<p>Different places have their “fancy” names - fellow, chief architect, chief engineer, technical director etc. Regardless their titles, these people not only possess a superb technical understanding of multiple domains, but also an equally impressive set of business skills. They are usually among the to-go technical guys/gals of their respective organization. Most of them are on track to become the people mentioned in this press release: <a href=“DXC Technology”>DXC Technology;
<p>It’s hard for me to put an exact price tag. But typically a corporate client is expected to pay around $300-$500 per hour (before discount) for such talents from a big professional service firm. Those who hold similar positions in a corporation get less but still very well compensated.</p>
<p>i will do a sample career path of someone in my industry (defense). this student graduated near top of his/her class, got a job at a large defense contractor in the northeast (ex raytheon, lockheed, etc). Suppose this student gets a tech promotion after 5 years and earns his/her MS part time in that time period. Then 3 years later, the person becomes a true project manager. Finally, after 15 years experience, he/she becomes a large Product Manager (ex head of a missile system or something). here is the salary path.</p>
<p>BS ECE, 0 work experience Engineer: 70,043
BS ECE, 2 work experience Engineer: 75,589
BS/MS ECE, 5 work experience Lead Eng: 99,610
BS/MS ECE, 8 work experience Project Lead: 119,260
BS/MS ECE, 15 work experience Product Mgr: 141,668</p>
<p>so by the time he/she is 35 , 141k. not bad and didnt take off two years for MBA. you can plot your own path by manually entering the “data points” along the way.</p>
<p>i think this is a reasonable career path for an ambitious management-oriented person…if you choose to stay technical, obviously the salary path will be quite different.</p>
<p>oh btw, this is contingent on getting a security clearance as well.</p>
<p>The salary figures sound about right. IT/CS people go a bit higher (when you factor in stock options, which is more common in technology-related companies). </p>
<p>I think a large disclaimer must be said: it takes a LOT of hard work (and sometime luck) to have a progressive career path like that. Don’t flame, please … some people that I have known “got comfortable” along the way and just stay put. There is nothing wrong with that - people just have different life priorities as times go.</p>
<p>"But the even larger caveat, especially for finance jobs, are the work hours. "
Hmm, I had the impression that engineers had crazy hours but from you & other folks it seems like finance ppl have it worse. I guess engineers just scramble hard towards the deadline, like they do in school ha.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, that was really helpful. Business and leadership skills seem to be the bricks for the road forward.</p>
<p>I work in the defense industry and becoming a lead engineer 5 years out of undergrad is very rare. The senior engineers/management would never promote you so quickly, even if you were qualified. It can probably happen if you’re working in a program that is lacking in staff, but unlikely.</p>
In my experience, the real problem isn’t one qualification for a job, but the issue of seniority, i.e there are more qualified longtimers ahead of you. Or in the most obscure case, you are not deemed qualified until you put in your time. Hence my earlier comment of “the luck of being in the right place at the right time”.</p>
<p>Whenever I know my best chance is “waiting for someone else to be promoted”, I just take a “detour” to explore something else. Fortunately for me, most of those “detours” have always led to something relatively better opportunities.</p>
<p>My question is how long would it take to get an MBA and MS? If you’re looking to make good money (around 110-120k) as fast as possible (excluding consulting and i-banking because I know sakky will bring that up lol), would an MBA and MS be good? I don’t mind not working with the tech stuff, so would MBA be a better choice then? The only thing is that I’ve heard about how people don’t move up in management until a very long time, so I don’t want to risk that when I could just do a masters and make good money as is. Otherwise, would getting a masters and then getting an MBA part-time be good? </p>
<p>If you’re just talking about a mediocre school, you could probably get into some combined MBA/MS program right after undergrad with no experience. It almost certainly wouldn’t be a top program, but at least it would be an MBA/MS program. </p>
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<p>Much of that depends on location. If you’re willing to work in a high-cost area (i.e. Silicon Valley), or in a somewhat dangerous and harsh job (i.e. offshore oil engineering), it really isn’t that hard to make 110-120k even with just a BS in engineering and a few years of experience. </p>
<p>Now, if you’re talking about making that kind of money in a safe, pleasant job in a cheap area, then obviously it would take a lot longer. </p>
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<p>I am fairly lukewarm about getting both an MBA and an MS program. The truth of the matter is that after you get an MBA, especially if from an elite school, you will want a management position. You’re probably not going to use your MS. Hence, I tend to think that just having an MBA is more efficient. After you become a manager, few people will care about your other degrees. </p>
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<p>I agree that an MBA at a mediocre school is of questionable value. However, if you get an MBA at a top school, you should have little difficulty in finding a job that will offer you a relatively fast trajectory towards top management. Of course whether you are able to capitalize on that trajectory is up to you, but at least the opportunity will be there. </p>
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<p>Again, I would argue that if you are gunning for an elite MBA, you will probably have little use for the MS. </p>
<p>I can perhaps see a situation where you need to get an MS in order to get a better job that will then put you in a position to later get into a top MBA program. But otherwise, if your ultimate goal is to get a top MBA, it’s hard to justify getting a prior MS.</p>
IT/CS people go a bit higher (when you factor in stock options, which is more common in technology-related companies). </p>