Luke

BREAKING INTO TECHNICAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

DISASSEMBLING COMMON BARRIERS TO ENTRY

For the past few years I've been volunteering on career advice channels including LinkedIn Career Hub and Santa Clara University Network Advisor, answering questions for younger career professionals looking to transition into the PM career track. While also writing on this blog for the past few years, there has been a clear trend among the people who have reached out for guidance. They universally want to know, 'How do I break in?'

This inspired me to reach out to Product School and volunteer to be a featured speaker to share the summarized advice I've been giving on a 1:1 basis. They have a consistent 'Talk Series' of industry speakers which often range among well-known consumer-oriented technology companies. While the focuses of PM can differ slightly between enterprise and consumer, the presentation below applies to either product track.

Update: October 2019: Product School has posted the video from this event which you can watch below.

 

• Everyone's path into product management is different. Use your unique background to build a cohesive story that drives and shapes you.
• You build who you are. Your former experiences will inform your approach to PM whether you are aware of it or not. Lean into your experiences when they help, lean out when they hold you back.
• My path started with family of creative tradespeople running custom drapery and art restoration businesses. PM to me is an industry of creatives leveraging technology to build amazing products.

• Volunteering to help people understand the product management career path revealed that most simply want to know how to get started. This experience motivated me to produce this presentation and share my advice to a broader community.

• Since you're here, you already have an interest in product management. According to the Wall Street Journal, so do many new MBA graduates. Technology PM has become a hot career path.
• As a result, more people are asking how to get in both pre and post MBA, or with no sights on a MBA at all.

• Getting a chance to enter the PM career path is hard for the following reasons:
• The skills you need to be an effective product manager aren't taught together. No wonder many who complete a vertical university degree still find it hard to get started.
• Being great at PM takes years. You may be born for this, but you still need to become good at it and that takes years.
• The traditional university and graduate school formal education systems normally teach vertically-tracked studies. PMs, however, need broad exposure to several areas of study.
• Expertise is highly valued, which can leave career changers or career starters at a disadvantage.
• PMs have great leverage. That means your decisions can have strong, magnified impact. If your decisions are poor, these choices can still have a strong, magnified, negative impact.
• For these reasons, hiring a PM into an organization is very carefully vetted and considered since the outcome can be several fold positive or negative. Most take great care to avoid the negative outcome via strong vetting.

• With focus, effort, and time, it is possible to enter product management. I did it. This timeline is a high-level view of steps I took since my undergraduate, non-technical degree into a career of deep technology.
• Over the course of years, I studied and applied tech and design learning across private projects, jobs, and additional education.
• This is just one path. Everyone's path will look different, and most will only appear to be an 'ah hah' revelation of certainty when looking backward in history.
• Increasingly, larger, well-established tech companies are hiring associate PMs directly out of college. This is a great training role, but it remains competitive to get them. In addition, these tend to be directed at specific degree holders including engineering.

• Martin Eriksson is well-known for this clear Venn Diagram of UX + Tech + Business, which defines PM at its intersection.
• Each area for most individuals represents their educational background choice.
• The challenge for people looking at a career in PM is that most people haven't also studied the other topic areas needed to round out the background that makes for ideal PMs. They are strong in one single area only.
• It is normal for people to have unequal experience in each area. If you are missing an entire focus area, it may be harder to get started in PM. If you are missing two entire focus areas, you will need to create a plan to remedy that deficiency.

• Because technology product management is focused on technology, there is a clear advantage if you already have a technology education.
• If you are starting with a business or UX/UI education, you likely have more to catch up on than the former.
• In either case, no single path guarantees success by itself.

• Given the complexity and risk for hiring a PM is high, it makes sense that hiring managers do look for the best they can find which matches all success criteria. I expect all hiring managers to look for the best.
• That pursuit, however, can lead to some lazy search practices. I.e. 'I want a MIT undergrad with a Wharton MBA and 10 years experience in the role.' That might be a great background, but those people are still not guaranteed to be successful in PM. Furthermore, you will be leaving many great candidates out of your potential sourcing funnel with this approach.
• Furthermore, if you're a young professional looking to transition into PM, you've already completed your undergraduate education and have likely entered the workforce in your first couple roles. You need to understand how to take your personal unique background and shape it into a path into PM which fits you.

