<p>Hey - I'm a current Industrial Engineering student, or an imaginary engineer as many of the users here would label me :-p.</p>
<p>**
what exactly do industrial engineers do in the real world?**</p>
<p>In the real world - Industrial Engineers (IE's) can fulfill a variety of roles. Traditional industrial engineering is focused on manufacturing. A traditional job would entail analyzing system processes and improving net efficiency/quality/productivity. These days, possibilities are very broad for IE's. Some of my friends are getting jobs in finance, and others are doing project management and consulting. Hell - I'm currently working in information technology! Unlike most other engineering disciplines, IE will give you a solid knowledge base in both business and engineering, expanding opportunities. Now while this is good, it also has harm. Because Industrial engineering is not as technical as the other engineering disciplines, you'll have a MUCH harder time getting an R&D position with a firm (where mechanical or electrical is preferred).</p>
<p>What type of classes would you take for it in college (more math classes, or science classes, etc)?</p>
<p>Well for me, I took 2 years of "core engineering," consisting of statics, a ton of calc courses, chemistry, physics 1 and 2, C-programming, computer aided design, and a ton of engineering electives ranging from mechanics to materials science.
After these 2 agonizing years, you take your industrial engineering courses, including Quality Control and Operations Research, and the ones mentioned by blu above. These courses are statistics and sometimes programming heavy. Industrial engineering courses also cover a lot of business material, such as accounting and finance principles. </p>
<p>how does it compare to mechanical engineering in terms difficulty?
what is the demand like for industrial engineers? how about typical starting pay?
say i wanted to get an MBA and enter business. which combines better with business, mechanical or industrial engineering?</p>
<p>Industrial engineering is definitely easier than mechanical engineering. However, unlike what many people would say here, it CERTAINLY is NOT A CAKE WALK! I put in about 6-7 hours studying every day at the library this past week (not a typical week, as I had 3 big exams, but it's still damned intensive at times). One of my good friends here is a mechie, and the poor guy is always stressed out of his mind with thermal fluids work and other boring courses.</p>
<p>Starting pay for industrial engineers (at my school at least) is higher than for mechanical engineers, but the gap isn't really that big. I advise you to not look at salaries. Both start you off decently - take the path that interests you most. If you want to do technical stuff, do mechanical. If you want an analytical engineering background, but you don't really want to do traditional engineering work, look more into industrial engineering.</p>
<p>As I mentioned previously, Industrial Engineering gives you a much better base of business knowledge than other engineering disciplines. It really doesn't matter for getting an MBA though, as equal proportions of mechies and IE's seek MBA's down the road.</p>
<p>Good Luck with your decision! If you have any other IE questions, feel free to PM me.</p>