Doing a master’s course while on the job is straining, but the fruits are worth the effort. This is especially so if you are an engineer who chooses to do an M.Tech or MBA. This will not only add to your qualification but also help to advance your career in the short term and mid term.
However, making a choice between MBA and M.Tech can be quite confusing for many.
M.Tech vs MBA
First, understand that there is no point comparing M.Tech and MBA. Both are specialised degrees and have value in their respective fields. Both M.Tech and MBA provide excellent career options and have gained importance in last few years. M.Tech or MBA is always an additional advantage to an engineer whether it is in terms of knowledge, experience or seniority.
Whether it be a manufacturing, IT or R&D driven organisation, there would be requirements for both M.Techs and MBAs. The former would be more of a subject matter specialist, while the latter would handle product marketing, sales, project management, human resources, IT process, consulting or customer service management.
Doing M.Tech in a particular field will definitely make you more valuable to a company that has business profile of that field. MBA, on other hand, will give you a totally different business perspective and is broader in scope.
Choice is entirely up to you
Ideally, you should make the choice on the basis of your capabilities, career goals and interests. If you want to continue your career in technical field, M.Tech is the right choice for you. You can even switch to teaching or research. But if you want to work in the industry, MBA is the way to go. MBA is a management course that will enhance your managerial, communication and presentation skills.
After MBA, you get the entry to the field of business and administration where you can go in for options like marketing, sales, human resources and operation management.
Specifically, M.Tech is suitable for a product-based industry where technical skills are required. MBA is more suitable for a service- and customer-oriented industry. Engineering graduates having a management degree are perfect for front-end sales, field applications and customer facing jobs. However, if an organisation is innovation hungry, pure engineering with master’s specialisation is a lethal combination!
Fresh postgraduates vs experienced graduate engineers
Right qualifications are important but hands-on industry experience cannot be discounted. So an already employed engineer may still have an edge over a fresher who has an additional degree of MBA or M.Tech. But this completely depends on his capabilities and the management’s views.
