<p>My S wants to major in business and minor in possibly Civil Engineering. Will a minor in Engineering be of any use for his desire to do business management in an engineering company?</p>
<p>It could be useful, since you’ll have some engineering knowledge, more so than the other business majors. But do you know if an engineering minor is even possible at your school? The closest thing I’ve seen to such a thing is in UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business, where they have something called Engineering Route to Business.</p>
<p>I thought engineers were snobs to business majors, I would think an ‘engineering company’ would hire in-house or send someone back to school for business before hiring a business major with an engineering minor. Plus, I go to a school with a really solid engineering school and it’s pretty known that Civil Engineering majors have the hardest time with employment. I would think Computer Science, Industrial Engeering, Electrical Engineering would all be better options. Business students would usually have to take higher levels of math even for the minor in engineering too, in my experience…</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. My S wants to minor in engineering because he doesn’t wish to pursue engineering as a profession but just wishes to work in management in an Engineering firm. Penn offers Engineering minors and says “Students in the College of Arts and Sciences, Nursing, or Wharton may also pursue a minor in the School of Engineering.” </p>
<p>Great points both of you make about Engineering firms not hiring business majors to manage and also the info on UT’s Engineering Route to Business - I’ll check it out!</p>
<p>My brother-in-law is currently a engineer for a major engineering firm (boeing, northrop, etc). He started out as an circuit engineer post-college (He went to Cal and studied electrical engineering) and has been promoted two or three positions. </p>
<p>He works with a small(er) team now dealing primarily with satellites and aerospace but has some seniority over others who have just started at Boeing. Based on my conversations with my brother-in-law, a business degree will not get him any sort of management position post-college. </p>
<p>I cannot imagine what sort of company would allow a freshly minted graduate to manage any sort of firm considering they are not aware of the culture / business process and mechanics on a everyday basis. </p>
<p>I feel it’s best for your son to pursue engineering as a major and leave business to the side. That’s not to disregard that one cannot enter management at an engineering firm but he’ll have far more leverage with the engineering degree and working his way around internally.</p>
<p>There is room for lateral movement within a company and just because your son will have a engineering degree doesn’t necessarily confine him to such a position. I think that is a shortsightedness many students have these days thinking only of the position and salary that comes with it.</p>
<p>If your son can handle a full load engineering major he’ll be ready for the business world considering that engineering curriculums around the world are brutal and intensive. Currently my brother-in-law is seeking consulting positions with the US gov as Obama seeks to reduce spending on military. (He also finished his MBA program from Haas c/o 2011 with education supported by his engineering company. He undertook the MBA position as leverage for future promotion and for the various financial firms actively seek engineering majors and new MBA-grads for associate level jobs at investment banks, consulting firms, etc.</p>
<p>So you can definitely see that there is plenty of movement within a company and opportunity without necessarily sticking to one major for the rest of your life! </p>
<p>In otherwords you can say this is his step towards middle management. He has superiors over him and many more above him but see what your son really wants to do. Management is management and if he’s looking for any real exercise in power / decision making that’s more at the mid-senior management level.</p>
<p>If your son wants to work in a civil engineering company, he will need to pass the PE exam. This is really important for civil engineering and he needs an engineering major to do it. A family member worked for a west-coast civil engineering firm in management, and all the managers were engineers and very much involved using their engineering skills. A lot of their managers were people who had been given offers at graduation and climbed the ladder. </p>
<p>The non-engineers were all in back office roles like accounting and IT and had no chance of promotion.</p>
<p>Thanks you all! I have another related question. He did not take any computer science class in or outside high school. He wants to apply to UMich’s Engineering program. Does anyone know if UMich will still consider him? I know of someone who had not taken comp. sci., who was accepted at MSU Engineering, but not UMich. MY S has excellent scores in his standardized tests and lots of AP’s with excellent scores!</p>