• Given the previous slide's biases, it might appear that a perfect PM has a perfect combination of tech, UX/UI, and business. This is a simplified view and frequently does not reflect reality.
• Many great PM candidates have various, and unequal combinations of each core skill area, plus some level of domain expertise. There's no single perfect combination.
• The fewer of each skill area you have, naturally your fit to the role gets harder to find, in which case you may need more training.
• Like batteries, you can charge up though. This is the good news. Be prepared that the training and charging process is not an overnight process. It could take additional years of formal or informal study.

• We all start somewhere. I don't know a single person in my career who equally studied tech, UX/UI, and business. I do know many who got a technology degree, worked in an industry vertical, and then got an MBA. That too, is just one path.
• By starting in one area and becoming great at what you do, you can then plot a personal course to learn more in adjacent areas. This can include study or new jobs. As you learn more adjacencies, you can move closer to the center of the circle where the PM roles are.
• This will take time and determination. It may also take financial investment.
• Product Management Career Decoder Ring (orange, circular graphic explained in detail)

• Now that you have a plan to learn more and gain more skills, you can start to think about finding that opportunity to join PM. Note that this list may not be comprehensive, and that jumping straight to the change companies step without building up your cross-area skills may result in few results.
• The easiest options are listed first. Try something out with a personal project. Anyone can look into a topic that interests them, come up with an idea, and write a PRD and sketch mock-ups. When you do get a chance to network or interview with PMs in your desired space, a personal project gives you assets that speak to your interest, and it shows your commitment.
• Every product team I've ever worked with could use more help. Reach out internally at the company you already work for and offer help in your spare time. Get to know them and add value. That commitment could translate into a job when they need the next hand.
• Add training. You studied engineering and decide to add coursework in UI and UX. This is easily done even after you complete you degree. Perhaps you studied UI/UX and go back to school for a MBA. Many combinations exist.
• Network with your future peers and build a network you can use to get direct hiring manager introductions.
• Take a new job doing the work you're looking for. This isn't always as simple as that, and may require that you have been learning new skills along the way.

• Some companies differentiate the types of PMs they employ. Some don't. Those that don't often include all PM job requirements into the same role. There's a fair amount of variability out there. This is a guide.
• Internal vs. external PM is commonly the difference between a product owner in the Agile framework vs the traditional customer-facing PM.
• Regarding remote PMs, this is something to undertake on advisement only. PM is a contact sport in that you are always working with stakeholders, engineering, executives, marketing, sales, and more. This is very hard to do when you're not in the same location as most of these roles because you have reduced inter-personal influence. I have seen this done successfully, but not often. If your first-time role offer is remote, I advise caution. Effectiveness, visibility and career growth are harder to achieve.

• Many PMs have debated the necessity for a MBA. I have known successful PMs who do not have a MBA. This is not a required degree.
• If, however, you are coming from a degree and career in a single area like technology, with no experience in how a business runs and operates, the MBA can be a good way to invest in your career and cross that hurdle.
• If you're debating getting a MBA, I've written on this topic here which may interest you. Does Your Silicon Valley Career Need a MBA?

• What you can learn at a large company with processes, teams, resources, and career tracks can be pretty different than a start-up with 5 people. Each represents different opportunity to you as a potential PM hire.
• If you're just starting out, I often recommend going to the large company for several years and learning the craft among a team of others who are already good PMs.
• If you are an experienced PM or a risk-taker, then a start-up can be a fast learning opportunity. This in my opinion if a less optimal choice for a first time PM since there is no team to guide you and a high probability of failure by nature of it being a start-up. Note that before a start-up starts to grow or even scale, your founder is your head of product, not you. For additional context read, How to Succeed as a Series A Product Manager.

• While some paths into technical PM can make the transition easier, you can get in without a technology degree or a MBA. If you feel under skilled, then chart a course to add missing skills. Extra degrees are not always necessary. Don't hold yourself back by creating your own roadblocks. Chart a course and get the first job.
• With an approach of constant learning you will keep adding to your personal skills tool set.

