Very first question - what to learn?

I'm in the very beginning of my planning for studying and self developing and I need advice and help here. I'm a MSc. (Applied mathematics) graduated from Volgograd State University (Russia) in 1994 and have about 7 years of experience in various positions in IT. Lately I've been hired by a well known (almost the biggest) international company as a solution consultant and this position is just fantastic! First time I got a job such as I don't think about my next job dreaming how better/interesting/challenging/promising/whatever it could be! I love my current job and hope enjoying it in the future as well.
But nevertheless I always think about self development and growing from a professional point of view. I forgot to mention that besides the degree I've got a lot of technical certification and learned tons of new material so from a technical point of view I'd say I need no special education (or at least I know how I can accomplish and achieve whatever I'll be willing to do in the future). Here I'm getting closer to the point of my question. I guess to be able to claim for some high positions (CIO, CTO, VP of technology) in the industry I need to enlarge my knowledge by non technical areas. First idea came to my mind is MBA. And here is my first request for advice:
1. Is there any option to MBA? I mean to get another master degree that adds real knowledge and has a CV value behind itself.
Another question is about preparing to a top MBA school.
2. Assuming that a top MBA school is my choice how can I improve my chances to be accepted there? Probably to take BA in business or psychology or in a more exotic realm like "Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management"? I estimate I have 3-4 years before undertaking MBA. How to best utilize them to prepare?

I have tons of minor questions that I'll ask after your answers that I hope will help me be more specific and concrete.

 

hello...
you are welcome to this fantastic forum..

from my point of view I think that going back to take a BA degree is time consuming.
REMEMBER that one PH.D degree is fatter than three masters although the 3 masters may be richer in content and value.
u asked for advice ..here u r :
YOU LIVE ONLY ONCE.
DO ONE THING AT A TIME.
best of luck

 

There has been a lot of discussion here (and else where) on the topic of the value of an MBA versus another option (usually an MSc. in a business are). The answere always comes up "it depends".

It used to be suggested that you look at the degrees of the peoples whose job you would like to have and follow their example. The problem with this is that what they did was 10 years ago, and what you are looking at is 10 years from now.

Now for my advise:

1. An MBA would not hurt, they are plentiful, and fairly inexpensive. Unless you plan to work in the hihg end financial arena (i.e. Wall Street) a top of the line MBA is probably not worth the money.

2. An Engineering or Technology Management degree would probably be worth more (especially as you are targeting a technology managent position (CIO, CTO, etc.)).

3. since you already have a masters and experience and skills in your field, do not back track, go forward.

Specifically look at: http://web.indstate.edu/consortphd/

 

This is not my field, but I would agree with Mike. A friend of mine was in a similar position, and obtained a Master's in Technology Management at University of Pennsylvania (part-time, but not DL). This seems to have worked well for him and he has rapidly moved up in IT management. He tells me that for someone in his position (mid level manager with about 10 years experience), he thinks the MTM was a better choice than an MBA. (Though I suspect he wasn't really comparing his degree against a Wharton MBA, but rather against a generic MBA.)