I am confused?

Question

Hi all,
i am a 24 year-old computer engg pursuing my MS right now. I am confused and seek your help. I am planning to pursue my education further. I am confused between PhD or MBA? My major aim is to have a great job and money. I am not sure which one offers it more. Could anyone provide me their valuable suggestion? Which one would be a better idea - PhD or MBA? Also, it would be a great help if i could come to know about the average salary drawn by people with these profiles and their age and experience. Thanks!

Answer 1

Computer engineering is a pretty broad category these days, and leads to a variety of careers. Hardware or software? What sort of applications appeal to you? Remember that if you are a software engineer, you can probably work at home on your own if you want. This hasn't been all that practical for hardware engineers since Apple was founded in a garage.

If money is the major thing, probably the MBA would serve you better. A PhD is generally a professor or research scientist. I'm not sure what a PhD in Computer Engineering would do other than teach, frankly; most want to go ahead and start working before they spend all that time.

One more thing: a PhD specifically requires original research and a dissertation and takes a good bit longer than the MBA would take.

I know nothing about average salaries, but I'm sure you could look it up once you have a more specific idea of what you want to do. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has some fabulous information, very detailed, but it takes some digging to figure it all out. I mean, I think perhaps they are a bit TOO detailed. But again, a savvy programmer would be able to glean what he wanted from the mass of data.

Good luck!

Answer 2

PhD is a lot of work and you'd have to come up with original research that nobody has every done. If you have a strong interest in a particular subject and feel like writing 500+ pages of research and taking a bunch of oral and written qualifying exams, then yeah, do your PhD. They also take a lot of time, and some of my former professors took them 10+ years to complete it.