• With all the above recommendations, remember that it's still a challenging, highly cross-functional role.
• Despite the claims by some that you are the CEO of the product, you're not the CEO. Therefore you drive what the product needs via connections, relationships, common purpose, and vision. No one simply does what you tell them regardless of how senior you are.
• Consider for yourself if a highly unstructured role with no direct authority, high ownership and complete responsibility, and an endless uphill battle is the right role for you. When you win with an amazing product and happy customers, it's the greatest. In the meantime, running uphill isn't for everyone.

• If you've read this far, it's probably because you're very interested in product management as a career. Since there are a vast number of products and industries, you should start by deciding which you are aiming for. E.g. Do you love financial transactions and payments, or social media, or drones, or deeply technical control systems? The list of product areas can go on for 200 pages. Without focus, no one will be able to help you land where you want to be, including yourself.
• Determine where your weak areas are and begin to fill them. This does not have to mean new university degrees. It can include projects, courses, reading, etc. This process can take a significant investment of time. Fortunately, getting a starting role does not always require finishing as a prerequisite for starting a PM role. I.e. That technology degree plus being halfway through your third Coursera or Udemy series, or a MBA degree may show enough learning to get the role.
• Start making efforts to find your way in. You may need to get creative while also networking if LinkedIn job applications are not resulting in interviews of offers.
• Most of all, get started. This is a multi-year journey. That shouldn't bother you if this is the career you want.
• Keep learning. Even those of us with the role keep learning. Technology keeps evolving and you must keep learning to stay sharp.

• Networking is important. It's how you can expand the range of people you know professionally, who in turn know more people. That matters when you're looking for help to make introductions for informational interviews and direct hiring managers.
• LinkedIn is a wonderful resource. Most use it terribly however. Blind connection invites don't grow networks, even if someone does accept the invite. It's a worthless 2-click transaction. You click send, I click accept. Use intros and follow-up messages to start building a reason to know each other.
• Do the work of job search, finding leads, and pitching your candidacy. People you've connected to, but who don't actually know you, won't do it for you.
• If you ask for help and you get it, keep your connection alive by thanking your benefactor and keeping them in the loop. If you take someone's assistance and disappear, you might get ignored in return the next time you ask for help.
• The easiest way to get help is to ask great, actionable, easy to fulfill questions to the right person. If you see a posted role and you ask for an introduction or to pass along your resume to the hiring manager at a company, that's something a contact can decide to do. If instead you ask for a connection to some team looking for a PM, that's too wide and lacks focus.

• One of my favorite authors on product management is Ben Horowitz. His guidance is laser-focused based on direct experience and very relevant to me.
• Many other writers, blogs, and organizations also provide great PM guidance. A list is given here. There are surely more which are not in this list.
• Good luck growing into your personal, perfect PM role.

ABOUT LUKE

Luke Congdon is a career product manager living and working in Silicon Valley since 2000. His areas of focus include enterprise software, virtualization, and cloud computing. He has built and brought numerous products to market including start-up MVPs and billion-dollar product lines. Luke currently lives in San Francisco. To contact, connect via luke@lukecongdon.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukecongdon/.

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by Luke

DOES YOUR SILICON VALLEY CAREER NEED A MBA?

THE QUESTION

Should I get a MBA (Masters in Business Administration) degree? Many times over the years in Silicon Valley I've been asked to give advice as to the value of a MBA. Often the person asking is in the first 5-10 or so working years of their career and has reached a decision crossroads, but occasionally they are older. I did this myself, starting when I was about 28, and feel that it has been net positive for my career.

Having recently again shared my insights with a colleague, I decided to summarize an overview from the perspective of a working professional in Silicon Valley who completed a MBA 16 years ago, and has since built a career in high tech companies. My observations are based on the American MBA system, in the context of Silicon Valley and technology companies and startups. If you are evaluating if a MBA degree is a good investment for your career, then this is for you, especially if you live in Silicon Valley or work in high tech.

