16-03-2019, 02:59 PM
I’ve been at my current job (first after college, graduated 2 years ago) for over a year now. It’s in a lab environment, consisting of about 90% testing, and the rest being equipment documentation and client reports. Since I started, the owner has provided several opportunities for professional advancement (certifications, exams, etc.) and recently proposed to cover my MBA (~$45K). Of course, some of it would have to be paid back if I was to leave before a given amount of time.
The thing is, I am currently not interested in any shape or form in an MBA. As my current role might imply, I enjoy the technical side of things a tad more. My current goal now is to get my PE license in a few years and go from there. Just getting some experience for now. For context, most of the management is carried out by the owner (small firm, somewhat feasible), but the owner seeks to retire within the next 5-10 years and is looking for people to take those responsibilities.
In the past (e.g. my FE and PE exams) I did not skip a bit to take on the opportunity. But here I am, almost a month later, still thinking about it. Perhaps if it was a master’s in engineering, I’d be more interested, but frankly, I don’t want to go back to school. At least not now. My work schedule can be unpredictable at times and adding night/weekend school to that sounds rough. At the same time, this seems like an opportunity I might regret passing on later in life.
What do you guys think? Am I making a mistake, or should I follow my gut?
TLDR: Employer offered to pay MBA program; I’m not really interested in it. Is letting it go a mistake?