Business school will cost you five years. Can you afford to wait?

(At risk of hijacking this thread) I'm a first-year physics grad student (so ~5 years to go, for a PhD), and I'm <i>pretty</i> sure what I <i>want</i> to do is software engineering, SV-type stuff, and I've been seriously considering quitting the physics thing for most of the past year.<p>Compared to business school in the post:<p>* I've got about 5 more years of school,<p>* school isn't costing me anything (I get a ~$20k/yr stipend; no tuition),<p>* I'm not enjoying myself at all (lots of hard core classes, required to pass preliminary tests in a limited number of sittings, boring city, boring people, boring school, no friends),<p>* the payoff is slim-to-none. I can't find evidence that a physics PhD is worth much in, say, software engineering. An MIT PhD student just told me he's heard ~$120k typical-ish starting salary in software engineering with a physics PhD (and he was trying to talk me into <i>staying</i>). That doesn't sound worth it at all! "Starting" salary!--if you don't count the 5-7 years of school (basically work).<p>I could go on, but I'm interested if anyone's got an opinion or some advice. It's a bit similar to the MBA decision.

I am the guy profiled in that article. I spent 5 years in "business school" before doing my startup. (1 year prep, 2 years of b-school and 2 years at McKinsey)<p>I have to say, though, that the overall experience is being very useful to me and my startup. I believe this is in big part because Kormox is an enterprise-software startup (pg says they are all about sales, and I kind of agree) - I've learned how to navigate corporate bureaucracies, I've built a huge network in corporate america.<p>I believe I can execute on this contrarian play - (all the cool hackers are doing consumer-oriented startups nowadays), with an experience/background that is helpful.<p>So while I believe that if you have a rush for an opportunity you should go for it no matter what, any experience is very helpful to build up unique paths for executing on plays that make the most sense for you.

The post is spot on but it skips a few considerations which must be highlighted. Specially if you are already in an MBA, like I was.<p>- I just was not sure what I wanted to do in life when I signed up for the MBA. The time away from active professional life at business school allowed me to figure out what really matters to me. Yes, I did get time outside of classes, recruitment, and parties for this self discovery. The exposure to some great entrepreneurs who came to speak at campus definitely helped.<p>- Once I had figured I wanted to be an entrepreneur, business school was actually not a bad place to get started. Stressing on the assumption that I was motivated enough to be focused - the support system for starting up does exist, and it’s not bad. My school had a program modeled after the YC program. I was still clueless so I helped a friend who was in the program: he is running his startup full time now, and is profitable too.<p>- Now on not losing the last 2 years part. My MBA was sponsored by my consulting employers but I broke the contract. I knew I won't be able to find any time to work on my startup while doing consulting. But this also meant I suddenly had a loan of the entire school fees. I cut down on my lifestyle, and I'm well on track to completely pay off the loan within 1 year (8 months since school, and I’m 70% done). And yes, my corporate job allowed me time to find an idea and actively work on it: I code with my partners; talk to customers; develop content; and we successfully tested out the demo experiment (and now dreaming of getting into YC).<p>So all in all, MBA can be helpful or can be made irrelevant. You don’t always have to wait.

Is it even worth getting an MBA now if you're a developer in silicon valley. I'm talking in terms of putting so much money out there for MBA and then is there a big difference in salary afterwards?

Not to detract from your central point, but someone is a native or fluent English speaker and can't get &#62;700 on the GMAT with a week (or less) of review, that person is probably not going to be a very successful startup founder, either.<p>Even 2 year opportunity cost makes an MBA a bad idea for a startup founder in a normal market, although doing one in a time like 2001-2003 or 2008-2010 seems like it would be defensible.