WHAT YOU GET

The MBA is designed to be a terminal degree, created to provide a comprehensive and final education on the essentials of running of a corporation. It is a graduate level degree that essentially gets you two things. First, you get the degree itself which is comprised of coursework in core disciplines of Finance, Accounting, Management, Marketing, add more. You will have the ability to choose electives that match your interests and drive the focus of your degree. The second key outcome is the network you can build while in school and leverage for years to come. Your network can account for a significant, long-term portion of your MBA's value. Provided you show up and do the work, you will get the degree. There is no guarantee you will get a network. A valuable network is the result of choosing the right school, and more importantly your effort to build that network yourself while you are there.

MOTIVATIONS

So why should you do it? It's a big investment of your time (1.5 - 3 years) and money ($100-200k). In my opinion there are four reasons to get this degree. The best of these in my opinion are for career opportunities. These are as follows:

Acceleration: If you are interested in switching careers, or transitioning into a management or leadership role from a career started focused on a single discipline, the MBA can be a good enabler. E.g. If you're an engineer looking to be a product manager, or a marketer who wants to manage a team or someday be an executive. Learning business foundations can make you more attractive to take on additional responsibilities by adding to your cross-functional skill set.

Price of Entry: Some organizations won't hire or promote you for management roles or high-influence, high-leverage roles without a MBA. This creates an advancement ceiling. I have met many people who were told that the MBA was a requirement for management, or to 'come back after you get your MBA' for product manager roles. This may be a form of unnecessary gate-keeping in some cases. In other cases, organizations are looking for candidates to have a minimum level of education to be good fits for these roles.

Prestige: Some see the degree as a marker of prestige or club membership. I'm not a fan of this. Furthermore, it's a lot of work to simply say you have it. I do have some reason to believe that there is an element to membership when it comes to a prestige school however. Wharton, Stanford, Harvard, etc. have strong brands, strong educations, and strong networks. As such, membership has its benefits including access.

Earning Potential: Some pursue the degree in order to earn more. Depending on your career choices this may or may not actually occur. If you are more qualified you can earn a better income, but it depends on the company and role you choose. Career progress itself may be more strongly correlated to higher income than the MBA degree. There are many careers that can provide good incomes without this degree. If the MBA accelerates or unblocks your career advancement, then this argument makes more sense.

TIMING ROI

If you've decided that your motivation and goals are worth your time and money, there is one more critical consideration. That is timing. A MBA degree at 25 years old and one at 40 years old have very different ROI (return on investment) horizons. In either case you learn the same thing, but the difference is what you can expect to get out of it.

A 25 to 30-year old graduate has a full career ahead of them to see the resulting benefits. A 40-year old who pursues an executive MBA has less time, however that target student has already started and achieved career success which they are building upon. At the executive MBA level, this cohort is transitioning at a career midpoint with the leverage the MBA can give them.

For a traditional 2-year MBA, the common student age range is ~24-34. For an executive 1.5-year MBA, the range is mid-30s to mid-40s. Age and career trajectory are key factors. Choosing among them depends on where you are in your career, your age, and your willingness and ability to invest in it. A 50-year old will likely never do a traditional 2-year MBA since it won't impact the remainder of their career meaningfully.

 

SELECTION

Deciding where to go to school has a few inputs, only a couple of which you can control. Regardless of where you'd like to go, you have to first ask yourself, 'Where can I get accepted?' MBA schools have competitive entry. The more renowned the school you apply to, the more competitive they can be to get into. Good schools are looking at candidates who are a match for them starting with a student's academic history and GMAT scores. In addition, work history and supplemental school goals are considered.

Next, assuming you're a good fit, you're demonstrably intelligent, and they want you, the next question is, 'Can you afford it?'. The MBA degree is not cheap. Depending on where you go, you'll trade a significant amount of time and the equivalent of a 1-2 luxury cars in cash. Many students take loans out to afford tuition. The lucky few are partially subsidized from their employers or win scholarships.

