Is ISB MBA a good option for a product manager with arts background and ~33L salary after 4-5 years of work experience?
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More interesting is how you made PM and current compensation with an arts background. Care to share your story?
worked in a small 20-people team start-up in my first job in a marketing/community role and then outperformed in terms of generating innovative ideas to grow fast. Founders didn't have money to pay so just gave the PM title - post that, leveraged the title + reccos from those folks in other start-ups I worked in, in the same sector. It's mostly about right place, right time
Bhaijaan, leave everything and start an AMA, this looks like one hell of a story!
Literally on the same boat. I did journalism, been a PM for 2 years now, approx same package and been considering ISB only for the reason that it’s been hard for me to switch to a different company. Totally looking to treat it as an opportunity to expand my career options.
Arts background and PM? Share ur journey
Marketing in an agency to product marketing in a smaller team (big company but small team), picked up some additional responsibilities, focused on a niche (zero to one and driving adoption primarily which needed heavy marketing and design lifting to which I was able to contribute to easily) and moved as a PM to a different company. And honestly, building relationships outside work, networking helped greatly. People were able to vouch for me when I was looking to shift.
You've already cracked the ceiling for most arts background folks in terms of salary. MBA won't really help much beyond this point unless it's a top tier college possibly outside India.
I have a contrarian view here - Yes, you should go for it.
My reasoning - I don’t know your current employer but product hiring managers have a bias “against” non-Tech education background PMs. ISB or IIMs (1 yr) can put your growth on an accelerated path. Possibilities of cracking tier-1 Product firms will be higher. In terms of compensation growth, don’t expect too much. But 4-5 years is a sweet spot for MBA.
Is 1 yr comparable to 2 year?
Absolutely not
Not in India. I don’t think so. The cost benefit is skewed but it can definitely help in changing industries or moving to FAANG when they start hiring again
ISB does not offer MBA degree
Do you have an admit? If yes, then give it a shot. Because of your background you can ask for scholarship as well (20-30%)
If you don’t have an admit, then it’s not about whether you should go to ISB first but more like how to get in ISB ex GMAT, essay, interview, etc.
ISB wont help you grow in anyway. If it is the network you want feel free but you’d need to be open to the fact that you might end up with similar pay post the course.