A lot of people on Twitter have really strong opinions about grad degrees (MBA or MS). If you are a 25-year-old PM thinking about whether to do an MBA or not, just ask where you want to be by the time you are 40.

1/n

I did this exercise with someone a few months back, and his answer was Director at a FANG company in the US. He was thinking of doing a US MBA and then join a place like Amazon after graduation. I asked him to go to Linkedin, check profiles of Directors at Amazon.

2/n
Ignore outliers like someone selling their company to Amazon at 22 and then hacking the career ladder. Look at an average profile like yours. We all think we are exceptional/above average but we are probably not.

If you plot a graph, there will be people at the extremes.
And look at the middle.

Unless you are willing to take bets in your career with more risk than the average person, basically an alpha bet, mostly you will land there.

Also, remember that higher education is about optionality.
I was talking to a friend about why he chose to go for an MBA in spite of leading product at an early stage company. His answer was that if he ever wanted to move away from Product and take up a general management position at a non-tech company at 40, he should have that option.
Fair enough. I did not even know Product Management was a career option when I joined college 10 years back. I stumbled upon PMing because I thought I could be a strong generalist and it was the role that let me do everything I wanted around building products.
Who knows where the world will be 10 years down the line.

Don't make a decision on whether to do an MBA based on someone who did a BS from Stanford, made it big in the valley, is now saying education is useless.

Your circumstances are different. Your goal might be different.
You might not have the safety net to do 3 startups in your 20s and hope one of them makes it big.

You might even aspire to have an average balanced life. So do whatever makes sense based on a 20-year-old horizon, if not more.
I was talking to a friend about how if it was not for BITS Goa, I would have studied in some NIT, gone to work at ONGC Assam or something. Going to a college like BITS where we did not have to study and could pass out with a 6 CGPA meant most people spent their undergrad days
figuring out what they really wanted to do.

Hence whenever I see people shitting on colleges, I send them this: https://t.co/ZstkhoIdBj

You don't understand the importance of a college when you are studying there.
Only by looking backward and connecting the dots will you understand the true value of something. And I am saying this as someone who was pretty mediocre in college and passed out with a 6.7 CGPA and did not attend most of his classes.
So it is very easy for me to say "beh.. who cares about college..just learn everything yourself..read twitter..network online"

Funny story, after 2 years of working in Product I applied to an unicorn,
and the hiring manager told me that I should accept an APM role because I had only worked on smaller startups till then and he had people from bigger startups + IIMA MBA in his team as PMs.

The same happened 4 years later. I applied for SPM roles, and the hiring manager of one
the startups I applied to told me that I should join as a PM because he had IIM A pass-outs work as PMs in his could and he could not see how I could become an SPM with just 4 years experience in Product and without an MBA degree.
I got a much better role at Gojek with more money, but it has been a struggle all my product life. I had to work harder than most PMs in similar age brackets who had brand name MBAs or a stint at a bigger company.
I still won't do an MBA because I can't imagine being back at college hustling for more marks/more grades. Also, forego 2 years of salary and pay a big MBA fee. Plus studying for the GMAT.

And I think I can work hard and get where I want anyway.
But make this decision after careful consideration. And keeping your long term goal in mind. Not because successful people with survivorship bias shit on MBAs/MS.

Also if you see a VC on Twitter tell you MBAs are stupid, go to their firm website, and see how many
of their colleagues proudly talk about their Stanford and Harvard MBAs in their bios.

Also, see how many partners got their MBA from tier 1 colleges.

Look at data and not raw emotions.
Also, understand the underlying incentives of various people who you get your info from on Twitter. Understand what they are trying to sell.

Most people are for themselves. They probably don't care. They probably don't think about you at all.

/end
P. S I just make up these threads. I don't plan them. I rarely edit. My grammar sucks. I just write down whatever comes to my head. I just got triggered reading somewhere that Twitter will replace Stanford or something, and just had to get this out.
I also schedule most of my tweets in the morning. So apart from occasional threads like these mostly what you see are scheduled tweets.

