I got my MBA before I got into IT. My undergrad background was in mechanical engineering, and I had little knowledge of the business side, so I thought the MBA would give me a well-rounded education, and it did. It was fun and I learned a great deal (I like to learn new things). For a while I had ideas about going into management, but like others here, I am very hands on and like building things, so sitting in meetings all day doesn't work for me.

I got into IT because of the declining manufacturing opportunities in this country. IT is similar to engineering to me in that I still get to work on technical things and build things. Having the business background has helped me immensely in developing business-related applications and databases. Also, project planning and organization, team building, cost-benefit analysis, marketing (got to sell your ideas to the business side) are all skills that my MBA contributed to.

Investment-wise, my MBA probably hasn't provided much of a return that I couldn't have gotten otherwise, but the experience of getting it and knowledge I gained was worth it. Not everything in life can be measured in $$$$ (although some people insist on doing it)...for some of us, that isn't the primary motivation for doing things.