[panacea_amit]

Hi All,

Need your help, am in dilemma on whether I should do MBA or not.. am working as DBA for a Bank .Please suggest.

[Krs]

Studying is always beneficial...

Go for it, what have u got to lose? :)
If you do get a MBA, u can always further your career elsewhere or even still at the bank however a higher position.

Im doing MBA also now

[ScottGem]

Depends on where you want your career to go.

[panacea_amit]

Thanks for reply.

I don't want to do technical stuff whole my life.. what to lead a team , part of management team, hence I am thinking of doing MBA

[Krs]

Well go for it then :)

[panacea_amit]

Hey guys.. thanks a lot

[ScottGem]

Someone on another site asked a similar question which got a great answer from someone I respect. The answer pertains to you. I've reproduced it here:

Answer by Jeff Zepada dated 4/16/07 Rating: (1 rater) Your rating: 5
Hi AJ,

First off, you should pursue what interests you more than what will give you the best chance for "career advancement". The reason is simply that you will be doing what you like which will show in your work which will be visible to your bosses and ultimately lead to more career advancement than doing something that you despise simply because it has better marketability.

That said, at least in the shops that I've worked in (and certainly in the one that I currently direct), there are different "dead ends" with each of the degrees with an "emphasis".

Consider that if you are an expert in Databases, you can indeed rise to a level of DBA or even Database Director (if your company has such a position), but you won't become Director of IT, VP of IT or CTO without being able to intelligently discuss all of these areas. I see people who know everything about Networks, but don't understand Database design or Software development. I see Security people who can't write a SELECT statement. Each of these specialists are important, but will never reach the top until they can broaden their base.

In comparison, an IT generalist won't necessarily make as much at the beginning of their career (they might), but they will have the potential to understand a wider range of topics and not be locked into one area.

As a real world example, we had a software developer here who wrote code for over a year with us. All he knew was software and he was definitely a web design specialist. While he did valuable work and was quite productive, he never really could be considered to manage storage, security, database, network, etc. people. In comparison, the people who know just a little about different areas but are flexible enough to jump into something new are much more likely to lead teams and eventually make it into management ranks. They are also more likely to be promoted from within instead of having to bounce from employer to employer. If one can add to that the ability to understand business and not just IT, that person is the one who can sometimes even rise to CEO/President level.

That said, the more general "BS in IT" would be my suggestion for long term promotion. Again, however, don't' forget that my first statement still holds. If you don't want to be CEO/President, and all you love is Database design, then by all means pursue that specialty (or any other that you prefer). The programmer that I referenced earlier never really wanted to be a Manager or Director, so it wasn't any problem for him that he didn't have the skills to be one.

-- Jeff