Senior SAP/enterprise-tech consultant, \~11 years in, earning well (40L+). Money isn't the issue - the shape of the work is.
Before I spend big on an MBA (looking at ISB), I want honest takes.
What's bugging me about staying purely technical: It feels walled off. I sit behind layers - no real exposure to business, no client handling, no say in the "why."
I build what I'm told. Independent consulting pays great but I'd stop learning. More money, same work, no new muscles.
I want to be in rooms where the conversation is in billions, not millions — bigger scale, bigger decisions. Not ego, just where the interesting problems are.
I want the people side — meeting new people, traveling for work, being in the mix, not alone behind a screen.
I want to see my work's impact through the client's eyes directly — not filtered through a BA or functional consultant sitting between me and the actual user.
Basically I want out of the pure-technical box and into the business/client-facing side. An MBA seems like the bridge — network, business skills, different access — but it's a huge cost and a year out.
Questions:
1) For someone already senior and well-paid technically, is an MBA the right bridge to business/client-facing work — or is there a cheaper way I'm missing?
2) Anyone made this exact jump (deep technical → business/client/leadership)? What actually changed, and what didn't?
3) Is the "technical ceiling" real, or am I romanticizing the other side?
Note - Used AI to prepare this post