<p>I'm looking at Graduate school, debating between a MBA or Master of Engineering Management (MEM) or a MS in Engineering. (MSE). I do not know anyone that has a MEM degree and most in management have either a MBA, MS or BS and got promoted internally. MBA requirements are different, GMAT seems to be a standard requirement, where as most of the MSE and MEM degrees say either GRE or no GRE required based on letters of recommendation, CV and etc. and my 20 years of experience. I also have a Engineering Technology Degree, so for many schools options are not as open as they would be for a Engineering graduate, not really a big deal since my options due to working full-time are limited as well and a few will be Distance Education progams from reputable schools.</p>
<p>Personally I am leaning toward the MSE because it allows me to tailor the degree to my technical interests, while the other two MBA and MEM are a toss up on getting me into Management or more earning potential and just doing a basic job search I rarely see it listed as a requirement.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the others, but these are some of the core classes you’ll take as part of an MBA:</p>
<p>Corporate Financial & Managerial Acctg
Corporate Finance
Micro- and Macroeconomics
Marketing Management
Operations Management
Organizational Behavior
International Business
Corporate Law</p>
<p>Some popular electives may include a Negotiations class, System Management, IT Management, Price/Cost Analysis, and Entrepreneurial Studies.</p>
<p>Basically an MBA teaches you how to either start and run your own firm, or how to help run someone else’s firm (or a public company…). It presents quite a broad range of knowledge.</p>
<p>OP, you say nothing about either your ambitions nor your experience. Do you want to be in management, and where? Are you fresh out of college (or still in), or have you been in industry a while? Some of those degrees can be toxic to a career if you take them at the wrong time or try and use them in the wrong place, so the details really matter.</p>
<p>The MBA would be used to (hopefully) enable a career change. For example, a move into management, finance, or consulting. If you have been in the workforce for 7 to 20 years, this is a typical path to follow.</p>
<p>The MSE would reinforce your current career (improve your credentials). This is a significant upgrade over a Engineering Technology Degree.</p>
<p>The MEM has more limited (in scope) use, and is used to reinforce a role in management (engineering or not). It’s advantage is often time and money (and lower admission requirements). </p>
<p>I have 20 years of experience in my field. I could have went into Management a number of years ago but turned down the role since I felt I would lose my technical options at the time and be burdened with the typical management responsibilities and some of my friends who got into Management seemed to have lost their technical edge and became pigeon-holed when the job didn’t pan out or last too long. Management roles seem to be a internal promotion type of occurrence from my experience, often awarded to many who have little to no experience in managing people. So the reasoning behind my choices.</p>
<p>Just doing random job searches, I do not see a MEM listed too often if ever as a requirement or desired trait, but I read that the reasoning might be that’s it’s a relatively new option to a MBA which is the historical choice.</p>
<p>This is the only real detailed difference I have found, but I have yet to locate anyone who can speak from experience if the “Career Goals” are a reality with a MEM?</p>
<p>Would the MSE degree be in a specific engineering field? If you are 20 years removed from college, I think the MSE would be the most difficult for you, and would take the most time, in part since your degree is in Engineering Technology rather than Engineering. If that is the most interesting to you, it would be worth investigating further, to see what schools might be possibilities, and how long it would take to complete a degree. Would you go part-time while working or full-time?</p>
<p>What is your goal in getting a graduate degree? You say you have had at least one opportunity to move into management in your current field. You probably wouldn’t need a graduate degree to get another management opportunity. </p>
<p>An MBA would be the most likely to open very different career paths, potentially in a completely different industry. It all depends what career path you are interested in. </p>
<p>Well, the three degrees are for three different paths. The MSE will improve your technical chops and help you to be a better and more successful engineer, but may be the most difficult to actually complete. The MBA will provide the most skills for dealing with customers and the pure business aspects of running a business, and will be mostly useful if you want to leave the technical side behind. The MEM will walk the line between, focusing on the inner workings of the company, specifically those dealing with personnel and internal project management.</p>
