Question about post-MBA career progression

The email below is from a Software Engineer who currently works for an IT-focused consulting firm and wants to purse an MBA in order to transition into the management or technology consulting space. He has also developed an interest in Finance as of late and his question is about the type of career progression he can expect in his two areas of interest. He was probably looking for a very specific response from me, but, based on what he provided in his email, I see a range of possibilities for him in the future. With that in mind, I gave him a quick overview of several of them in my response. Hope he finds this helpful as he plots out his career path.

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SK wrote:

Hi Marquis

I recently came across your blog and read a few items, and believe that you certainly can help me with a bit of a confusion that i have regarding my future.

I am a software engineer and am currently working with Sapient Corporations for close to 3 years now. I have been working as a consultant/contractor for 1.5 years with RBS in a prodution support team that supports a trading application. I want to pursue an MBA and get into a management/technology consulting. Also, I am very interested in the field of Finance now, after having learnt alot working on derivatives and interacting with various business users. Could you please advice as to what kind of career progression can i be looking at, or what options do i have here?

Please let me know if you need any info from me to answer my query better.

Hoping to get a reply soon.

Thank & Best Regards,

SK

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My video response:

Question about post-MBA career progression from Marquis Parker on Vimeo.

Key points:
– I see several career progression options for the reader with the highest level decision being based on whether he wants to go the Strategy route or the Finance route:
–> Strategy
– Consulting – Management or Technology Consulting offers the opportunity develop strategic skills by working on a range of problems for clients in a wide variety of corporate settings
– Corporate strategy – Working in Corporate Strategy for a Technology-focused firm is a good alternative to Consulting as a way to build strategic skills while deep-diving into Tech
– Product management – This may seem like a step away from the strategy track, but product management is a highly strategic path and is a great lead-in for general management roles
–> Finance (or Financial Services)
– Corporate finance – Working in the Finance function of a Technology-focused could be a be a good combination of his professional background and emerging finance interest
– Investment banking – This would give him the deepest dive into finance skill development, but the lifestyle could be a challenge
– Corporate development – The Corporate Development function of a Tech company offers a good combination of Finance and Strategy; I-banking could prove to be a prerequisite for a corp dev role