I think when I was younger, I was more naïve. MBAs were for useless management drones, and you can easily get promoted to a management role without one.
Having gone through college, joined the industry, and then had friends who went on to business school, I'm seeing the MBA clan as more of an entirely different social strata. It's mostly signaling, but you move directly into higher-powered "important" roles that aren't really promotions over individual contributor work, but almost an entirely different industry.
I agree. I have a fresh MBA friend started working for a big tech company 2 years back where he is regularly in communication with VPs, SVPs and Presidents. On the other hand with 10 years exp in tech, I only communicates with project managers or their managers at best in similarly sized company.
I think when I was younger, I was more naïve. MBAs were for useless management drones, and you can easily get promoted to a management role without one.
Having gone through college, joined the industry, and then had friends who went on to business school, I'm seeing the MBA clan as more of an entirely different social strata. It's mostly signaling, but you move directly into higher-powered "important" roles that aren't really promotions over individual contributor work, but almost an entirely different industry.