I graduated with my bachelors in electrical engineering about a year ago. I originally planned on getting a MBA right after college but I was fortunate enough to get hired with a power company during my senior year.
I have been recently researching mbas and grad school and its a bit discouraging. For example I’ve read, on-less you plan on staying with the same company, its not worth it if you don’t get into a top 10 school. Don’t get me wrong, i love my job and they started me off at 72k which is higher than what some of my friends got but the problem is, im in a small Texas town that i fricking hate. I plan on staying till i get my PE then moving to a bigger city.
So Im wondering, is it worth it to get an MBA or just go for a master in EE. I graduated with a 3.1 so i don’t think i can get in a top 10 school and I dont want to waste time on an mba program that wont help me later on. I eventually want to have a management position but can i get there without a mba?
If you want to go into engineering management (i.e. managing other engineers) than a MBA would be of no use. It doesn’t teach you the people management skills only the business side of things. There may be a class or two that would be of help but certainly not the whole set required for the MBA. The other side of that is that you need to learn the engineering side before you can reasonably expect to move into engineering management as that will be a significant part of the job. There are classes from the National Management Association that are geared toward teaching you the skills to be an engineering manager (they even have a certificate program that is recognized by many engineering companies).
If your desire is to reach the upper echelons of management then an MBA might be in your future. However, I’d wait a while until such a position is on the nearer horizon before attempting the MBA. Many times the company will pay for it and even provide a paid leave of absence for such rising stars.
If your desire is to just move into the business side of things and get out of engineering, then go for the MBA.
If you just want out of Dodge, then just leave. You can get your PE in the big city just as easy as in the sticks, I would imagine.
That depends entirely on what you are planning on doing with the MBA! A top-10 school is going to give you a solid shot at general finance, venture capital, and investment banking, and if those are your target destinations then yes, you need an MBA with a big name behind it. But MBA’s from hundreds of schools do just fine in more modest positions.
At the moment, no, not for MBA or an MS. But there are lots of types of MBA’s, and many companies send people for Executive MBA’s and those programs are generally FAR more interested in your career performance than academics from a decade or more previous. Career planning always needs to involve a sense of pace, if you slow down you may find you are in a much better position.
As @HPuck35 already noted, the MBA will not help you as an engineering manager. It can help you go into program management, but even they will want to see a few years of technical work under your belt. It can help you leave engineering entirely, but there is no return from that and not generally any better money (often worse!). If you want to be in engineering management then you will need some solid years of technical performance and an education that may be very informal, depending on the company. If you still want or need to get an education specifically to be an engineering manager then check our engineering management programs - they exist, and while I cannot vouch personally for their effectiveness they are at least pointed in the right direction!