<p>woah, thanks for all the info sakky, are you a Industrial Engineer yourself? Again thank you for your help.</p>
<p>Thanks
Eric</p>
<p>I have read some Industrial Engineers daily life online but is anyone here able to tell me how an Industrial Engineers life is like. Do you enjoy every moment of it etc?</p>
<p>Both of my parents were IEs and absolutely loved it. My dad used to do consulting around the world, dealing with setting up factories and large public works projects. He actually spent so much time in the USSR he had buddies in the KGB from being arrested so many times thinking he was a spy. :p</p>
<p>My mom has worked at smaller local companies (two kids to take care of), and enjoys what she does, but I know her big piece of advice for an IE is to either work at a company that's growing or is already large. Working at smaller companies you tend to run into a wall at a certain point where your higher ups get tired of you constantly wanting to change how things are run. She does like the more personal aspect of knowing everyone in production and all that jazz.</p>
<p>I'd probably have done IE if I wasn't as much of a pure-science person as I am.</p>
<p>
[quote]
woah, thanks for all the info sakky, are you a Industrial Engineer yourself? Again thank you for your help.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm not an IE, but I "play one on TV". Heh heh.</p>
<p>More seriously, I know many people who have degrees in IE or its other nicknames (i.e. operations research, management science, systems engineering, etc.) They seem to have very good and exciting jobs - in many cases, more exciting than many of the people with traditional engineering degrees.</p>
<p>I'll give you one example. I know a guy who got a job with Apple who works on the international supply chain procurement for the Ipod. All of the Ipod components are manufactured by Asian subcontractors and he is on the team that effectively 'choreographs' the workings of those subcontractors (i.e. to make sure that the correct number of Ipod cases are produced to equal the number of Ipod screens, and that the sizes and colors of those cases are produced in the right ratios to meet customer demand, that quality is being upheld, etc.) So what that means is that he spends probably 75% of his time traveling throughout Asia to meet with those subcontractors and oversee their manufacturing facilities. Note, this is a white guy who speaks no Asian languages. Yet he has a job that allows him to develop extensive experience working in Asia. As the world's economy continues to globalize, that international experience he is obtaining - which is very cool unto itself - will undoubtedly be of value later in his career. Plenty of firms now and in the future will place a premium on people who have experience in dealing with Asian procurement. </p>
<p>Now, to be fair, that's just one guy. Obviously not all IE's get cool jobs like that. In fact, I would say that the majority won't. But it does show what is possible.</p>
<p>Heh. Is OR a dying field? I just hired three OR analysts for my division. We had to advertise three times to get people with the proper background. The BLS does not come CLOSE to describing the outlook for OR-degreed professionals. </p>
<p>Check out salary.com for an analysis of OR analysts' salaries. I find the results accurate, and it fits with the job offers I just signed. </p>
<p>OR is a highly-demanded skill-set, made more valuable by the elimination of several academic programs labeled 'Operations Research'. Take my word for it: the faculty does not understand the demands of the real world and reacts mostly to what high school students say they want to major in. </p>
<p>Close analogs to OR include: Systems Engineering and IEOR. But the government 'series' for OR, 1515, always has the most and the best jobs. I don't believe there is a federal job series for systems engineer.</p>
<p>And, in case you were wondering, I love my job.</p>
<p>Great information sakky and redbeard. redbeard, do you know what advancing positions they get?</p>
<p>I'm not sure I know what you mean. What are advancing positions? These folks are operations research analysts, and might become supervisory operations research analysts, but they will still be well compensated and in demand as just experts.</p>
<p>Is Operations Management major similar to Operations Research or IE, and do they offer the same job prospects.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Where are the good industrial engineering departments located?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Engineering Specialties: Industrial/Manufacturing
New! Ranked in 2007*</p>
<p>Rank/School Average assessment
score (5.0=highest)
1. Georgia Institute of Technology 4.8
2. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 4.5
3. Pennsylvania State University–University Park 4.2
University of California–Berkeley 4.2
5. Stanford University (CA) 4.1
6. Northwestern University (McCormick) (IL) 4.0
Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN) 4.0
8. Cornell University (NY) 3.9
Texas A&M University–College Station (Look) 3.9
Virginia Tech 3.9</p>
<p>need more proof? look here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/382751-usnews-2008-engineering-ranking-compilation.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/382751-usnews-2008-engineering-ranking-compilation.html</a></p>
<p>I consider IE the undergrad version financial engineering because it prepares the students for MFE. If you look at the average salary for FE, it's one of highest among all engineering majors (definitely higher than master's in ME or Civil E). A dying field? I think not.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info Mr100%. I also want to know an answer to dynst1988 question if Operations Management is Similar to Operations Research, or Industrial Engineering and if you get an Operation Research/ IE degree can you get into Operations Management since it is given in the business programs?</p>
<p>Thanks
Eric</p>
<p>
[quote]
I also want to know an answer to dynst1988 question if Operations Management is Similar to Operations Research, or Industrial Engineering
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some people (i.e. those in academia) will argue that they are different and distinct. </p>
<p>But I would say that from an undergrad level, the differences are negligible. They are essentially the same thing. Yeah, there are a few differences here and there, but nothing that most undergrads would notice. Only at the graduate level and beyond (i.e. when you're a professor) do the differences make themselves felt. </p>
<p>
[quote]
nd if you get an Operation Research/ IE degree can you get into Operations Management since it is given in the business programs
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Since they're all basically the same thing at the undergrad level, there is no reason why you wouldn't be able to do so.</p>
<p>Cool thanks for clearing that up. Redbeard and others, do you guys use a lot of Linear programing in your occupations?</p>
<p>Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I tend to look askance at any degree that has "management" in it: operations management, systems management, or engineering management. </p>
<p>Yes, we use LP for the occasional linear optimization problem. The world, alas, does not seem to lay such problems on our door any more. It's a nonlinear world, and a chaotic world, and a complex adaptive world. </p>
<p>LP, however, still has its uses. The thing is: we <em>all</em> know how to do LP problems. Often, we use the LP 'paradigm' to explain things to one another. For example, we have recently talked about:</p>
<ul>
<li>The conversion of a constraint to a goal function term when the problem is infeasible.</li>
<li>The use of the dual algorithm as a surrogate for searching for alternative solution methods</li>
<li>Sensitivity analysis is universal in our business. You first learn it in LP.</li>
</ul>
<p>I hope this helps. If some of this doesn't make sense, it will as you take more OR courses.</p>
<p>ttt</p>
<p>im an operations management major, and I would probably agree with redbeard. you learn a lot of ****, but I would say in IE and OR you're going to get a lot more emphasis on the mathematical modeling than you do with OM. That's not to say OM is a blow off degree though, it probably has more math than any of the other business degrees, its just not quite as brutal as IE/OR. </p>
<p>Honestly, if you want to go to grad school, I would do IE/OR or math/statistics. The reason is you can easily get into IE/OR or OM in grad school with that background, but if you major in OM, it'll be harder to get into IE/OR at the masters level (if thats what you decide what you want to do) because your quantitative foundation won't be as strong.</p>
<p>if anyones got anything else, please share</p>