If You Want to Earn More Than an MBA, Pursue This Career

If you’re pursuing an MBA in hopes of earning high salary potential, you may want to think twice.

A recent US News article finds that computer science grads can earn more than MBAs.

“The demand for technological workers continues to increase while facing a limited supply – both are good news for salary,” Katie Bardaro, an economist and vice president of data analytics at the online salary database PayScale.com, tells US News. “When looking at early-career pay – five years or less of experience – a master’s in computer science beats an MBA in national median earnings.”

Based on PayScale data, an information technology architect with a master’s in computer science can earn, on average, around $134,000.

And while a large number of 2017 MBA grads earn higher than $100,000, only “slightly more” than half of b-school grads earn a starting salary of six figures, according to US News.

Greater Demand for Tech Skills

Charles Isbell is executive associate dean of the college of computing at Georgia Tech. In an interview with US News, Isbell says demand for tech talent is at an all-time high.

“Places like Google, Facebook and all the large technical companies are desperate for talent,” Isbell tells US News.

Isbell adds that tech companies value skills in computer science, data analytics, and machine learning.

“What we’re seeing in the economy is that we’re needing more and more people who can do these things,” he tells US News.

And the demand doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon. Tech employment opportunities are expected to increase by 12% by 2024, according to a report by Modis.

“A number of years ago, students used to regard computer science as an insular discipline and you only went into a computer science degree if you were really into computer science,” Borja Sotomayor, a lecturer and academic director of master’s in computer science at the University of Chicago, tells US News. “In the last couple of years, there’s been a growing realization that computer science and computation science is something that permeates to a lot of many other fields.”

Sources: US News, Modis, PayScale