Engineering management: Good degree to have?

My advice: Get an undergrad degree in one of the traditional engineering disciplines and a master's in engineering management. Makes a good combo.

Charles Perry P.E.

ok

thanks

OK but curious as to why?

Can you be so kind as to explain a newbie like me?

Here's one:

The traditional engineering degree is likely to be accredited with the relevant institute(s) and so meet their academic requirements for membership and Chartered status. Hybrid degrees are less likely to be accredited, leaving the individual having to do the institute's professional exams - very much not a soft option.

Having got academically qualified - what you don't want is to stay as an engineer - who typically get paid crap wages and a company car with no back windows and sign writing on the side(aka company van). Unless, of course, you really looooove engineering.

Nah, the money and the flash car is in management and a post graduate management qualification of some sort helps in getting, well, management jobs.

End result is lots of letters after your name. Looks good on a business card, if you are trying to impress. Which you will be when you work out that the money isn't in management after all - but in management consultancy.

Of course another point is that, having got a first class engineering degree and found that you really do loooove engineering after all - you can do a doctorate, get tenure, play with toys for the next 40 years and be very, very rude about management consultants who have to put lots of letters after their name on business cards.. Plus, depending on where you get the doctorate, etc, you get the chance to wear a daft hat and a dead mammal and speak in Latin..

OK

Here is where I'm thinking abt going and they do have the engineering management as an undergrad degree. The school is UMR.... in Rolla Missouri.

see link

Ha!! Greta sense of humor and you've made me laugh and smile! But keep telling me this and you will talk me into forgetting engineering and going to pharmacy school!

Serious question..... is engineering REALLY that great of filed in the US today given we are export happy with anything and everything? I worry abt getting an engineering degree and not being able to find work I like or that makes me "working poor"!!

IMO, you will be more employable if you have a core engineering undergrad. I work, and hire engineers, in the electrical engineering field. We do have a few non-EEs (chemical, biosystems, mechanical) but predominantly we hire EEs. I am not likely to hire a person with an Eng Man. undergrad degree and no master's. If I am hiring an undergrad, it will likely be an EE. Now, when we get to the Master's level, I would seriously consider an EE with an Eng Man over a MSEE, depending on the job. If it is a hard-core modelling and analysis position, the MSEE will likely win. If it is a job managing projects and/or people, the Eng Man. will likely win. Also, I would be very unlikely to hire someone with undergrad and master's in Eng Man. They likely won't be able to understand the core business enough to make them useful without years of training.

Charles Perry P.E.

Hey, I loooove engineering - plus I'm a Brit currently in BritLand (aka State 51 on the good old map of the USA). And if anyone called me an engineering manager I'd shove his business card where his appendix could read it.

So I can't advise on careers in the US mainland, only in this far flung territory of it.

However, judging by the number of engineers here that would give their non-typing fingers (yep, all six of them) to get a work permit in the USA mainland - it must have something going for it.

You need reasonably good intelligence to get an engineering degree. But if you don't have curiosity about "how things work", you won't enjoy doing engineering work.

Also, don't take up engineering because you like working with things vs working with people. In just a few years you'll find you're in the "people business"!

Good advice Charles. In fact a NY state school (SUNY Binghamton) now offers a 3/2 or 4/1 option to get a BS in engineering and MBA in 5 years.

daestrom (visited there last week with youngest looking at schools for next year :-)

I have a BS in Engineering Management (EE minor) from UMR and it was the right decision FOR ME. Although my interest and aptitude pointed me in the direction of an electrical engineering degree, I was really bored and UNinterested in the engineering studies and I decided, after 3 1/2 years to change to Eng Mgt. That was in the early '70's when the Department was just being formed.

That decision was influenced by summer jobs that I had (in sales of radio and TV broadcast equipment). I was able to use my technical background to help me sell a sophisticated technical product. So, Eng Mgt was the right choice for me. "Your results may vary."

A better choice would be the full engineering degree followed by an MBA. That's a dynamite combination if you have the time, money and inclination to spend the extra time in school. I didn't.

It all depends on what you want to do in life. I have enjoyed traveling all over the country, meeting high-powered folks, solving complicated technical/business problems, having freedom and a flexible work schedule and making lots of money! I would not be happy sitting a a desk/bench crunching numbers or running experiments - but that's just me. You need to figure out what YOU like.

So, how do you do that? Start with your faculty advisor. You will be assigned one when you enroll. He/she won't have lots of time to spend with you but you should establish a good relationship with him.

The first year or two of your studies are basic stuff. Take that time to seek out engineers and engineering managers in your area. Go out and talk with people who actually WORK in a certain career field. Ask what they do on a daily / weekly / monthly basis. Find out what they like and don't like about their jobs. The chairman of the Eng Mgt department and the EE department (I assume your are intereasted in EE) should be able to help you make contact with these folks. Call them up, tell them you are interested in their career field and would like some advice. Most professionals are happy to offer their advice to students - especially if you are a Miner and they are graduates of UMR.

Remember. marketing brochures and "department propoganda" paint a rosey picture of the benefits of a degree from their respective departments.

Incidentally, make as many contacts as you can. You will be looking for a job in a few years and it never hurts to have a network of professionals when you are seeking employment.

Find a summer job in your field of engineering and one (the next year) in engineering management. This will give you valuable insight into the career fields.

Finally, realistically speaking, during the first couple of years at UMR you will be taking mostly generic courses. You really don't need to make a committment to Eng. Mgt right away. Stick with EE and take those courses (youi're going to need those course credits if you transfer to Eng Mgt anyway). If you LIKE engineering, great. If not, change departments - it's easy. You don't have to make a FINAL department selection when you first enroll in school.

Information is the key. Get as much information as you can. Assimilate that information and, over time, form your own conclusion. Then go for it!

Good luck!

Chuck UMR '73

You are just the man I need to talk to Chuck!!

I'm 49....and thinking of UMR. Is that crazy? To go to UMR at age 49 foe EE or Eng Management? Too old now??

I have 41 hrs at local community college now. Could xfer to UME after Christmas.

Yep.. but don't have the time for that at age 49..... or at least think I don't. I do want to retire someday.

The part abt setting at a desk is what bothers me as well. I was a very good draftsman for many years....and it got to be HORRIBLE setting at a desk all day. Many health problems cause of it. Hence the idea of something like eng management where I could have tech background but also move around more.

EE would be my other choice of not eng management. I am ham radio operator, computer nut, etc. But the eng management thing got my "interest". Hence the questions.

Thanks so much Chuck!!

If I would have been smart enough to go to college out of highs school.... I WOULD have been UMR 80.

Would it hurt for me to take Accounting 101 and 102 at local community college if pursuing this degree at UMR?

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