Ask Stacy Blackman

Hi Stacy,

I am an IT engineer. I completed my undergrad from India with CGPA of 3.5/4. I will have a total of 4 years of work experience by Fall 2009, 2 years in Microsoft, India and 2 years in Microsoft, US.

My total background has been in IT and now, I want to explore my interests on the business side and probably get into management consulting. I am totally confused on how to go about it. I know MBA is one of the options but I would like to pursue MBA a little later in my career when I can better afford it and when I am more sure of what I want to do in the long term.

On similar lines, what are your suggestions on pursuing a Masters of Science in Management Science and Engineering? I know that this course exists in Stanford. I am currently researching on a similar courses in other universities. But I need to know how helpful it can be in my goal to explore my interests on the business side and land me with a job in consulting?

Thanks for your time,
Arun

I would also think about trying to get some business-side exposure at work now. Remember, once at business school you'll be competing with many others who have had business-side work, and you'll want to leverage some previous experience that you've had. So you can either emphasise your knowledge of Indian conditions (if you are willing to recruit in India); your knowledge of the IT industry (if you are willing to do IT consulting) or your engineering expertise (if you are willing to do supply-chain/ etc more engineering type consulting). IE you generally have to leverage at least one of the three- location, industry, or functional expertise.

The point is, that the B-school won't magically get you a job either, and the more you can do the better.