Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

You might consider an MBA or an MSIA instead of an MS in Marketing. You can still take a lot of marketing courses, and you can gear your job search efforts (after you get the degree) at Marketing positions.

The advantage is that an MBA will give you a better grasp of business -- the whole business -- and thus set you apart from marketing specialists who do not have an interest in moving into senior management. You'll also be a better marketer if you understand the basics of business.

(Full disclosure: I have an engineering undergraduate degree and an MSIA/MBA from a graduate school that specializes in teaching business subjects to students who have a technical/engineering/scientific background.)

I second mgoodman's suggestion: an MBA with a concentration in marketing is the way to go. Some comments on that:

1) The MBA known for its strong marketing orientation is the Kellog Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. The reason is Philip Kotler, who wrote "the bible" of marketing textbooks, and was for decades a professor there.

2) With a degree in metallurgy, take a look at M.i.T.'s Sloan School for an MBA. M.I.T. is very flexible (or at least used to be) about letting its MBA students with a science or engineering background double up to get a second Masters in their original discipline at the same time.

Both of the above are difficult to get into, and cost a fortune. However one can borrow, and one may also be able to find a company willing to fund it in return for your agreeing to work for them afterwards for xyz years. You will get a good return on your investment in this kind of elite MBA. Use these two programs as benchmarks to compare other offers against.

3) Note that after you get beyond the top 20 MBA programs, you need to be careful. There are over 600 MBA programs in the U.S. alone. By the time you reach the bottom half, let alone the bottom ten percent, you may not get as much return for your educational investment as you hoped.

4) Therefore I would choose a school with a solid local reputation over a no-name in the U.S. There are some excellent MBA programs in India, and some good ones in Australia too.

5) If a top school really appeals to you, but you feel it is out of reach for whatever reason (your background, your finances), consider joining a consulting or advertising firm. Look for firms that will give employees a leave of absence, and help pay for, a graduate degree.
Ypu work for the company three to five years, get solid job experience on your resume, leave for the MBA, and take it from there.

6) If you take the long road (5) above, start communicating with professors at targeted schools long, long before you apply. Find ones doing (marketing) research in an area of interest to you. Try to provide them value, perhaps an India perspective on an article one is writing.

Getting to know a professor at a targeted MBA program some years before applying can be a major help in getting admitted -- especially if you came to co-author an article with him.

Regards,
JH