Is being a software engineer a negative?

[floricele]

I was browsing through some topics and I noticed someone from mbamission telling another person that the only downside of his resume was the fact that he was working in IT.

Is this true? I thought coming from a software engineering background would actually be a plus.

Can someone please give an opinion here? How negative is being a software engineer at a company such as Google/Facebook/Twitter for example and wanting to get an MBA to get deeper into product management?

Extra information about me: I am a woman, age 25, my citizenship is from a country from eastern europe, with 3 years of experience at a huge tech company, working in the US since my college graduation.

[floricele]

While I'm here, I might as well just mention the rest of my profile:

At my company, I work closely with product managers and have close interactions with other teams. I've also been in leadership positions on several projects.

Outside of work, I often speak at universities and schools to girls to tell them more about the tech world.

I also mentor a group of 5 girls in high school who are participating in an international contest called technovation. The team is supposed to build an android app and build a business plan for it as well. I mentor them and lead them along the way, the girls come from simple families, with no access to internet at home, but I bring them once every 2 weeks at my workplace, reserve a conference room and make them feel like grownups while working on the project :)

Besides that, I mentor a woman who is trying to switch her career and go into software engineering, despite the fact that she has a liberal arts degree.

I started these activities when I noticed that I was very shy and I lacked confidence because of my thick accent, so I just decided to speak at whatever opportunity comes along: universities, recruiting events for work, conferences etc. During these events, I realized that I really enjoy talking to young girls and women and mentor them to know more about the tech world.

I'm still studying for the GMAT, I started some 3 weeks ago and my test says around 700-710 so far. My target is at 730. Also, my GPA is 3.65. It would have been a bit bigger, but during my final year in college I took a part time job as a junior software engineer to be able to travel abroad during the breaks. I managed to visit 3 countries that year, and I've visited more than 20 since then (despite the fact that less than 3 years have passed since my graduation).

The schools that I am applying to are Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Yale, NYU.

I would really appreciate it if I could get an estimate on how strong my chances are.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for your question. The short answer, is no, being a software engineer is not a 'negative' per se. BUT there are two ways in which software engineers could be facing specific challenges in applying to b-school.

First-- there is a growing pool of software engineers & IT professionals applying to b-school. This is likely most common among applicants from India, so if one is in both of those groups (Indian/IT), there are SO many applicants that are very similar. Schools like to create a 'microcosm' of the world within the classroom. So diversity is desired. The more different nationalities, industries, experiences, roles, perspectives they can get into the class, the better (as long as they are strong/qualified applicants of course!!). SO.... while they don't generally "allocate" only x # of places for say, software engineers... it is natural that if you are part of a larger group of similar applicants, you may have more of a challenge differentiating yourself, than someone with a less common background would. Note that this same challenge can also be said for investment bankers, for example. Here is a blog post which may be helpful: http://www.mbamission.com/blog/2013/06/ ... ntation-4/.

Secondly, and still related to the above and in particular to the blog post I just mentioned.... you'll want to think about what the 'preconceptions' are for software engineers (or whatever your role is, for any applicant!) and work to show how you are more than just the 'stereotype.' Software engineers & IT professionals are sometimes thought of as strictly technical. It's expected that they have strong quant and analytical skills.... but the b-schools want to know about people skills...leadership... teamwork...motivating others... etc. So that is a challenge facing anyone in mostly technical work.

As for your specific profile, it sounds very strong so far. First of all, there are fewer female applicants with solid quant/analytical/IT skills, and you mentioned how you HAVE had leadership opportunities and plenty of experience working on communication skills, so those all help. And your experiences mentoring girls/young women really show a lot about you and you would presumably be able to discuss what you've learned from those experiences. I don't know much about your post-MBA goals which are also relevant, but with the GMAT you expect, and strong essays, I would think you would be considered at top schools. HBS is always tough of course ;), and sometimes it comes down to who the OTHER applicants are and how you stack up... but you are off to a good start. Good luck! Keep us posted!

[floricele]

Thank you for the reply :) It was very helpful, and thanks for pointing me to that blog as well. I'm looking forward to finishing everything with the GMAT for now, hopefully by the end of April I will be done with the test.

[mbamissionjenK]

You are most welcome, keep us posted!