A couple years ago, I looked at my career and thought about where I wanted to be in 10-15 years. I was in the middle of architecting and building a new global network so what better time to think about what to do next. ;-)
Seriously, I love being a network engineer and designing and building networks. But I realized (1) I wanted to grow in my career and take on more responsibility and (2) I didn't want to be a network engineer at 45. No offense to any happy 45-year old network engineers, but I didn't want to look at my friends from college and the army who were now VPs and I certainly didn't want to compete with all the energetic 25-year olds with no families, less salary expectations, and (probably by that point) their 6-7 CCIEs. That's just a recipe for career change being forced upon you.
Plus, I've always had the leadership bug. Leading people to accomplish things in an efficient and effective way is harder than any CCIE Lab.
So, I decided to move into management and get my MBA. The management change will happen soon, but the MBA starts this week.
I've taken the long ride to returning to school. I live in the Raleigh, NC area which has plenty of top MBA schools to choose from. I started with UNC Chapel Hill.
A very good school with a Top 20 MBA program. I was all set to start, but family issues caused me to cancel.
The next year I got interested in going to Duke for an MBA.
An even better school - a Top 10 MBA program. I was accepted and ready to attend, but somehow spending $104,000 to get an MBA just seemed hideously wrong to me. Yes, the ROI is there if you are willing to move around the country and climb that ladder, but my wife wasn't too keen on living in NYC or Chicago or San Francisco.
So, I finally decided to attend NC State's MBA Program.
No, not Top 10, but still highly ranked and well respected. Plus, it focuses on employers in the Raleigh, NC area and I love living here and don't intend on moving.
So, over the next 3 years I'll be balancing school, work, and family.....and my blog of course. I have to keep writing for all my loyal fans out there (all 10-11 of you that is). ;-) I'll still be writing about networking, but will of course be inserting some management, business, and leadership topics as well.
Wish me luck! :-)
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Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3-billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads a team of 10 engineers responsible for large-scale IT networking projects and architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP telephony, contact centers, and security. Michael is CCIE #11733 and recently became one of the first three Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) ever (#20080002). He has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo and is working on his MBA from NC State University. In 2008, he was awarded the Network Professional Association (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.
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It's nice to see someone else going through the same throes as myself. Currently struggling with where to study my MBA and is the extra $$$ actually worth it.
I'll be watching your updates on this with great interest.
Depends
Advanced degrees all depend upon what you want to accomplish. If you want to have a firm understanding of technology and its implementation into effect business processes, possibly leading a team of technology implementers, an MS in MIS or Computer Information Systems fits. If you are looking to move into management and help make business decisions that influence what type of technology you'll need, or are looking to become entrepreneurial, an MBA may be up your alley.
Good Luck!
Good Luck Mike. Once you start the balancing act will take its course and things will settle down. I wouldn't be surprised if end up fixing the university network while doing the MBA :)
Have you thought about going for MBA in Telecom Management ?
/Majid
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