How important is an MBA for a Computer Science Major if the CS Major wants to eventually reach a management position?
Should I go for the dual degree program in college?
EDIT -------------------------
So based on the 1 answer so far, if I want to get into a management position I NEED an MBA eventually...Its very useful / essential in getting into managing...?
This is almost exactly the same question here: MBA for a Computer Science Guy but I'm not sure if this is a duplicate question.
An MBA straight out of university--or, worse, a double degree--is completely worthless. A proper MBA program will build on your experience and is the sort of thing you should do when your career is already on a management path. The average age of an MBA student, depending on school, is roughly 30.
It will probably help in larger companies but you're making a mistake if you think an MBA will teach you anything. It's a networking exercise. I once read a description that it was a 2 year job search with a degree attached.
An MBA from a no-name college is probably a waste of money. From a top tier business school however it can pay for itself very, very quickly. But all the top business schools will require a minimum of two years of work experience before they'll even look at you (and will often prefer five).
I don't think an MBA pays for itself, except possibly from the best brand name programs. The best reason to get an MBA is that you want to get one. Don't look for it to make it any easier for you to become a manager. I don't have an MBA and I've had programmers with MBA's reporting to me.
I've been in the CIS field since 1989. I went to college but didn't finish. I have 7 close friends that also also software engineers/developers. Only one has a degree. One of them has recently been promoted to middle management at American Express... he's not the one with a degree.
In my personal experience a college degree has little importance. I believe it can get you in some doors early in your career, but networking will get you into more.
This is, of course, just my opinion based on personal observation. I'm sure others will have equally compelling advice to the oppsite.
I wouldn't say an MBA is required at all. There are other Masters level degrees that can also help Masters of Project Management would probably be a good fit as well. As Bill points out, it really depends on the company you work for and their policies.
In some places promotion to management is based a lot on aptitude (as reported by your managers/peers) and your desire and initiative to take leadership roles. In those organizations an MBA might help, but there are likely better ways to spend your time to further your career.
In other organizations (typically older or larger ones) there tend to be less intrinsic ability of the system to determine management candidates, and in those places things like an MBA are often used as qualifiers to get you into management.
I'm not saying an MBA isn't useful - the courses often do teach relevant material that can, in fact, help you later on. But in this day and age when, let be realistic, you can get an MBA from an online college as long as your check clears, it can be less of an indicator of management potential that performance-based metrics.
Company culture plays a big role. I was with Hewlett Packard when they went from 34,000 to 90,000 people and as an organization, Engineering talent was valued highly. Given that the company (during that era) believed in promoting from within, you could visibly see folks who were being groomed for management. And in most cases, those folks were the stars who did rise and shine. Bright people can and will learn the business elements.
On the other hand, even with a culture like that, it is my personal opinion that if you are willing and able to complete an MBA while employed, and get the company to pay the freight, you will have accomplished 3 things:
Instead of getting an MBA, you should devote your time to learning about the businesses from the clients / user base that you are developing for. By this I mean develop a deep understanding of how they perceive things. Study their processes, work pace, and learn how things have failed.
This goes beyond software. You need to understand the history of their decisions, and how they arrived at what was a good practices versus a terrible mistake. An MBA will not expose you to these insights. Save your money.
A degree will never hurt and could make certain career progress easier but if you are competent, then the effects of not have a degree will be minimized. One thing to consider right now is the economy, tanking job market, and the amount of dept you will have when you complete your degree.
There's also a bit of a twist in the IT industry in that by the time you're done with school, the current state of the art has advanced well beyond what is currently being taught in schools (ignoring, of course, timeless fundamentals that will always be valuable).
It's a harder path to take but consider finding a stable job now and use that to pay for night/weekend classes, which will help avoid accruing a huge debt while gaining real-world experience that most new graduates sorely lack.
As for management, there's more of an emphasis on having a degree for the average manager but the best managers tend to be the ones who are technically competent/experienced than those who went to school to be a manager. I'd also question the choice of CS as the degree for someone who wants to be a manager. The true nature of CS tends to be misunderstood by most people and what they really wanted was to study software engineering or (esp. for managers) software configuration management.
MBA is not required for being a software manager. I don't know very many managers who have an MBA. I doubt very many of the project managers at Microsoft have an MBA, many of them were programmers. Personally, unless your MBA is from Harvard, I think the whole MBA business is just a diploma mill game. If you want to be a manager in a field unrelated to software, then perhaps it may help you there. Of course, much of this may be dependent on what companies you intend to work for and so forth. I very much doubt if you want to be in the position of managing programmers or software projects that an MBA is "necessary" or really necessarily worth the trouble of going through the program. Then again, MBA programs seem to be fairly easy to breeze through as long as the checks clear so perhaps it may not be that bad of a choice.