u/givemeamug

31M, choppy startup career, thinking about MBA - does this make sense or am I coping?

Long time lurker, first post. Would appreciate some honest outside perspective here because I think I might be too close to my own story to see it clearly.

Quick background: 31, based in London. Bachelor's in Business from a UK uni, then did an MSc in Advanced Computer Science at a top 5 UK school (not because I wanted to code for a living, just found it interesting and wanted the technical grounding for a PM job).

Here's the messy part. Since 2020 I've worked at 6 different companies. First job was Associate PM for 19 months, then somehow fell into product marketing at that same company and just kept doing PMM roles for the next few years, jumping between 4 companies at 6-8 months each. Right now I'm a Product Marketing Lead at a public fintech, and I'm actually moving back into product management internally as we speak, which is the path I want to stick with long term. No interest in going back to PMM, I feel like I learned what I needed to learn from it.

The reasons behind the short stints are all over the place and I know "it depends" is what everyone says before doing something dumb, but genuinely:

• one company overhired their whole PMM function then fired the entire department a year later and never rehired
• one company literally ran out of cash and stopped paying salaries
• one was just a bad fit, I left on my own terms
• the move to my current company was for the PMM Lead role that would've been stupid to turn down

So on paper it looks like a mess, 6 jobs in under 6 years, but there's an actual explanation for each one.

I've done a few GMAT mocks and I'm scoring well, so I'm not worried about that part. What I don't know is whether a good GMAT score can actually offset a resume that looks incoherent on its face. Does this read it as "unlucky in a volatile industry" or just "flight risk"?

Other things weighing on me:

• Age and timing. Realistically I'd start at 32, maybe 33 depending on the program. Is that already pushing it for a traditional 2 year MBA?
• Goals are honestly still a bit fuzzy. Two directions I keep coming back to are working towards a C-suite product leadership role, or pivoting into PE Ops (there are a handful of PE firms that specifically hire operators with a product background for portfolio company work). VC is the dream on paper but I know that's relationship and network driven rather than something an MBA unlocks on its own, so I'm not banking on it
• I want to move to the US longer term. Does an MBA actually make that meaningfully easier, or is that overrated as an immigration strategy at this point?
• Should I even be looking at a full time MBA now, or would I be better off waiting a few years, building a longer clean track record, and going the EMBA route instead once the job hopping is further in the rearview mirror?

On schools, given the profile, I've been looking at Oxford, Cambridge and INSEAD but I have a feeling those might be a reach given the CV. Not really sure how to think about the US programs, whether M7 is realistic or whether I should be more realistic about targeting the next tier down.

Anyone been in a similar spot, choppy early career but strong reasons behind it? Brutal honesty welcome