How does a Software engineer get into business development without an MBA

MBA
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hi guys i am …as you have guessed i am a plain old software engineer who come by the dozen in this country where we celebrate nerdiness…of course engineers have been stereotyped as such but not without reason…people percieve that engineers a…

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hi guys i am ..as you have guessed i am a plain old software engineer who come by the dozen in this country where we celebrate nerdiness....of course engineers have been stereotyped as such but not without reason...people percieve that engineers are boring, verbally challenged, one who sees things in black and white, unable to make a conversation and certainly not able to get business for a company....this brings me to the title of my Qs how do i as a software engineer convince people at my company that i have the qualities/ atleast the potential to make it big in the business development areas of their business....certainly an MBA would help it would put to rest their worst fears that i will freeze in a presentation and maybe i have some understanding of how a business is run....and certainly i will learn the jargon and antics to get thru the interview......but then i feel what do i do if i dont have an MBA and still want to get into business development....your ideas and suggestions are welcome for an open discussion

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ok, i will keep it brief and to the point
"Take initiatives"

Thats right. Understand the entire project lifecycle and then start chipping in. I am not sure if you are in services or products, but in either case there are opportunities. Grab them !
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@hanu

Have you tried thinking?

K

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I agree with The Rock.

Take initiatives and start participating in them. But, always take initiatives that you are interested and luv to do. If you have no other passions in life then "Yes" you are a plain vanilla s/w engg. The mgmt role you can grab by growing within the company and showing interest but you need to come out as a well round person. This is not only for getting into a b-school of your choice but to make yourself an interesting person. Believe me you will feel much better when people start finding you interesting.

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@hanu

Have you tried thinking?

K

ROTFLMAO!!!
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Well...you come here for studies and don do that...you can get into business.

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I think you can votunteer to work on proposals for the pre-sales team. Initially it may me mundane work and there would be no onsite chances. But if you do well, you can slowly move on.

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The Raven Says
I think you can votunteer to work on proposals for the pre-sales team. Initially it may me mundane work and there would be no onsite chances. But if you do well, you can slowly move on.

another way is to do MIS. sounds old one but will get you the way you wan!!
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hi,
Let me give my 2 cents on this. I have done lot of thinking on this paricular topic 'S/W Eng--> Buiness Development' . My findings:
1. Industry and worls as a whole work on Perceptions and u have already stated what
general perception world has abt s\w engr. so the plan is to break the perception of the world abt s/w engr , followng are some of the ways:
(i) Do MBA
(ii) Do certifications (Like Proj Management Certifications from PMI- PMP or CAPM.
Business /Functional Certifications (Like CSCP -cert supply chain prof from APICS
etc.- These certification really helps to cahnge the perception of comapny towards you. I am telling from my own personal exp. i am also typical tech s/w engr but after
doing project mgt certification company started asking me for buisiness development, proposals making etc. (fyi i have 3 yrs of IT exp). I am now planning to give CSCP certification .

2. Reg taking initiatives its true you have to proactivel take initiatives but in practical world companies doesn't easily gives Buisne Develop activities to s/w engr.
One way to show you have skills for Businesss development is to get into volunteer activities outside your organization which involves proj mgt or business development activities and good news u have lot of volunteer opp available (for ex. see in PMI site etc ).

In last it all depends upon your will and effort to attain your goal. If you follow the above two def it will help you in recahing your vision and goal.

regds,
Himanshu


hanu Says
hi guys i am ..as you have guessed i am a plain old software engineer who come by the dozen in this country where we celebrate nerdiness....of course engineers have been stereotyped as such but not without reason...people percieve that engineers are boring, verbally challenged, one who sees things in black and white, unable to make a conversation and certainly not able to get business for a company....this brings me to the title of my Qs how do i as a software engineer convince people at my company that i have the qualities/ atleast the potential to make it big in the business development areas of their business....certainly an MBA would help it would put to rest their worst fears that i will freeze in a presentation and maybe i have some understanding of how a business is run....and certainly i will learn the jargon and antics to get thru the interview......but then i feel what do i do if i dont have an MBA and still want to get into business development....your ideas and suggestions are welcome for an open discussion
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Adding to what Himanshu has written, I would suggest if you are looking at long term prospects that you start working in a smaller company because you can easily outgrow the technical hierarchy sooner and jump to a business profile. Also with the boom in the number of Managers graduating each year and the industry itself becoming more sophisticated it is important that you arm yourself with some Management degree maybe via part-time or correspondence.