Well I am an MBA(IT)[+ Mechanical Engg.], and right now I am managing some 15+ people engg team. I can very confidently say that being an MBA has helped me a lot. It gave me an insight in being a leader and made my job of managing a engineering team easy.
However I started my career as developer and have spent 7+ years in developing complex systems. The one difference I could always notice was leadership/initiative distinction between me and other developers and I used to think why these guys are not able to manage their time and guide their juniors. Simply they were not able to think beyond code(I am not generalising but the pattern I noticed with obvious exceptions).
Counterpoint: I'm not an MBA but I have a BA in history and a MEng in Industrial, and I spent the first 5 years of my career as a programmer before moving into management. I steadily moved up and am reporting to the CIO and managing 115+ folks. As my old boss said, you can learn the key skills of an MBA on your own, but you can't learn emotional intelligence or how to lead without practical experience.
I'm not saying your MBA hasn't helped you. I'm just saying it's not a magic bullet (unless a company requires an MBA to get in the door). For most situations, just having a basic understanding of accounting & finance is enough, and for the times it isn't, knowing how to organize and lead a large multidisciplinary project is. That part's tougher and all the theoretical knowledge & case study readings in the world will only get you so far.
Agreed. MBA just helped me a bit, but I guess most of my career is a result of coding & sitting with fellow programmers spending nights and learning vudu tricks.
However I started my career as developer and have spent 7+ years in developing complex systems. The one difference I could always notice was leadership/initiative distinction between me and other developers and I used to think why these guys are not able to manage their time and guide their juniors. Simply they were not able to think beyond code(I am not generalising but the pattern I noticed with obvious exceptions).