<p>I am just wondering why some of you chose engineering. Is it because that you are genuinely interested in it or is it because of how "safe" the degree is. Because I feel like business degree and engineering degree will earn around the same but business degree isn't as stressful to graduate it. </p>
<p>I wanted to produce something, not just shuffle papers all day. I love driving around town and seeing “my” buildings. </p>
<p>Safe? Look at the attrition rates of engineering vs. business, how safe is that? Also, some business degreed people can make what engineers make, but there are a lot of business majors that are absolutely not making that either. My cousin is a BSBA from UNC Chapel hill, we all graduated from there in 07. He went back for his MBA in 2012 and then he was making in the mid to upper 60’s after 5 years of working. Engineers can make that right out of undergrad. </p>
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I had no idea that engineering was “safe”, I got into it because I considered it interesting.</p>
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You feel wrong. The average person with an engineering degree will noticeably out-earn someone with a business degree, although there are more opportunities for business majors to move into the “filthy stinkin’ rich” income range. Check BLS listings and job listings - engineers make more.</p>
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<p>They don’t earn the same for everyone. It’s a lot easier to get a good job after being a mediocre/poor engineering student than it is for a mediocre/poor business student. Among the good but not exceptional graduates, yes, they’ll earn about the same in a week, but the business major will work 70 hours in that week and the engineering major will work 40 hours. </p>
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Regarding the salary difference, if you mean undergrad degree in business vs engineering, there is no question that engineering has a significantly higher median starting salary and mid career salary. However, if you mean MBA vs MS in engineering, then MBA probably has the salary advantage.</p>
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I wouldn’t recommend joining either field just because of the salary or how “safe” the degree is. You also should think about how you want to spend half your waking hours on weekdays. At some companies in both engineering and business, it’s common to spend far longer hours as well, with work on evenings/weekends. If either field makes you miserable, it probably is not going to be worth the increase on your paycheck. I’d recommend focusing more on what you want to do with your life than what has the highest salary or is the safest.</p>
<p>I have a masters in both an engineering and business related field. I chose to pursue a day job in engineering rather than business because I truly enjoy my field of engineering, with being able to creatively design tech and see my ideas come to life, solving challenging problems in an almost purely deterministic environment (for example, computer simulation vs medical diagnosis), and a flexible schedule including being able to take breaks in my day for things like posting on this forum every now and then. I’ve never tried to get out of engineering and into business management because I dislike managing, particularly management meetings. I’d rather be solving/designing than managing someone to do solving/designing. The business side more relates to interests in start-ups and related culture. I started a successful Internet company as a hobby, which grew to be a bigger source of income than my day job in engineering. There are many possible ways to make a good living besides having someone pay you a steady weekly paycheck. My engineering job has a decent salary, but it’s not even in the top 3 highest income sources I have had in my lifetime. None of the top 3 are traditional jobs with a consistent salary. </p>
<p>I have a B.S in Economics and I chose to get a 2nd degree in Engineering because I was working in IT and the technological aspect of my job always fascinated me. </p>
<p>So, I would say 30% Money/Stability, 30% Challenge and 40% Intellectual Curiosity.</p>
<p>I don’t regret not going for Engineering the first time around because Economics literally changed the way I look at the world but I feel like Engineering is the best bet if you are looking for a “real education”</p>
<p>Yes, it is not fun sometimes, it can be painful, stressful and somedays you will just want to give up BUT when I look at my problem solving skills, they have gotten so much better.</p>
<p>I participated in a group project with 3 other students, one was in Marketing, and the other two were in Business. When we started to solve the problem, I felt like I was on my own, these people lack basic problem solving skills and don’t even know how to approach a problem.</p>
<p>I had a similar experience working with two other Industrial Engineering students and we solved a complex problem in less than 30 minutes.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the best route to take is undergrad Engineering/CS then MBA. You get the best of both worlds. Financial stability through engineering and nearly limitless opportunities to increase your salary well over 6 figures with an MBA.</p>
<p>Only if you go to a top school. A whole bunch of my colleagues attended night classes at a respected MBA program near work, very respected in fact. Only one is a manager. The rest are peons like me. The idea that an engineer with an MBA is a license to print money is outdated, especially with a common MBA. Get a top MBA and that’s a whole different story…</p>
<p>An MBA for an engineer wanting to become an “engineering manager” is worthless. The MBA teaches you a skillset that is focused on the business side of the company not the engineering management side. To become an engineering manager you need to learn budgeting, planning, scheduling and above all how to “manage” people (i.e. the people skills). You don’t to learn about global finance, banking, economics, etc. that is part of the typical MBA program. That’s not to say that you can’t find a role within an engineering company for an engineer with an MBA, it is just quite a career shift to move over to the dark side.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a MBA is for the most part, a worthless degree. I would not waste my money on one unless my employer was paying for it.</p>
<p>There is a trend at my school (Iowa State) to push a lot of the recent Industrial Engineering graduates to stay another year and a half to do the BS/MBA combo. I really think it is a waste of time and money</p>
<p>I worked for a Fortune 500 company and one of our top VP’s had a B.S in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State, no MBA or any other fancy degree. It is more about who you are, who you know and what you can do for a company in my opinion.</p>
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It depends on a number of factors, particularly on your position and if you choose to remain with your current employer or search for a new job that is a better fit for the degree. The 2013 Global Management Education Graduate Survey found MBA grads with under 3 years of work experience averaged a 107% increase in salary upon completing the degree, and grads with 3-6 years experience averaged an 83% increase. Obviously engineers with higher salaries would be on the lower side, but I certainly wouldn’t call the degree “worthless.”</p>
<p>From the engineers that I have know that have gotten their MBAs, the bump up in salary was small to pretty much non-existent. The new skills either didn’t fit their engineering job or they were transferring out of engineering to make use of the MBA. Those that went out of engineering went into marketing and got a little bump in salary. One of my contemporaries did that and for a while after his salary was a little ahead of mine. I went into engineering management and I quickly caught up and surpassed my friend. He then seemed to max out while mine kept rising. I even left management as the role of the manager was morphing into a job that didn’t interest me at all and went back to being a senior engineer. By the time I retired, I was making about 30% more than my friend in marketing.</p>