I see when researching about a business degree everyone says to obtain an Industrial Engineering degree. Why Industrial Engineering? I understand its a blend of engineering and business but wouldnt it be better to specialize in a particular business area (accounting, marketing, finance) than to get an engineering degree thats meant for production, quality control etc.? From what Ive read Industrial Engineering is engineering that deals with finances. WWhat I see of engineering (and from what Ive read in job descriptions) it seems to be jobs managing warehouses, doing quality control in factories or managing other engineers on projects etc.
Also would it not be better to just go into what ever field you want to work with (banking, IT, education) then get into management side (mba, certifications etc) than go with an engineering degree
Do whatever you’re interested in. I have a Masters in IE, and thought the subject material was fascinating. These days IE covers all kinds of sub-specialties, so there’s a lot more to it than what you’re aware of.
But if you like accounting, marketing or finance more, go with those.
Well, that depends on what you want to do. If you want to be an accountant, it makes sense to specialize in accounting. If you wanted to do industrial engineering or operations research, then it might make sense to major in industrial engineering.
Industrial engineering is about the optimization of processes, systems, or organizations - supply chain, logistics, management, people, time, money/finances and many other things. Some IEs do work with finance but not all of them. Many IEs may do quality control or manage warehouses because a lot of the work is related to supply chain and logistics, and much of that work is in warehouses. But many IEs work in offices or with more white-collar kinds of workplaces.
I have a BS in IE. The descriptions in post 2 above are quite accurate. IEs make things better. A few things to consider - good engineers are always in demand. Salaries are steady. But you are almost always more valuable to your company in the technical arena. You’re probably not going to be the boss. I was often surprised at the guys that were mangers over engineers that were clearly smarter. If I had it to do over again, I’d probably get an MBA along with the engineering degree.
Also, at least in my case, I had very little business skills taught to me in college. If you’re interested in accounting or finance, you need to take additional classes in those subjects.
One last point, engineering is no joke as a major. It will likely be much more difficult than a typical business degree. You need to be a fairly strong student to get any type of engineering degree.