Which one to choose after BTech — MTech or MBA?

Bachelor of Technology is a much sought-after course for a lot of students. After under graduation, those wishing to pursue master’s often are confused on whether to opt for a Master of Technology (MTech) degree or Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. It is necessary for aspirants to thoroughly understand the career opportunities and benefits that each of the degrees will bring. On the basis of the career opportunities available, one has to decide which one they want to pursue.

First and foremost, aspirants should be clear that there is no point in comparing MTech and MBA degrees. Also, the sort of jobs available for each are completely different and one needs to understand their forte and interest areas and make a choice accordingly.

Let us start by understanding the career opportunities available for MTech since it’s the best possible career option to take up after a BTech degree. Simple reason being, you studied something and you become more experienced in the same thing.

MTech offers you with a wide range of career specialisations to choose from. Given below are some of them:

• Automobile engineering
• Industrial engineering
• Product design and development
• Thermal engineering
• Engineering design
• Computer aided design and manufacturing
• Mechatronics engineering
• Material engineering
Electrical engineering
Now career after an MTech can also be divided into four parts, depending on what you want to do:

• Start working right after MTech
• Going for a higher degree like PhD
• Joining as a professor
• Starting your own venture
Let's now look at the advantages and options this field offers. The first and foremost benefit of doing an MTech is, it helps you have a better grasp over the technical things and a better thought process for the assigned tasks. One can easily find a job in research and development organisations, manufacturing industries, IT companies as Project Manager, Senior Engineers, etc.

Next being, since you have done a BTech, you are well aware of where what can go wrong and how to recover from the same. Second advantage is that it adds value to your skill and technical set. The next being you get detailed information about the subjects and you build good contacts in case you want to start something new.

Now, what about an MBA and when do you choose that? You choose that when you want to get into product sales or marketing. You choose MBA when you want to be solely into corporate roles where you are responsible for your managerial skills and not technical skills, or your communication skills matter more than your designing skills, or you want to be in direct contact with the customers rather than being in an engineering role. Hence, keeping all this in mind, one can decide what job roles they would like to choose for themselves.

(The author is with Symbiosis Institute of Technology)