Why MBA after engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
101

<p>I never said that you needed an MBA to work as a consultant, and, frankly speaking, you probably don’t. </p>

<p>But the fact is, B-schools are highly effective conduits for recruitment at the top consulting firms. Around 1/4 to 1/3 of the students at the top B-schools become consultants. Even at a highly tech-management oriented B-school such as the MIT Sloan School, the largest single employer of MBA grads in 2008 (the last year with full-time employment data) was not a tech firm such as IBM or Microsoft, but rather was McKinsey, who hired nearly 10% of the entire graduating class who was seeking employment. And who was #2? Bain. </p>

<p>[MBA</a> Class of 2008 Employment Report - Career Development Office](<a href=“http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cdo/class08.php]MBA”>http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cdo/class08.php)</p>

<p>Hence, while you probably don’t need an MBA to work as a consultant, you do need a gateway to consulting recruiting, and B-schools do serve as tried-and-true gateways. You can’t just wake up one fine day and decide that you want to interview for a job at McKinsey. If you want McKinsey, you have to go to where they recruit.</p>

102

<p>Does it make sense to get MBA after my MS degree? I am getting a MS degree because the job market isn’t great, i can get both BS and MS in 4 to 5 yrs and I do have the passion to still learn. </p>

<p>After working for 2-3 yrs, I want to get a MBA to get into a management position, managing engineers. But is it worth it? Will MBA, as you guys say, shift you to a banking or something totally finance. Maybe instead of getting a MBA, wouldn’t working in the same company for 4-5 years get me into a possible management position, with higher salary?</p>

<p>The reason this is coming up is because I want to keep my option of doing a phd open. Is it even feasible and sensible to go for a phd after getting a MBA and even after working for another 2-3 yrs? Will I become too old or too out of the subject matter? I have to admit the whole reason of fitting a MBA is the money and the approach of being safe and practical. Do phds today earn as much as a BS+MBA? Could I stick with BS MS phd and not worry about MBA? I fear the boredom of just managing engineers but I fear I may want more money and a fun life. I guess I am pursuing so many degrees because I am not sure of what I want to do but yet I need to safe option.</p>

103

<p>Brahmin: It is never too late to get any degree and for the most part - the more the merrier. I have a BSEE and after 2 years of work I went back and got a MSEE and after working another 2 years just got accepted to a part-time MBA program. </p>

<p>Here’s a few things to keep in mind that I’ve learned:

  1. if you’re wanting to manage engineers, a technical master’s or an engineering master’s with business emphasis might be best. Texas has a program I thought about at one point that looks great. It combines business principles with engineering course work. A lot of the time you can combine this with your undergrad without the need for work experience.
  2. BS engineering + MBA would most likely earn more money than a PhD. PhD grads do research for companies or for universities (or are experts in a field) and comand a strong/secure salary in some sense but not typically what a good MBA would make, especially if you can climb up the corporate ladder even a little bit.<br>
    3)Do what you want and what you think you’ll like/love the most. If you come close to any of those degrees you’ll be in a secure enough position to support a family and comfortable lifestyle pretty quickly. The good thing is that it also provides you with flexability to continue school or change careers as needed. </p>

<p>Here’s a true story: I had a coworker a while back that had a BS, MS, and PhD in engineering, and MBA, and was at the taking JD classes…all with a family and full-time engineering job. He liked school and was great at what he was doing but just couldn’t stop searching.</p>

104

<p>Hi
I’m just finishing my junior yr in Architectural Engineering at the Illinois Inst of Technology. I thought engineering was what I wanted to do, but after spending 3 yrs here, I’ve realized that this is not my thing! I am an international student and the plan was always to get my Masters degree and work in the US for a few yrs. However, I’m not sure what to do now! I want to work in a business related field. I know to do an MBA, you need a few yrs of experience so I guess that’s not an option. What is the next best thing? Masters in Finance? Masters in Mathematical Finance? I did really enjoy my Math and Economic classes in high school as well as at college.</p>

105

<p>^There’s also Master’s in Financial Engineering</p>

<p>Anyhow, I heard that there are sooo many people with MBA nowadays it’s not worth it unless you get it from a top 15 school. Is this true?</p>

106

<p>Then again, you do not need an MBA to become the CEO of a successful company (or a successful executive/management type).</p>

<p>Examples:</p>

<p>Bill Gates
Steve Jobs
Lee Raymond
Rex Tillerson
Henry Ford
John D. Rockerfeller</p>

<p>In my opinion, the notion that anyone can package a “business curriculum” that will provide students with the knowledge to make them “successful” businesspeople is dubious. One can learn more about business by actually starting a business.</p>

107

<p>Everything has a learning curve, business included. Engineers think that because they tackled some of the hardest topics that they are qualified to jump right into the saddle of running a business, this ain’t true. Many of those guys on your list are entrepreneurs more so than businessmen. They are also quite removed from engineering in the real meaning of the word.</p>

<p>MBA is just another set of tools/theories that really aren’t understand until applied. Similar is the teaching of engineering; worthless until applied.</p>

108

<p>I know that most of the good MBA programs want at least 2 years of experience before you apply to the program but what kind of work experience is desired? I’d think management but for pretty much most engineers they aren’t in any management position within 2 years of graduation, so what are their options?</p>

