Hello,

I am a male and Nepalese citizen living in Sweden. I am 35 years old and have BSc, MSc and PhD, all in Electrical engineering. I have five years of work experience (post PhD) in telecom Industry as a senior research engineer. For the last two years, I have been a team leader leading the team of 10 people.

My long term goal is to work in product development. First, as an R&D manager but eventually, as a technology strategist who studies the market, talks to clients and use my technical knowledge to build strategies on new products or formulate research directions of the R&D department.

As you can see, I have very research focus future goal with some business knowledge. According to my understanding, most people in these positions do not have MBAs. They have PhD and learn business skills on the job through work experience. However, I also hear arguments that a good MBA could be a plus, even for these roles.

Do you think an MBA is right for me? What kind of benefits would a full-time MBA adds compared to a part-time one, for example, Cambridge MBA vs iMBA from Illinois? I am not looking to change the industry. I am not looking to change my location, but plans about location might change in future. I am thinking about online MBAs or one year MBAs.

My PhD was 5 years long and the PhD project came from a company. I worked in that company after my PhD and I am still here. I was employed by the university as a doctoral student (with an employment contract subject to Swedish labour laws) and received a monthly salary. How many years of work experience should I count on my profile? 10 years (PhD+ post PhD work) or only 5 years (only post PhD work)?

Thank you
Prabhat

Hi Prabhat. I don't think an MBA will help you much. My understanding, from looking at adverts for such roles, is that product (i.e. equipment, in various ways) developers need development experience, technical theory, knowledge of production, hand-on design skills, personal effectiveness and good team-working, networking and communication skills.

I looked at some online masters degrees in product development for engineers, at RIT, Northwestern and USC. They seem to meet your needs much more fully. 

Is your career purely on the hardware side? Product Management is getting a lot of traction in many technology businesses, primarily on software. However, if you have the ability to find a course that includes a module on software product management, that might help you. Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and software services are likely to become more important in the hardware arena.

This person's expertise is in antennae. I don't think they plan to move over to software services.