PETALING JAYA, 12 OCTOBER 2025

I was attending a Nuclear Forum organized by IMeche Student Chapter club in UNITEN, Putrajaya and I met Ikhwan Khaleb, a Nuclear Engineer working in the US nuclear industry. Before this I came to know him through his sharing in his Tiktok account @nucleartuclear

A1. Ikhwan: "Yes. It's highly dependent on the industry and what you want to take out of it. In nuclear industry, most design & analysis position requires masters/phd so it helped me tremendously to open the door of opportunities. 

What I also notice (in Malaysia especially), the higher your education level, the more people can trust you. And being trustable is crucial as it'll trickle down to other things -> increase in salary, bigger responsibility/roles. 

For me at least, it gave me a bigger sense of purpose. However, it also differs from people to people, situation to situation. Some can be just better off with a degree as the reward to risk is not worth it. 

So I'd highly encourage for you to take the bigger picture and go down the steps: Why do you want to pursue masters? Would it help me to get where I want to be? "

A2. Ikhwan: "Yes (if you are in the US). US really value MBAs. Not too sure about Malaysia but I believe that is not the main reason people do MBA honestly. People do MBA as they want to make connection. 

In MBA school, you'll meet like minded people who are thirsty for bigger things in their careers & lives. 

I have a who's doing his MBA and now in doing a startup here in the US while finishing his MBA. 

I have a friend who did his MBA and that helped him connect to the right person for his education startup. 

I would say, if you like the business & management side of things definitely go for MBA. I'd personally go for MBA too when the right time comes. 

Also imo, you'd reach plateau rather quickly in technical mastery. Sure you can be the best engineer in the field, but all in all, you're working with humans and to work with humans you'd need different set of skills and MBA can possibly give you just that. "

A3. Ikhwan: "I can totally relate to this. I'd say when possible, go for the countries that provide open door policy. There are still many countries that gladly accept professional immigrants. It might also seems daunting with all the news that we hear regarding anti-immigration, however, from I experience in the ground level humans are humans, and I barely feel any kind of discrimination. Legally, maybe yes, but not from day to day interaction with humans. If you are open to any place on earth, east asia/scandinavia provide a great start. I know Denmark is one the country that has loose immigration policy."