<p>The MSE would be in Engineering and tailored to a specific technical emphasis. Not a MSME per say but containing elements of it, though I found some programs that seem to be in acceptance of my degree, many are specific on having a BSME which I do not have. </p>
<p>All of the programs are distance and made for working professionals, some say 2 years to complete others say longer.</p>
<p>Main reason for the desire to gain a Masters is personal, more so to broaden my skills and to have a sharper looking CV or possibly give me more ability to move into another sector, even with my experience I have found that many employers are now asking for MS degrees preferred.</p>
<p>I thought about a MBA for that reason, to get into something else but I feel I love my field and work too much to really want to leave it, I would feel lost in anything else personally, would not know where it would take me? Also the investment for a distance MBA or local university p/t program is easily over $60K+ Some of the MSE and MEM programs with excellent schools are in the $30-$40K range.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish</p>
<p>Hard to say, over my 20 years of experience working in both small start-up companies and larger corporate firms, I have found myself involved in all aspects, not just slaying behind a cube doing hard Engineering work. I just found as an Engineer your salary sorta plateaus after so many years, Chief Engineer is about it, and anything more is either a internal promotion or requires the MBA like you stated. I need to really think about this, because the investment in time and money is something I’m tossing up on return on investment. More so feel the MSE would give me a personal desire, where there others might lead me thinking what will I do with it?</p>
After 20 years, the only real reasons to get an MSE would be to either learn new technology or brush up on theory - depending on your current position, it would probably help you to get closer to Chief Engineer, but that may not be a big enough jump at this point to justify the work.</p>
<p>If you want to go management, then you would seem to be in a good position to take either of the other two degrees and make the jump. Depending on your company, you might be able to mix engineering with engineering management - at my company that is actually pretty common, with low-level engineering managers splitting time between the roles, and even higher level managers often take alternating engineering/management assignments. But all that depends on your having an interest in doing that kind of work!</p>
<p>Yes, I really have to think hard as I would still want to be a working Engineer regardless if I ended up in Management, that is still do Engineering, not just pie charts, time sheets, sit in countless meetings and etc. </p>
<p>I put off my Graduate degree due to the downturn and some other issues, was planning on it 5 years ago. My job requires that I stay current on technology, I’m looking at the MSE since it’s as close as I can get to a MSME with my degree, most jobs are asking for a Masters in Engineering as a 'Preferred" choice, trying to future proof myself and also indeed brush up on theory.</p>
<p>What University are you considering? Do you have any non-distance learning options? Personally, as an engineering manager, when hiring I would give less weight to a MSE degree earned completely through distance learning. </p>
<p>There are no non-distance options for anything I’m interested in locally aside from a MBA for working professionals, the degree would be identical to one obtained on campus and some have campus visit requirements, during the Summer and are not 100% online. </p>
<p>Some schools I looked at, University of Wisconsin, Purdue, UCLA, RIT, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech and etc.</p>
<p>I’m looking at good schools with creditable programs, not one of those online Diploma Mills, I asked the same question to others who graduated from the program(s) already some I contacted on Linkedin and the schools advisers directly, they said there is no worries about the degree being worth less due to being a distance program and actually stated it’s harder to do distance than on-campus for many due to the lack of face to face interaction with professors, classmates and having the campus resources to utilize. </p>
<p>If you weigh a candidate less, due to a degree obtained from a credible university via distance education, then I do not know what to say to that other than what’s the difference? Most of these are tailored for the working professional, I would love to quit my job and go back to school full-time, but that’s not going to happen. You still have to pull a 3.0 GPA and solid B’s in each class from what I looked at or you’ll be booted from the program, easier said than done for many. Especially if your burning the candle at both ends with a full-time job with drop of the hat travel requirements for projects. That shows devotion, just like if I was a hiring manager and saw an applicant who worked full-time while gaining his undergrad. I picture myself at a hotel in Germany during business travel on a laptop watching lectures and doing homework on top of answering hundreds of e-mails, spreadsheets and power point presentations. </p>