Next is the quality of the school. My personal opinion is that you should go to the best school you can get into and afford. This may sound elitist but given the cost and time investment, I argue you will want the highest ROI you can get. School brand value matters. Unfortunately, the quality of the school you can get into may already be limited if you don't have a strong academic history. Harvard and Stanford aren’t taking C students.

Lastly, choosing a traditional program or an executive program is a matter of where you are in your career. 22-years olds with little work experience won't be considered for an executive program and 50-year olds won't likely be considered for a full-time, 2-year degree.

MBA DEGREE OPTIONS

There are a few different types of MBAs, broadly categorized by duration and value. Selecting the program for you is a combination of your lifestyle and career needs, and the amount of dedicated time per week you can spend on your education to the exclusion of other activities including work, and cost.

The Full-time Traditional MBA

Duration: 2 years full-time
Cost: Tuition, housing, food, materials
Opportunity Cost: Lost wages and career progress
Getting In: Competitive entry
Perspective: As a younger professional, a work interruption now may have the least impact on your career long term while you invest in yourself. A full-time program may allow you to retain some sanity while providing some time for personal relationships.

The Part/Night Time Traditional MBA

Duration: 3+ years part-time depending on your course load
Cost: Tuition, materials. Food and housing are assumed to be covered by your career role as before.
Opportunity Cost: Significant lost leisure and family time
Getting In: Competitive entry
Perspective: As a working professional this allows you to maintain career and pursue school at the same time. Caveat emptor: Together this will consume all of your time for three years.

The Executive MBA

Duration: 1.5 years part-time
Cost: Tuition, materials
Opportunity Cost: Significant lost leisure and family time
Getting In: Competitive entry, with career milestone prerequisites
Perspective: As an older established professional, you likely already have significant career responsibilities which will remain and possibly grow during this program. You may also have a family who you will be taking time from. The increased burden on your spouse will not be insignificant.

MBA VALUE SPECTRUM

In addition to the general structure of the program you choose above, you must also choose where on the value spectrum you want to go. The higher value, the more expensive and exclusive they can be. Access to your target schools will be primarily gated by your undergraduate GPA, and your GMAT scores. Low scores will automatically exclude you from the best schools. Some high-status institutions also consider intangibles like family legacy, which generally means someone in your nuclear family also graduated from that university.

Prestige MBA

This is a program at an institution with an established, high-value, high-ROI brand. This brand is evidenced in the alumni and where they work, and the high-leverage network opportunity they represent. These schools are active in their alumni programs and invest heavily in them. These schools also invest in highly-qualified faculty and professors. Entry to these institutions is very selective and typically require a strong, proven academic history and GMAT test scores. These schools are often full-time only.

Value MBA

This MBA can be a traditional full-time or a part-time school. Entry is still selective and their reputation is still considered good to very good. They cost a little bit less and the market will still recognize MBAs from these schools well. The investment can still be significant, but lower than a prestige school while still offering a good return.

Bargain MBA

This is a MBA degree from an unbranded or unvalued institution. Does this mean you learned less than a prestige MBA? Yes, likely it does. Your professors are not of the same caliber. Your resulting network may be weak or nonexistent. You may have saved money on this degree, but the return expected is also low. In the worst case, you will get no return on investment and your industry will not perceive you as a more valuable working professional. These degrees may actually give you negative value signaling instead of the career boost you may have wanted.

POST-MBA TRANSITION ZONE: ACHIEVING ROI

You've spent the money, lost hair pulling someone else's weight in your 15 different group projects, spent either all your time for two years, or spent 2 nights plus Saturdays every week for three years in classrooms, lost touch with your friends because you had no time for them, went into debt for tuition, and more. Now what? When do you start getting the return you hoped for? This is the post-MBA transition zone and it warrants discussion. In discussions over the years with one of my oldest friends who also got his MBA when I did, I believe there is a leverage zone of 1-1.5 years after you finish the degree to level up. This includes the new role, better salary, more responsibility, or promotion. I.e. The return for the investment. If in a year or so you don't make your move, you might be seen as the person who already had the MBA and not as the go-getter ready for more. Assuming you pursued the MBA to improve your career, plan to level up long before you graduate to use the leverage and opportunity available to you.

