Indy Telecom & Industrial Media

Paul Kedrosky talks about an interesting NYT article on how hedge funds and private equities seem to change career options for people who might otherwise consider going for an MBA.

The interesting thing about this is the fact that I in fact do know several people who are at those cross-roads.

While being a quant-jock definitely has its advantages in terms of pay and big fat bonuses, it also tends to burn out a lot of people quite fast. On the other hand, all it takes is a few years on the market as a quant and you are set to do whatever you want a wee bit later. But does having that top B-school MBA really help you in those particular areas that you work on, as a quant? That is the more interesting question.

The other thing that came to my mind was this — to what extent does this apply to other areas, besides finance? In IT, going anything above a Solutions Architect (or its equivalent) with just a technology degree is rather hard, in most places. But are there other areas where an MBA does not particularly matter? Say, Biotech?

It would be interesting to see if there are similar patterns in other industries, besides finance.