<p>So I have the opportunity to pick between majoring in Finance or some type of Engineering (either Mechanical or Industrial) at the University of Pittsburgh. I am very interested in both so that is not the problem. Working in something like venture capital, investment banking, private equity, or S&T all interest me, but these jobs are very draining with the long hours (Engineers can go into fields like this but Finance majors would have a hard time going into an Engineering field). With that said, which profession usually makes more $ and allows for a better lifestyle? I'm hoping to work for a few years and then go back and get my MBA from a top school. I've been doing a lot of research on the topic and have seen a lot of conflicting opinions such as "Engineering has better starting salaries but a Finance major's salary will surpass that of an Eng," or "Engineers have to work much, much harder for lower GPAs," which would possibly hurt my chances at getting into a top MBA. Also, I've read that engineers are disposable; they complete a project and then are let go. Is there as much potential for advancement in Engineering as there is in Finance? Sorry for the long-winded question, any insight would be very much appreciated! </p>
<p>All companies, whether engineering or finance, have a “pay for performance” type of raise structure. The better you perform at your job, the better promotions will come your way and with those promotions, better pay. </p>
<p>There is some that hire and fire that goes on within the big engineering companies, but the company will almost always find a way to keep their better performing engineers so they have a good pool to draw from for their next big project. If they are not expecting a next big project, then I wouldn’t want to work there anyways. That said, I’ve seen a bigger turn over in the people I know who work on the finance side of things (as opposed to the engineering side). Granted, I worked in big engineering, but that turn over that I saw also included many of my friends who were working for non-engineering companies. My company had many people getting their 25, 30 and even 40 year service awards. I retired after about 35 years with one company.</p>
<p>OP, you talk about what degrees you are interested in getting. What do you see as your career path? If you ultimately want to get your MBA, then I would recommend you go straight into business and don’t waste your time attempting engineering. As a former engineering manager, I was always looking for new hires that were interested in making engineering their careers, not someone who was using the job I was offering as a stepping stone to a different career. After all, college only gives you the fundamentals of engineering. Over 90% of the engineering knowledge I used on the job came from learning (and much self study) on the job. If someone wasn’t willing to put that effort into it, I didn’t want to hire them. I also didn’t want to waste my and my companies time training them. You can read some of my previous posts where I really rail against college applicants that had both engineering and business backgrounds. If someone mentioned (or I suspected) that they were ultimately interested in getting their MBA, they might just as well walk out of the interview with me. It was basically over anyways.</p>
<p>Bump</p>