Concern with being in Industrial Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

I am concern because my end goal is to build a company. Many people say that when it comes to build a company or startup, it all goes back to entrepreneurship. I have been feeling that as an IE, I would have less capability in creating tech or engineered products.

So, would it be better for me to change to computer engineering?

the trade off of changing would be my current program, IE major with specialization in software engineering and two minors in ECE and CS. (this looks like appealing to employers for my first few years of working experience). If I change, I would just stick with computer engineering. Both options would add one additional semester to my 4 year plan which I intend to take.

but my end goal is more of a priority building startup/company than how appealing the job demand of industrial engineers, and I feel like my foundation in learning the technical might be more important as the first step.

any advice?

2

A couple thoughts…
First, IE seems to me a solid background for starting a company. Typically you will have some classes on financial modeling and cost/benefit analysis. If starting a business is really the goal, it might be better to take a couple of business classes…accounting, business law, etc. even if you have a specific business in mind.

If you actually want the knowledge and can afford it, the extra semester might be worthwhile, but unless you really prefer computer over industrial engineering, I don’t think I’d switch majors. Thinking a little longer term, you might be able to do graduate work in either CS or OR with the IE undergrad/CS emphasis. Although I know that wasn’t the question.

3

that was helpful.

Do IE often take grad school in CS?
I was thinking of grad school in computer engineering but not sure yet.

4

The reason I ask because I want to have a control over the product in my business. I thought I would need the technical knowledge.

5

I think that developing a product is vastly different from running a business unless your product is management consulting.

Knowing something about s/w or hardware is hugely useful, but you’ll still need to know how to make a business plan, how to sell, and have some idea about depreciation to make the business work.

That said, graduate CS prerequisites vary by school. In general I’d expect they’ll want to see data structures, algorithms, and some coding experience plus a GRE.

This should be possible.