[jyl]

It's impossible to give a one-size-fits-all answer, but in general if you have a technical background but are looking to move into management or finance, an MBA will open doors and help break you out of the "engineer" stereotype. Look at the people who are currently where you want to be and assess how many of them have MBAs.

London Business School is an excellent school, in students, faculty and recruiting. Particularly strong in finance. I'd put it up against any US school. I spent a semester there, during my MBA program (Haas Berkeley). No idea about INSEAD or other European schools. The European schools typically don't have as much reputation or alumni network in the US, something you should consider if you want to stay in Europe.

You know that some schools are reputed to be stronger in finance, others in marketing, and so on. If you know what direction you're interested in, that's something to consider. (If you have no sense of direction, I'd get one before investing in an MBA.)

The NPV analysis is worthwhile doing. Currently the average new MBA is making about $97K (just checked the Berkeley website) and my guess is that salary, and the rate of future comp increase, is higher than the average non-MBA of the same age.

However, NPV doesn't answer everything. If you want to get into certain industries, you basically can't do it without an MBA - at your age and background.

Also, I found the MBA program a lot of fun. I went back to school after 13 years in the workforce, and enjoyed learning new things, meeting new people, and so on.

Finally, while an MBA from an unranked school is valuable, an MBA from a top-ranked school is much more valuable, and the cost of getting the two is pretty similar. There are many recruiters who won't even look at someone coming from an unranked school. They are making a mistake, in my view, but that's reality.