I studied finance in undergrad and am now in my mid-20s. For the past couple of years I have been working as a corporate financial analyst. Think along the lines of FP&A – revenue forecasting, rate management, calculating/analyzing DSO, etc… not Wolf of Wallstreet stuff.
I finally want to get the ball rolling on an advanced degree but I’m at a bit of a crossroad with what to pursue. Getting an MBA would be the obvious route but while I was researching other options, I was attracted to the idea of data analysis and statistics.
A degree like this would entail learning programming tools like SQL, Python, R, etc and using them to extrapolate useful information from data using statistical techniques. I think the gist of it is essentially learning how to gather/import big data > polish that data > use statistics to find trends or other useful information > put that into charts/graphs and communicate findings.
I assumed that surely there is a business use for skills like this that are related to what I am currently doing in one way or another, but the more I look, the more discouraged I get. I really liked the idea of doing something like this because it feels like I would be learning technical skills as opposed to an MBA which seems like alot of interpersonal skills. I personally feel like the value of an MBA is diminishing while the value of knowing programming is growing exponentially. I enjoy what I am currently doing for work, but I want to advance my skills into something more technical.
Are these two fields applicable to each other? Does anybody have industry experience that they can share with me?
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**TLDR:** I work in corporate finance, enjoy it, and would like to continue doing it. Does a masters in data analytics and statistics make sense or should I do an MBA?