Dear Peter: I'm feeling stuck. Do I need an MBA?
MBA: maybe! But also...
Dear Peter,
I've been a software engineer for 5 years, but I feel like I've hit a wall. I'm not being challenged in my current role, and I'm not sure how give my work that "oomph" back. I've been thinking about going back to school for an MBA, but I'm not sure if it's worth the investment. Can you offer some advice on how to break through the plateau?
Sincerely,
Stuck in Neutral
Dear Stuck in Neutral,
Ah, the mid-career plateau - where the daily standup starts feeling like groundhog day and you're wondering if you need to throw an MBA at the problem. I get it. MBA programs feel attractive here because they’re marketed at exactly your situation: feeling stuck when you feel like the problems you're solving aren't novel anymore and you’re not sure what to focus your energy on next to feel that sense of growth and progress again.
Here's the thing about plateaus - they're actually great vantage points to survey the landscape. You've got 5 years of solid experience, which means you’re likely well beyond the “junior” title. You've got context, experience, and probably some battle scars from production incidents that taught you more than Professor Doofenschnmirtz ever could.
The two primary reasons I've seen to get an MBA are either because you want to start a business or you want to change up / level up your current work. You, Stuck in Neutral, are in this second bucket. But bear with me as I digress slightly to address the start a business bucket.
If you know that your next step is starting a business, but you want a) explicit instructions on the framework and skills involved and b) a partner in (hopefully not literal) crime, MBA programs succeed in at least that one thing. They connect people that are looking to start businesses with the kinds of people they might need to know.
Then again, there are a smattering of programs, like incubators, etc., that have jumped in to fill that need without having to fork over your own seed investment round.
But anywho – back to exploring whether an MBA is the right move if you want to level up in the job you already have.
Let's break this down:
I've seen folks use MBAs like a reset button when they're feeling stuck, but before we talk about dropping real money on a degree, let's explore something: What's actually missing in your current role? Is it technical challenges? Leadership opportunities? The chance to see how your work impacts the business? Because there might be ways to get that without student loans that you can’t debug (or default 🥲) your way out of.
You mentioned not being challenged - but I'm curious what kind of challenges you're hungry for. In my experience working with engineers, I’ve seen a few flavors of "not challenged":
- "I could code this in my sleep" - you've mastered the technical aspects
- "The work I’m given doesn’t matter" - it’s not clear how your work fits into the bigger picture
- "I feel like I’ve done it all" - you've plateaued in influence or impact
Each of these has different solutions, and none of them necessarily require an MBA.
Here's what I suggest:
- Get clear on what "next level" means for you. Are you looking to:
- Lead a team?
- Architect bigger systems?
- Move into product or strategy?
- Actually enjoy your Mondays?
- Look for growth opportunities where you are first. Could you:
- Propose and lead a major technical initiative?
- Mentor junior developers?
- Get involved in the hiring/interviewing process?
- Join (or start!) the committee that decides if you're using tabs or spaces?
- Start having explicit career conversations with your manager. Not the annual review kind, but the "here's what I want to learn and the type of stuff I want to do – how can we make that happen?" kind. If they're not receptive, that tells you something, too.
It's fully possible that an MBA is the tool you're looking for – but it's worth doing some discovery to make sure. As my grandma always said "make sure an MBA is going to solve what you think it will, because it costs time and money and you might be able to find another path towards your goals – so get clear on those goals, Petey my boy." Though I might be paraphrasing.
Any work where you repeat the same tasks without ownership or novelty are not going to be enjoyable. The key is finding ways to add that ownership and novelty back in – ideally, your manager will be able to pull some levers to help with that, but it’s not a given. They may not know how – or, more likely, they’re hamstrung by the structures around them. But frankly, that all has the same impact on you at the end of the day: you need more than you’re getting.
Want to dig deeper into this? Let's book a session. We can talk about specific strategies for your situation, and I promise not to make you whiteboard an algorithm to reverse a string. (Unless you're into that sort of thing.)
Let's make work suck less,
Peter
P.S. Remember: an MBA is a tool, not a solution. Like any good engineer knows, you want to be really sure about your requirements before picking your tools. Otherwise you end up using an Enterprise Asana subscription to manage your grocery list.
And that would be silly.
..Unless?