<p>Business Administration?</p>
<p>That's like saying what major should I do if I want to be President of the United States. But an Engineering Undergrad degree and a MBA from a top school will surely help.</p>
<p>MBA doesn't = CEO, while JD = Laywer, MD = Doctor. You have to work hard after getting the MBA to be a CEO. You are basically competing against everyone else for that 1 spot, you have to be a leader and be highly highly competitive.</p>
<p>+1.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to start off with engineering/science because the more opportunities you have, the faster you can climb to the top.</p>
<p>I have to say that a business degree is one of the most useless undergrad degrees out there because if you're truly serious about business you will go for an top-10 MBA school and someone please enlighten me what a undergrad business degree teaches you that you would not learn in a graduate business school?</p>
<p>^ LMAO @ going to a top 10 business school if you are serious about business. There are plenty of people serious about business that never get their MBAs.</p>
<p>Perhaps, you think he should take his chances by not getting an MBA at all...</p>
<p>What's hilarious is there are always going to be the people who bring up an exception...</p>
<p>MBAs from top schools who can get into management consulting have a better shot at landing a CEO job than those who don't, IMO. </p>
<p>Still, engineers probably have a better shot with an MBA than without no matter what school they go to. Mainly because more roads to the top are open for them. A finance major with an MBA will have a harder time hitting CEO through the CIO spot, but may get up there through the COO or CFO. An engineer still has opportunity with the lower E-suite spots until the start to develop their career.</p>
<p>Charisma, Flexibility, Determination, and Innovation = CEO</p>
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What's hilarious is there are always going to be the people who bring up an exception...
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<p>It's really not that great of an exception. Your posts on this thread make me think that you are isolated in a bubble, unaware of the "non-MBA" world around you.</p>
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Perhaps, you think he should take his chances by not getting an MBA at all...
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<p>There is no chance to be taken. The individual can make the decision to pursue an MBA after several years of work experience, and if informed, should have a pretty clear idea of whether or not it would be useful. Some people seem to think that they must be on a path to an MBA from undergrad, but the fact is, not everyone needs an MBA.</p>
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A finance major with an MBA will have a harder time hitting CEO through the CIO spot, but may get up there through the COO or CFO.
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Um...what do CIO, COO and CFO stand for? What does engineering have anything to do with being a CEO in business?</p>
<p>CIO - Chief Information Officer
CFO = Chief Financial Officer
COO = Chief Operating Officer</p>
<p>In this instance, CIO refers to Chief Investment Officer.</p>
<p>Oops, I forgot CIO could also mean Chief Investment Officer. </p>
<p>If your background is IT/engineering, you could find yourself at the top as the Chief Information Officer.</p>
<p>Being an engineer with being a CEO. I know an engineer who is the Senior Vice President of a major oil company. He has an engineering bachelors and an executive MBA from Columbia. He's two positions from the top in that company atleast. The president is ahead of him, then the CEO. Having an Engineering or even a science background lets you know the inside an out of a business. A better question for you might be what kind of company would you like to be the CEO of. You degree can dramatically affect your chances. Say you want to work for a nuclear company like Westinghouse. Well, look at their executives.</p>
<p>Executive</a> Biographies</p>
<p>Most of those guys are engineers, including the CEO. The CEO has a PhD in Nuclear Engineering.</p>
<p>Now look at Caterpillar for example.</p>
<p>Caterpillar:</a> About Cat>Corporate Overview>Governance>Officers</p>
<p>A good bit have degrees in engineering. Some even in education. A majority of them have degrees in business. The CEO has a PhD in economics. He's probably one hell of a number cruncher.</p>
<p>Chevron's CEO is a chemical engineer.</p>
<p>David</a> J. O'Reilly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia </p>
<p>Shell's CEO is a mechanical engineer, with a masters in econ, an a doctorate.</p>
<p>ExxonMobile's CEO is a Civil Engineer</p>
<p>Rex</a> Tillerson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>The previous CEO of exxon was a chemical engineer, lol</p>
<p>Hopefully, you are starting to see a trend, lol.</p>
<p>A lot of those Westinghouse bios have 3 bachelors degrees...how? on had a math, physics, and engineering bachelors. WHAT!?</p>
<p>No they don't; only one person had a triple major. The majority have Master's degrees (engineering/business). A few had doctoral degrees in engineering.</p>
<p>As someone has stated before, it depends on the company you want to work for. The companies mentioned above are all engineering related companies. You wouldn't see an engineering degree as often if you are looking at financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies etc.</p>
<p>okay so does this mean a business manangement degree is useless? im trying to establish my own business one day....so is it better to be an engineer</p>
<p>It depends what kind of company you want to start or lead. If you want to start/lead a financial company, then a money/business related major would not be useless.</p>
<p>Unless you start your own company and build it up, by the time you reach the CEO level, what you did in University will be relatively irrelevant because the amount o job experience you have. My dad has 15+ years of experience and his resume is so long that it is easy to overlook his education. I'm not saying it's irrelevant, but it doesn't matter as much once you reach that level. A major starts your journey rather than gets you the job.</p>
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Having an Engineering or even a science background lets you know the inside an out of a business.
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<p>It really depends on the company. If you work with a financial firm, you want to have a finance background. If you work in a marketing-centric firm, then your odds are higher if you have a marketing background. If you work for a dot.com, then the odds are better if you have a technology background. By contrast, if you are a marketing guy in an engineering shop, good luck (or vice versa).</p>
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but the fact is, not everyone needs an MBA.
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<p>Or knows yet whether they do or not.</p>