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Amazon was eager. I'd highlight the non-technical role bit. Anecdotal but heres my story regarding them: Recruiter was very excited to fly me to Seattle. I at

Amazon was eager. I'd highlight the non-technical role bit. Anecdotal but heres my story regarding them: Recruiter was very excited to fly me to Seattle. I attribute the MBA to that(CS Undergrad). Unfortunately I find a common stigma attached to the MBA for technical roles. During my Technical Program Management interview none of the interviewers had a business degree. PhD in cs, and an MIS, but I didn't connect much with 2/4 of the interviewers. 'So you don't want to be a developer anymore' was one of the opening comments I received. To address this i'm currently working on an intermediate step (title=founder?) to further distance myself from pure dev and thinking about PMP & Marketing certifications to help downplay the 10 years work experience developing. On the other side of the coin, they say that Amazon hires only one out of every 5 candidates, my sample size of 1 is too small, and I cant claim I aced every conversation.

ryandrake 11y ago
I think it's more of a tech company culture thing, not specific to Amazon. I've been to interviews where the interviewers were genuinely bewildered that I left a coding-only career to do a full-time MBA program. The degree (even from a top school) doesn't really seem to help out here in the Bay Area (maybe Seattle too, I've never been there). The banks and consultancy firms would rather you had a finance or consulting background, and won't hire you unless you're fresh out of MBA school. The tech companies either can't get over their anti-MBA stigma (as if merely getting the degree makes you suddenly forget math/engineering fundamentals) or just assume you went back to school because you were a bad coder. Most tech companies seem to have a "Chinese wall" between the tech side and the business side, and there aren't many roles out there with the opportunity to overlap. Unless you want to do a start-up, where everyone wears many hats, but I like to be able to pay my mortgage and eat.
_yosefk 11y ago
PMP? Seriously? (I'm not saying I know anything about the value of having this certification in terms of career prospects. What I do know is that you get to memorize a ton of horseshit to then spit it out in a brain-damaged multiple-choice test, and instinctively - not based on experience - I wouldn't want to manage a project in an org which values the "PMP" label, because it sounds like the kind of project where every pencil/square of toilet paper/etc. counts, the thing as well as the org in general being barely profitable.)
jcadam 11y ago
I'm a Software Engineer who thought that the way into management was to go and get some management credentials. So I went and got a PMP, then applied for a promotion - which I got, and then quickly un-got due to office politics. A few years later (still a Software Engineer), working for a different (much larger) company, I decide to pursue management positions again. I go and get myself an MBA (part-time, so I could continue to work). I had a few interviews for management positions at my current company during my MBA studies, but ultimately no dice. I was laid off (as part of a mass layoff) more or less immediately after graduating. Now, I no longer care. I've become a pretty good Software Engineer so I think I'll just stick with that. I let the PMP expire (it takes time and money to maintain, consider that), though I'm afraid I'm stuck with the MBA (at least my employer had paid for it). The need to explain why I got an MBA (4 years ago) during job interviews and reassure potential employers I'm really a nerd with no management aspirations is the only lasting effect of the degree.

ryandrake 11y ago

I think it's more of a tech company culture thing, not specific to Amazon. I've been to interviews where the interviewers were genuinely bewildered that I left a coding-only career to do a full-time MBA program. The degree (even from a top school) doesn't really seem to help out here in the Bay Area (maybe Seattle too, I've never been there). The banks and consultancy firms would rather you had a finance or consulting background, and won't hire you unless you're fresh out of MBA school. The tech companies either can't get over their anti-MBA stigma (as if merely getting the degree makes you suddenly forget math/engineering fundamentals) or just assume you went back to school because you were a bad coder. Most tech companies seem to have a "Chinese wall" between the tech side and the business side, and there aren't many roles out there with the opportunity to overlap. Unless you want to do a start-up, where everyone wears many hats, but I like to be able to pay my mortgage and eat.

_yosefk 11y ago

PMP? Seriously? (I'm not saying I know anything about the value of having this certification in terms of career prospects. What I do know is that you get to memorize a ton of horseshit to then spit it out in a brain-damaged multiple-choice test, and instinctively - not based on experience - I wouldn't want to manage a project in an org which values the "PMP" label, because it sounds like the kind of project where every pencil/square of toilet paper/etc. counts, the thing as well as the org in general being barely profitable.)

jcadam 11y ago

I'm a Software Engineer who thought that the way into management was to go and get some management credentials. So I went and got a PMP, then applied for a promotion - which I got, and then quickly un-got due to office politics. A few years later (still a Software Engineer), working for a different (much larger) company, I decide to pursue management positions again. I go and get myself an MBA (part-time, so I could continue to work). I had a few interviews for management positions at my current company during my MBA studies, but ultimately no dice. I was laid off (as part of a mass layoff) more or less immediately after graduating. Now, I no longer care. I've become a pretty good Software Engineer so I think I'll just stick with that. I let the PMP expire (it takes time and money to maintain, consider that), though I'm afraid I'm stuck with the MBA (at least my employer had paid for it). The need to explain why I got an MBA (4 years ago) during job interviews and reassure potential employers I'm really a nerd with no management aspirations is the only lasting effect of the degree.