TL;DR — A technical degree is overkill for PM, but if you have a genuine interest and spare time you may find it rewarding. My technical degree helped me a bit in recruiting and it’s come in handy on the job a few times, but was exhausting.
What’s MCIT?
I came to Penn to get my MBA at Wharton. My first week, I attended a presentation about Penn Engineering’s Master of Computer & Information Technology (MCIT).
This program is for people with no Computer Science (CS) background and combines an undergraduate CS core curriculum with graduate-level elective classes. It’s an intense 2-year program and alumni usually go on to roles in Software Development and Data Science.
Wharton allows you to use some of your MBA credits towards MCIT courses so you can technically graduate with both degrees (if you hope and pray) in 2 years. So me, being the bright-eyed new 1st year MBA interested in health tech thought it would be a good idea.
Below are some questions I typically get about pursuing the program.
When did you apply to MCIT? What was the course schedule like?
I took one of the intro core classes (CIT 590) during my 1st semester at Wharton to see if I liked CS classes, but didn’t apply to MCIT until November of first semester. I had to take the GRE but found prep minimal after taking the GMAT. After being officially accepted to MCIT, I took three MCIT classes for each of the three semesters afterwards, for a total of 10 credits. MCIT has six core classes and four elective requirements. Two of those electives can be Wharton (or non-CS) classes as long as they’re approved by MCIT for being relevant to the MCIT degree (usually they’re quant-y / analytics Wharton classes).
How easy was it to balance the MCIT with everything going on at Wharton (clubs, academics, social events, etc.)
It was extremely difficult and at times felt impossible. You are 100% going to sacrifice some social events, academics, and clubs. MCIT was anywhere from 20–40 additional hours of class and work per week. That being said, I was involved in a few lower commitment clubs (Wharton Digital Health Club, Wharton Asian American Association) and went to a few social events per week. Non-MCIT academics probably suffered most as I often missed Wharton classes or was too tired to fully engage due to late nights finishing CS problems sets. I also went to very few recruiting events since I was mostly doing my own recruiting for tech / health tech. Whenever I was doing anything non-MCIT, I was likely thinking about MCIT.
With MCIT, did you feel like you missed out on taking other electives at Wharton that would have been beneficial?
You don’t really get to take many non-MCIT / non-major courses if you do the dual degree. Your focus on all Wharton courses will be sacrificed since you’re doing your MCIT problem sets all the time. I don’t necessarily feel like I missed out a ton but I also probably don’t know what I missed out on. Of the Wharton classes I took, I found my major (healthcare / HCM) classes to be most relevant to my job now anyways. I was also an Econ major in undergrad and did consulting pre-Wharton so some of the Wharton course load may have been covered by those experiences. Of the few non-HCM/non-MCIT classes I took, one that stands out is Influence with Cade Massey.
What were the benefits of MCIT? Drawbacks?
The main benefit is you have a foundational understanding of computer science (which may help you feel more confident speaking with engineers) and send a strong signal of your tech interest to recruiting. Something else to note is the MCIT professors are really great and passionate about teaching (not just about research), often going the extra mile to make sure students understand the material. Also the material is truly interesting — like how cool is it to learn about machine learning and neural networks and build things with code?? The main drawback of MCIT is that you are stressed all the time because you are doing problem sets and have to constantly tradeoff clubs/academics/social activity with passing your MCIT classes.
How important is the technical degree in recruiting for product management roles at tech companies? Could you get a role like yours without the MCIT?
I wouldn’t do MCIT just because you want a PM role — it’s not worth the amount of work. Having a technical degree does not guarantee you a PM job and many MCIT students struggle to get PM roles since it’s a technical degree for aspiring engineers/data scientists. I would do it because you truly like the subject matter and are passionate about learning CS. Many Wharton MBAs transition into PM without a CS background. It’s never a requirement and usually a nice to have. As I talk about in Transitioning from consulting to PM: why, how, and the aftermath, my industry experience, PM (or product-adjacent) internships, and MBA experience were much more important for my job search.
Do you think MCIT was important in getting your job at Google Health specifically?
I think MCIT helped at Google specifically because so many Google PMs have an engineering background. The engineering degree was a strong signal to recruiters/interviewers that I understood tech and was passionate about it. Note: I’m not a recruiter, so I can’t say for sure. But again, you shouldn’t get a whole technical degree JUST because you want to be a PM at Google specifically: it’s not worth it and there are too many other PM jobs.
Do you think you use your MCIT degree on-the-job?
From my experience, the PM role is mostly a business role. The most valuable thing I can do for my team is define a useful product based on market conditions and user research and help the team execute. MCIT definitely makes it easier for me to understand technical concepts, but that’s not the most important part of my job. In addition, I could probably learn whatever technical concepts I needed to on-the-job fairly quickly if need-be.