109

<p>

You’re looking at it the wrong way I think. It’s not that engineers go through engineering to be businessmen, it’s the notion that anyone who can do engineering is smart enough, intuitive enough, and resourceful enough to be successful in business. Yes you can call them engineers, entrepreneurs, whatever, but the fact is that they’re just smart people, and smart people thrive in more than one field. Everything has a learning curve, what people are saying is that you have to be intelligent to succeed in engineering, and if you are intelligent than it must mean you have the ability to learn well, which is key in business.</p>

110

<p>I completely agree with hadsed. Keep in mind that engineers work in many areas of business but it does not work the other way around. Business majors can not work in engineering. I know several engineers that earned MBAs and they all agree that level of difficulty of a MBA is not even comparable to an undergraduate engineering degree. People with engineering degrees can be found at all levels all the way to the top of large companies. Even though many high level managers with an engineering background might eventually get a MBA, their job performance, intelligence, and technical skill are mainly responsible for their career advancement. This is why engineering degrees are highly regarded throughout companies. Just because an engineer has a MBA doesn’t mean they will automatically become a CEO. Engineering degrees carry more weight than business degrees for many management positions.</p>

<p>As hadsed said, if you are smart enough to succeed in engineering you are likely smart enough to manage people and handle non-technical responsibilities.</p>

111

<p>Don’t really agree with that fellas. I think it takes a certain personality and skill set to succeed in management, and business in general, maybe even more so than raw intelligence. You can succeed in engineering being an insecure anti-social book worm, doesn’t mean you can manage anything.</p>

112

<p>No one is going to argue that there aren’t engineers that fit the category you are describing. There are also business majors that fit this category. There are people in every profession that fit this category. Obviously, every engineer is not cut out to be a manager but niether is every person with a MBA. The point I’m making is that some people can handle the challenge of business and management responsibilities. If you can succeed as an engineer, it is likely that you posess the intelligence to learn management and business techniques. Just because you have a MBA it doesn’t mean you are suddenly capable of managing people. My point is that an engineering degree requires much more analytical thinking than any business degree and that in many ways the engineering degree carries more weight. Every engineer I know with a MBA will agree.</p>

113

<p>I can’t care to read 9 pages but can someone give some advice on getting my mechE degree and business degree from Carnegie in 5 years? I’m not much of a business person myself, so I probably won’t, just wondering if it’d make getting into an engineering management job easier. It’s not right after, it’s right during.</p>

114

<p>You are a very wise person.</p>

<p>Good advice to anyone in college now would be very careful what you wish for from corporate America - the good old days are longgggg gone.</p>

<p>My old mentor ( board member of long standing Fortune 500 company) told me a few months ago that for most of his time the truth was that if they needed 4 people they had 7. Now if you need 7 people they have 3 and are trying to figure out how to cut one of those.</p>

<p>All retirement programs are changed to allow you to retire at 55 not because you want to but because you are used up by then.</p>

<p>My advice to anyone going into the big boy/gal corporate world is to keep your powder dry and get your sack as full as you can as quickly as you can.</p>

<p>These were good gigs back before the force reductions of the late 70s and early eighties. Now? </p>

<p>Not so much.</p>

115

Check this article

http://mhandbook.com/mba-engineering/

116

Reviving an old thread, but this is something I was looking at.

Sakky is 8746598764359643 % on-point and hits the nail on the head.

I’m a non-traditional student (32) finishing up my undergrad in Materials engineering, so I have a bit of real world experience under my belt. He’s 100% on point. Nobody in engineering really does ANYTHING that a typical person off the street can’t learn on the job.

Now, that being said, engineering school brainwashes you into a sort of train of thought and way of thinking, that you don’t/can’t really learn outside of school. I.E. it’s a problem-solving-risk-assessment state of mind. That’s all engineering school is good for. Sadly, graduates don’t see it that way. Engineering school just shows you really know how to solve problems and know how to learn. That’s it.

Now, that being said, that brainwashed way of thinking REALLY takes away any “normal person” way of thinking. An example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c19kn3drdFU

The prototype performs well supposedly. It’s a PERFECT example of engineers designing ■■■■ without ever wrenching on anything. Oh, you want to change spark plugs? Here, you have to take off your front end. Oh, you want to change a head? Well, good luck with that.

This is the kind of ■■■■ that exists to geek out about, but NO MECHANIC would ever want to work on one because everything is such a pain in the ass to get to or work on. Basically, it’s what engineers do: make cool ■■■■ that’s impossible for a normal person to work on (if it works well at all) without wanting to kill the person who designed it. Making ■■■■ far more complicated at the expense of simplicity to boost an ego and flex some brain muscle, whether they want to admit it or not. The aforementioned is precisely the reason why I’ve looked at getting an MBA…I don’t like being sucked into that mind-set of mental muscle flexing…I enjoy the problem solving…but I can only take so much of it.

And FWIW, after talking to a couple hiring managers, nobody really cares what school you went to…it might get you the interview, but if you’re an idiot, you’re an idiot. Nobody wants an anti-social or incompetent person to work with. People skills are far more valued these days…