have decided to return to school; not because I think it will get me that high paying job instantly upon graduation, but because it will provide me with the business and management education I need to find personally rewarding employment. I don't want to switch industries; I just want pursue a career more involved with business and management rather than a career focused purely on my technical knowledge and skill. If I don't take the initiative, I feel I'm just waiting for someone else to decide that I'm the right individual, the "chosen one", to learn those skills. An MBA will allow me to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to make that path available, instead of waiting to be pre-selected for grooming; an opportunity that may never arrive.
Whether it is managing coffee franchises or running a multi-million dollar corporation, I believe money will come if you excel at what you do, with or without an MBA. Different paths do offer different compensation, but on the whole if you excel and enjoy what you do, advancing on that chosen path will be considerably easier and the associated compensation should follow in turn.
Going back for an MBA is about learning. If working on a daily basis with the knowledge an MBA teaches will make your work rewarding so you want to excel at your job, then do it. If not, find something you enjoy and pursue that instead.
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