LEVEL UP IN PLACE

Keeping the same job without a plan and just carrying on working will result in low likelihood of change in title, responsibility, or salary. Remaining at the same company isn't bad in itself, but you can't just hope your company notices you finished the degree and appreciate you more. After all they might think, aren't you doing the same thing you did before? Without a plan put in place a year or so in advance this might happen. Create a plan with your boss and management chain, letting them know what you're working on, and how much more qualified you will be to add value to the company as you learn. Get them to plan on using you as a high-value employee early, and let them visibly benefit from your value increase. You might even agree on milestones along the way to improve your work contribution and compensation. If they don't agree that you will be a better company asset, this is a strong signal to leave. Don’t rush though. Stay in place during the MBA to reduce life stress while you also study, and plan to transition to a new company when you finish.

LEVEL UP AND OUT

In my career, my biggest role and compensation changes were always the result of changing companies. Sadly, many companies don't see in-place talent for their market value, or worse, are silently aware that their market value is much higher than their comp scale and hope they remain blissfully unaware. Whether you pursue a full or part-time MBA, get prepared very early for what you will do when you graduate. Finding the right role and the right company take time. Use your network to make connections into target companies, and grow your network at these targets. Networking is not transactional. Relationships take time to grow and mature.

In either case, sometimes you will find that the perception of a MBA is more warmly received when your leadership has a MBA. This is a strange but sometimes true confirmation bias that can work for your benefit.

THE SILICON VALLEY MBA DEBATE

The MBA is designed to give management education fundamentals to early professionals headed into management. As such, it's a good fit for corporations. Curriculum designers have only begun to think about entrepreneurship in the last decade or so. I'd argue upon long reflection that the MBA isn't strongly indicated for entrepreneurs. With the influx of startup incubators, and the long presence of entrepreneurs across time who pursue their dream regardless of education, the MBA might be a distraction of time and resources. At a minimum, if you have strong building skills, desire, and endurance, you don't need to wait for a degree to open the gate for you.

In the tech startup industry, some consider a MBA to be a negative or even a disqualifier. I have mixed feelings on this based on two beliefs. The first belief is, the MBA provides valuable and fundamental business basics that many startups lack. Companies, even startups, require many skills including those that come from business training. Many startups have failed hard due to missing business fundamentals like a viable business model. The second, contrasting belief, is that the MBA itself might not be exactly what a startup needs in its initial pre-seed and series A run. A technology startup has to run with all their effort to create, validate, and build a sustainable idea and hope the market likes it enough to reward it with traction. In the intense, early building phase you need a lot of engineers. Business people can also directly provide value early, but some in the startup ecosystem view them with skepticism. How you feel about this dichotomy may depend on what side of the engineer vs. business person fence you're on, and both have their biases.

MAKING THE DECISION

Any MBA degree is a significant investment of your time and money. During this process, you may suffer stressed and unattended relationships, or career delay by not working. As a post-undergrad who has worked 3-5 years, you might not live with your parents any longer; making coverage for rent, groceries, and student loans difficult. This means more student loans, or working and studying at the same time.

On the plus side, you will learn a lot, forge new relationships, and prepare yourself for your next career stage. The upside in terms of job opportunities, responsibilities, and income can drive career long benefits.

Therefore, if you believe the following, I recommend choosing the highest-value school you can get admitted to and afford.

1. You're in the right age range for your target degree (traditional MBA, or executive MBA)
2. You believe this is a value-add for your career long-term worthy of investment in yourself
3. You believe you can get admitted with your grade history and GMAT score
4. You can afford it directly or with financing

If you are unable to get into a value or prestige school based on academics or career, I'd advise you to think carefully if a bargain school will actually give you the benefits you want before taking this option. If you can't afford it, but still believe it's valuable to you, consider a loan. Within a few years of graduating, considering you enter a profession the market values monetarily, and you aren't already swamped with debt, there is a strong likelihood that you will earn enough to pay off the loans within a comfortable number of years.

