<p>I am a Petroleum Engineering Major and after Undergrad I wanted to work for a few years then try to get my MBA in Grad School. I was told that I would be able to get a consulting job by doing that, but can someone explain more of what that job is like? Or other jobs I would get by getting my MBA.</p>
<p>Consulting is basically utilizing some broad based system developed by some business major from Harvard that is suppose to help companies find ways to save money, but mainly ends up in downsizing and huge bonuses. Companies become so blind to their operations that they hire other people to tell them what they are doing and why what they want to happen isn’t happening even though they spoke it into existence. Engineering + MBA is a good way to get into these positions. It’s a lot of traveling, hobnobbing, and speaking out of your arse to other people with their heads stuck up one.</p>
<p>That’s the general scene. Some are actually worth their salt, others just produce incompetent upper management. Hopefully your MBA will help you to discern the two.</p>
<p>My MBA has helped me to get out of general process engineering and into tech development and R&D. Yeah, you can get into this without one, but you generally need a MS or PhD, so I feel pretty lucky. My major goal is to start my own business (non-tech-consulting) and eventually work in venture capital. Thus, the tech development is a nice move, and the MBA helps me to not only manage the employees and contractors but also allows me to address the financial concerns of solutions that may apply to low margin industries.</p>
<p>You can make some monster cash in consulting if you are good at it. You can also be an incredibly unhappy person due to the schedule, especially if you plan to start a family while still a consultant. It is certainly not the right path for everyone. Personally, I detest the whole concept of consultants, as I think that companies ought to develop such expertise within as opposed to hiring out for someone to do it. That is just me though.</p>
<p>Ok cool. Thanks for the Advice. Also do better or more well recognized consulting companies hire you based on the better B-School you go to or is it higher salary? I was aiming for a Top 25-30 School.</p>
<p>With consulting, ranking absolutely matters. You may even want to aim higher than that.</p>
<p>Yeah, top 10 more like it, or even top 5.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the Advice. One more Question about consulting. What does the salary look like for consultants in petroleum and to Japher where did you get your MBA from?</p>
<p>I am a Mechanical Engineer at a big oil company in California. I work in a refinery. I have a BS in ME from Cal. At least in the company I work for, a BS in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering is a great starting point for reaching high levels of management. I’m not sure how it is in other industries, but in oil refining one of the biggest assets any company has is hard-won institutional knowledge and experience. The people at the top have to have a very good understanding of the actual processes and equipment in order to make good business decisions. </p>
<p>I personally have never been particularly interested in Business until recently. At some point after college I realized that with unlimited resources, engineers can design and build anything you could possibly imagine. But the filter between that potential and what actually gets built in the real world is money. No one is going to pay $1,000,000 for something if they don’t think it’s going to make them at least $1,000,001. </p>
<p>Once you see it like that, engineering decisions start to make a lot more sense. Unfortunately, engineers aren’t taught a lot of business skills or theory in undergrad. I still can’t believe it, but when I was at Cal (1997-2001) the ME curriculum didn’t even include STATISTICS! I mean, we got some statistics in various other classes, but I’ve never taken a Stat class. </p>
<p>Here’s what you could do: Get a BS in ME or Chemical Engineering. Maybe take a statistics class, accounting, some basic econ. Get an internship at a refinery. At my refinery I’d say we get 60-70% of our engineers from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. We also recruit at Cal and UC Davis. The advantage the Cal Poly kids have is that the program there is very practical and presents them with real-world problems and practice. Cal is much more theoretical, which I personally prefer. </p>
<p>Anyway, work hard, learn the technical side of it for the first couple years, and if you are interested in climbing the ladder and making business decisions involving more and more money, it will happen.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed many MBA programs offer several concentrations, suh as finance, general management, healthcare management, and others. Which concentrations offer advanced quantitative skills?</p>
<p>Masters in Financial Engineering is the quant arm of finance. I’ve been looking into the programs just last week. It takes a year and if you know some programming and have analysis skills, could be a good fit. </p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA have good programs as well as other institutions</p>
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<p>oilman, you hit the nail in the head here.</p>
<p>I realized this sometime around Sophomore/Junior year of undergraduate ChE program and went on to get an MBA thereafter…</p>
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<p>Very true.</p>
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<p>I’m surprised as well.</p>
<p>Two classes that stand out during my ME program were Statistics and Engineering Economics. Stats was invaluable in real life quality control situations. Engineering economics taught me the concept of compound interest and project payback and indirectly personal financial management.</p>
<p>Ultimately went on and earned my MBA. The combination of BSME and MBA is a formidable combination.</p>
<p>Redwing, I know it’s been a while since you posted, but I have a question about your degrees. My son is graduating with MBA + BSME and I am wondering what might be a reasonable starting salary range for this combination.</p>
<p>^ I’m just a student but I think it would be pretty tough to answer that question without knowing what b-school he went to (or at least a general idea of the rank) and what he plans on doing with the MBA (finance, consulting, management within an engineering company etc).</p>
<p>He is interested in management within an engineering company.</p>
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<p>Congratulations to you and your son! </p>
<p>Did your son earn a dual degree or did he apply to B-School after his BS? If a dual degree, his salary would be equivalent to someone with an MSME with no work experience beyond co-ops. If he had 3-5 years industry experience before starting b-school he could expect more. And then it depends where he earned his degrees, the specific industry and region.</p>
<p>My guess would be between $65k and $95k, but it depends on the factors above.</p>
<p>I was told that a 3.3-3.4 GPA and about a 700 GMAT will make me competitive with the top schools. I have also seen people talk about “Good work experience”. Would that be like taking the lead on projects or getting promotions? If someone could clarify that, it would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>
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<p>It is hard to say because each school will be different, but in my opinion (not to sound harsh) a 3.3-3.4 gpa is not that competitive. Sure engineering gpas are generally lower than most other majors but I don’t think a 3.3 will really stand out at top schools.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve noticed that many people in this thread (and other threads) refer to management consulting as “consulting”. I realize that the OP was asking about MBAs so this makes sense but there are consultants in almost all fields. There are many technical consultants in the engineering field without MBAs. A lot of consulting firms that specialize in technical problems have many engineers with MS and PhDs, not MBAs.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know that getting a MBA with no work experience provides a huge advantage. If you want to be an engineering manager, you will need work experience and you will likely have to prove yourself technically first. For entry level technical positions, a MBA might actually be a disadvantage if some people think it indicates a lack of interest in technical work. However, for other positions in sales or, obviously, finance or management consulting etc., it would most likely be an advantage. As I’ve said before, some people think a MBA is a golden ticket straight to corporate management. It is right for some people but I would say to get into engineering management, it would be best to work as an engineer and gain work experience and then pursue an MBA down the road if it is really desired. The fact is that I know many engineering managers and I don’t know one that has a MBA.</p>
<p>Not harsh at all. I appreciate the honesty. I just wanted to get a realistic picture of what is needed coming out of an engineering major.</p>