What an MBA grad can do in IT

I jus used to have such discussions with my folks from college. I thought some just weren't comfortable with the thought that they needed an MBA education to get the specifics of business. They were always being Mr.Einstein - asking the WHY and the HOW of the issue!!! While i was trying to give them answers, i happened to get this mail from a senior of mine, who has just finished his MBA (or PGDBM) from IIM Indore. He's presently with a company named ATOS Origin.

I haven't really worked much for this post, apart from cutting the "hi - how r u" kinda stuff, re arranging the contents, adding up a few links etc. So all the contents are purely from my senior. This makes some interesting reading though - especially for those confused ones (who like to be better called as ASPIRANTS). For the others, it might sound like excerpts from a Mgmt course book :)
so - here we go...

### Mail Begins Here ###

Let us come to your question of what MBA guys can do in the IT industry. There are 4 broad areas where MBA grads can get into
(1) project mgmt
(2) business analysis
(3) business development
(4) consultancy

Nobody would want to get into Project management (post MBA i.e.). Except for the last-in-the-batch kinda guys. This is what a BE with probably 10 - 15 yrs (depending upon the company and the person) of experience gets to do.

Business analysis is not really related to IT per se. It is abt finding how business events can affect company. Things like recent government changes, IT innovations and any other stuff which might throw up issues or new project ventures will be followed by these guys. Almost 40% of the MBA guys end up here.

Business Development is the hot cake. It is abt modeling outsourcing contracts, interacting with customers, giving presentations, bidding etc - basically planning for and getting business. Very few guys land up here (since there are very less openings).

We can now categorize Consultancy into 2 sub sections:
Technical consultancy (like SAP etc) - Some guys do go to such profiles. But frankly, this is not for MBA students. You can reach here without MBA, albeit slower. You need to understand coding et al.

Functional consultancy (retail, telecom, manufacturing etc) is quite good, and a good many land up here. You need to have a technical bent of mind, but not essentially coding experience.

### Mail Ends Here ###

guess that pretty much sums up what's what.
How does that sound guys?!?! Anything interesting???

If this is what u wanna do in life, coz i think it is pretty much difficult to change domains after ur Masters and it is all the more difficult to change ur job profile after ur first job, go get that MBA for urself and specialize in IT (or sit for IT company interviews).

Cross Posted here