MY PATH TO MBA

I completed a part-time, value MBA at Santa Clara University in the heart of Silicon Valley in 2003. It is an accredited school and boasts attendance by working professionals deeply embedded in Silicon Valley. A part-time MBA, SCU ranks well nationally and regionally, and is respected by Silicon Valley companies. There are other schools in the region, and several prestige MBAs including the well-known Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton San Francisco, and University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Outside of Silicon Valley there are many more to choose from.

I began to consider a path towards the MBA when I lived in New York City after my undergraduate degree for a couple years. Having moved to NYC from from a small town before having a job, I quickly found temp work to cover my bills. I didn’t have a network for introductions so I worked and searched outside-in for career roles at the same time. During this time I interviewed 30 or so companies. It was 1997 and at this time the Internet barely existed, and it didn’t help much with job search. I remember using Careerpath.com which was nothing more than online reprints of newspaper job listings. I also used the actual newspaper. This sounds amusingly barbaric compared to finding roles in 2019. At the time, many print listings weren’t even from companies it turned out. Placement companies would post roles to collect resumes and test people for basic competency on Microsoft Word and Excel. It was toward the end of this period that I started researching how to make myself more competitive and get into closed doors. My career was not taking off and I was working a dead-end job. Career acceleration and price of entry were my motivations. I began a study course for my GMAT.

Around the same time, I took a position at a French international bank in the corporate banking department. This appeared more promising, although the work was fairly repetitive. I started my first year of MBA part-time on the east coast after work during this job. At the same time during the summer recess, I took some basic HTML courses out of interest. To be honest, I still didn’t know I’d work in technology or what I’d actually get out of the MBA. After one year I took an opportunity to move to Sunnyvale, California. The bank job was rote and didn’t pay much. The real reason to leave, however, was the recognition that this role offered no opportunity to progress in the organization.

In California in 2000, the technology market was booming and my basic HTML, CSS, and FTP skills were just enough to get me a tech support job at Yahoo!. I was lucky to support a product that was complex and allowed for on the job learning. Fun side note, the product was Yahoo! Store, which was the new name for Paul Graham’s Viaweb acquisition. Paul later became even more well-known for launching Y Combinator. No, I never met him. I transferred to Santa Clara University and again worked and studied part-time to finish the MBA with a focus on the software industry and innovation. Being a transfer student, I chose SCU because it was local, had a great reputation, offered a part-time program, and because they let me in. Here I started to see the power in a network when a fellow student made an introduction for me at Sun Microsystems, which landed me an internship role in software project management. To accelerate this story, I progressively leveraged up my technology experience and MBA into progressively more complex roles, moving into product management along the way.

The MBA created an opportunity to work hard, meet a network, and forge my various, vague self-improvement and career interests into a focused set of goals. The experience did open some doors as I had wanted it to. It also accelerated my career by bringing together education, the ability to meet like-minded peers, examples of success models, and more. Over the years, progressively moving to better roles was still not easy. An open door does not mean you will get welcomed to walk through it. That still takes work and industry is competitive.

Ultimately it is challenging to get hard data, even from your own career, to be certain a MBA was worth it. For me, however, I strongly believe it was a valuable investment. Over three years I transitioned from an anonymous, undifferentiated young career seeker with a temp job and no benefits in NYC, to a career in software product management in the cradle of technology in Silicon Valley. The MBA helped enable that transition both materially with the degree, and mentally by creating opportunities for me to see and develop ideas and goals. I started the MBA with a vague idea that it would improve my career, and completed the degree with additional qualifications, a strong local Silicon Valley network, good friends, and a much clearer idea of what I wanted to do next, and in the foreseeable future.

If you are considering this degree investment, I recommend understanding your motivations, then determining where and how it will fit into your life needs with the heavy time investment, and finally assess the value for the price and reputation of the school you are targeting.

ABOUT LUKE

Luke Congdon is a career product manager living and working in Silicon Valley since 2000. His areas of focus include enterprise software, virtualization, and cloud computing. He has built and brought numerous products to market including start-up MVPs and billion-dollar product lines. Luke currently lives in San Francisco. To contact, connect via luke@lukecongdon.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukecongdon/.

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by Luke