FS is a bit of a special circumstance -- you are expected to understand complex financial instruments well enough to write code around them, so a background in investment finance is almost required. There are few places to learn about investment finance outside of an MBA, so it&#x27;s almost a requirement.<p>And I can understand what Sandberg is saying -- it&#x27;s definitely not an explicit requirement; some people are great engineers and have excellent soft skills and can play that up into management. They can play the politics game well, and likely had role models who taught them the rules of the game.<p>But for myself, an MBA was absolutely necessary. I wasn&#x27;t ignorant about how to run a business, but I was completely unprepared for how corporate politics work. There are some things you can learn by trial and error, but the complex dance between operations, product, sales, and finance is something I didn&#x27;t even fully understand until I was working post-MBA.