How important is an MBA to an engineer?

By Ellen Fussell

While more than 80% of graduate students in an August gradschools.com survey said M.B.A. programs need ethics courses, how much are M.B.A. programs really helping engineers? Paul Schmeling said it was a big help to his career at Emerson Process Management's Rosemount Measurement division in Chanhassen, Minn. As global product marketing manager, Schmeling had been working in an engineering position in which he felt he was becoming a specialist. "I knew I didn't want that, and I also wanted to move into management," he said. While being a specialist is certainly a fine career choice for some, Schmeling said, "you can get confined, and I didn't think being a specialist would help me move into management." If you have an engineering degree, "the M.B.A. gives you more exposure to business-related topics you didn't get in engineering school." Kim Corfman, associate dean and academic director, NYU Stern School of Business in New York City, said the decision to go for an M.B.A. depends on engineers' goals. "If you want to make your company competitive in the marketplace, then that's exactly what an M.B.A.'s good for," she said. The opportunity for advancement is the same as with any other career choice. "The most talented employees usually rise in organizations," Corfman said. "The same thing happens to salespeople. Suddenly, you're a manager, making decisions for products to invest in and directions in which R&D should go."

TIME CRUNCH?
Schmeling said all his courses were at night and on the weekends, and it took four years. Going to school full time could get you out in two years, "but doing it at night gives you more flexibility," he said. The Langone program at NYU Stern, designed for working professionals, allows students to keep on working while also getting their degree. "They can do it in as few as two years, but they have as long as six years to finish," Corfman said. Learning how to solve different business problems and understanding marketing issues and management relational issues are some key skills an M.B.A. degree can teach you, Schmeling said. "When you're trying to read financial reports or dealing with employee relation issues," those skills come in handy. But what about engineers who don't necessarily want to manage? "I think it would round out your skills better and make you more savvy in how to deal with business-related issues, anyway, and open your eyes to the way the rest of the business is run," Schmeling said. "If you don't have those skills, you could be myopic in the way you go about your day-to-day work," he said. Having an M.B.A.-or at least the skills such a degree offers-just might work better for you in today's economy, especially because companies are looking for employees with more well-rounded skills than just narrowly focused engineering skills, Schmeling said. "It may make that person more flexible in down times, where employers might rely on that person to take on more responsibility," he said.

If an engineer wants to stay strictly with engineering, it might not be as important to get an M.B.A., Corfman said. "But for someone who wants to advance, it's critically important," she said. Yet it is a huge commitment. While most people could benefit from the pieces that go into an M.B.A., they don't necessarily have to go through the whole program to benefit from what the skills offer. Communication, for example, is one skill students learn. "Certainly since engineers should be interacting with marketing, finance, and accounting, those skills an M.B.A. offers can help engineers understand where they're coming from," Corfman said. "It's crucial, though, for anyone who wants managerial responsibility." IT
UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELD

In this 2002 National Society of Professional Engineers salary survey, respondents holding an M.B.A. or an M.B.A. and an M.A. or M.S. have higher median incomes than those holding an M.S. in engineering. Having a B.S. outside of the engineering field results in higher earnings than does a B.S. in engineering. However, a higher percentage of these respondents are in executive/administrative jobs-an area that pays better than straight engineering.

How does an MBA help an engineer in his career?

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Licensed Professional Engineers (PEs) are typically involved in much more than just the design of their project. An engineer or firm has to market themselves to the public to convince them to use their services. Sometimes, engineering firms compete for projects through competive bidding. The engineer must be aware of the market and what services are required in the area in which they are located. They are involved in the funding; which can include obtaining the funding for the project from either a bank or different agencies within the government. In order to obtain this funding, sometimes the same engineer must market their product/project to convince the funding agencies that the project is worthy of construction. The engineer must also review and sometimes maintain the budget for the project; which can include payment to the contractor, payment to local government agencies for permits, and, of course, payment for the engineering services. Engineers don't have to be involved in a project to this magnitude but those engineers don't typically receive as high a salary. An MBA is useful in that it makes the engineer more valuable and more marketable; which in turn means a higher salary.

An MBA education could be rightly thought as a sort of finishing school. To an engineers career it adds the final polish.

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MBA is a post-graduation qualification given by Universities (the IIMs, XLRI etc. grant Diplomas) to certify that the student is ready for a business role in an organization. How is a business role different from the ones that Software engineers usually do ? A software engineer usually works in the delivery side of the business. That is , after a project is won and comes to the firm, the delivery people get to work on it and follow specifications. Therefore a delivery person only sees a part of the business and works on it. Is it necessary to know all the parts of the business ? No, it is not. But a delivery person can rise to only a certain level in the organization. If he/she yearns to rise higher or faster having knowledge of business management is very useful. So what does an MBA have ? An MBA course has various courses that cover all aspects of business operations. They are clustered in the following areas: Operations Strategy Marketing Finance

Human Resources Systems In the first year most courses require you to do "core" or necessary subjects in all areas. The first year is followed by a Summer Internship in which students do projects in a specific area that they and the sponsoring companies choose. This enables a student to get a feel of real life situations in business. The second year is mostly dedicated to "optional" subjects which are called "electives". A student can choose to specialize in area in which he/she is interested in. Specialization is a decision that most BSchools take on their own. In some schools you can specialize in one area. In others you can specialize in two. In others, it might not be necessary to specialize at all. So is it worth your while to leave your job and do an MBA ? In my view, it makes sense to do an MBA when : You want to explore other careers and not get stuck in a software /networking career. You like seeing the big picture and want to rise up where you can influence that big career. When you want to remain in software and yet explore other career tracks like business development leveraging your software experience. In most schools work experience of any kind between 2-4 years is a desirable quality in a business student. But you need to be aware that while this work experience might be helpful in getting certain kinds of jobs and companies, it might work against you in certain companies that prefer to hire fresh MBAs and mould them in their culture. So if you seek to make a career as an MBA go for it ! Dont forget about trying out the top online MBA programs as well!