(This is just for people from Gojek reading this thread. I work hard, I swear 🙃)

More from Education

Okay, #MAEdu, let's talk FY22 and the Student Opportunity Act: https://t.co/o1tgppGy4K


First up:

The FIRST year, Governor Baker?

This is the second year of SOA implementation: you're missing one.


So, are we going to do this in six years, or are we just going to kick the can ANOTHER year on kids?

Remember, school funding is builds on prior years.

We never get that missing funding back.


Also: what are the base numbers being used?

Is the Governor dropping enrollment, even though we all know that was an artificial drop?


There's a decent chance that a WHOLE bunch of those kindergartner and preschoolers are going to be back this fall if we manage to get kids into buildings, PLUS we'll have the USUAL enrollment of preK and K!

...and less funding than usual?

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#ஆதித்தியஹ்ருதயம் ஸ்தோத்திரம்
இது சூரிய குலத்தில் உதித்த இராமபிரானுக்கு தமிழ் முனிவர் அகத்தியர் உபதேசித்ததாக வால்மீகி இராமாயணத்தில் வருகிறது. ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயத்தைத் தினமும் ஓதினால் பெரும் பயன் பெறலாம் என மகான்களும் ஞானிகளும் காலம் காலமாகக் கூறி வருகின்றனர். ராம-ராவண யுத்தத்தை


தேவர்களுடன் சேர்ந்து பார்க்க வந்திருந்த அகத்தியர், அப்போது போரினால் களைத்து, கவலையுடன் காணப்பட்ட ராமபிரானை அணுகி, மனிதர்களிலேயே சிறந்தவனான ராமா போரில் எந்த மந்திரத்தைப் பாராயணம் செய்தால் எல்லா பகைவர்களையும் வெல்ல முடியுமோ அந்த ரகசிய மந்திரத்தை, வேதத்தில் சொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளதை உனக்கு

நான் உபதேசிக்கிறேன், கேள் என்று கூறி உபதேசித்தார். முதல் இரு சுலோகங்கள் சூழ்நிலையை விவரிக்கின்றன. மூன்றாவது சுலோகம் அகத்தியர் இராமபிரானை விளித்துக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது. நான்காவது சுலோகம் முதல் முப்பதாம் சுலோகம் வரை ஆதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்னும் நூல். முப்பத்தி ஒன்றாம் சுலோகம்

இந்தத் துதியால் மகிழ்ந்த சூரியன் இராமனை வாழ்த்துவதைக் கூறுவதாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது.
ஐந்தாவது ஸ்லோகம்:
ஸர்வ மங்கள் மாங்கல்யம் ஸர்வ பாப ப்ரநாசனம்
சிந்தா சோக ப்ரசமனம் ஆயுர் வர்த்தனம் உத்தமம்
பொருள்: இந்த அதித்ய ஹ்ருதயம் என்ற துதி மங்களங்களில் சிறந்தது, பாவங்களையும் கவலைகளையும்


குழப்பங்களையும் நீக்குவது, வாழ்நாளை நீட்டிப்பது, மிகவும் சிறந்தது. இதயத்தில் வசிக்கும் பகவானுடைய அனுக்ரகத்தை அளிப்பதாகும்.
முழு ஸ்லோக லிங்க் பொருளுடன் இங்கே உள்ளது
https://t.co/Q3qm1TfPmk
சூரியன் உலக இயக்கத்திற்கு மிக முக்கியமானவர். சூரிய சக்தியால்தான் ஜீவராசிகள், பயிர்கள்
Oh my Goodness!!!

I might have a panic attack due to excitement!!

Read this thread to the end...I just had an epiphany and my mind is blown. Actually, more than blown. More like OBLITERATED! This is the thing! This is the thing that will blow the entire thing out of the water!


Has this man been concealing his true identity?

Is this man a supposed 'dead' Seal Team Six soldier?

Witness protection to be kept safe until the right moment when all will be revealed?!

Who ELSE is alive that may have faked their death/gone into witness protection?


Were "golden tickets" inside the envelopes??


Are these "golden tickets" going to lead to their ultimate undoing?

Review crumbs on the board re: 'gold'.


#SEALTeam6 Trump re-tweeted this.