Thinking about pursuing a graduate degree? If so, you've got an important decision to make: Will it be an advanced technical degree, an MBA, or something in between? "I get this question from every student that comes and talks to me," says John Farr, director of the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
Most of the time, the question doesn't come from undergraduates. Farr says many engineers put off pursuing a master's degree until about five years after graduation. The biggest decision at this point is whether to continue in their technical specialty or consider an MBA.
"It depends on your ultimate goals and where you are in your career," notes Farr. "If you're 10 years into your career, you want to develop management integration skills, which is what managers do now. They integrate complex systems."
With MBA enrollments declining, business schools are working to become more relevant to prospective students. For instance, MBAs now come in different flavors. These include what Allan Hoffman, a tech jobs expert at online job service Monster, calls a "techno MBA." In this case, the focus is on teaching engineers and other technologists how to intersect business and technology.
According to Hoffman, two broad changes turned the tide in bringing more engineers to the management side. First, due to technology growth, engineers and information technology (IT) specialists in particular play a larger role in the corporation. They find themselves increasingly involved in betthe-ranch decisions and projects. Second, many engineers coming out of top schools already hold MBAs and are quickly ushered into the company's mainstream business environment.
"Then, systems engineering management is a great career path," says Stevens Institute's Farr.
Many current engineers seem to be pondering that path, too. According to Farr, data indicates that more than 75% of engineers choose an MBA over an MSEE or other advanced technical degree, often after assuming managerial responsibilities for which they have little or no formal training.
They may be on the right track. The National Center on Education and the Economy recently predicted that the most in-demand positions in 2006 will be hybrids of management and technology. Kforce Professional Staffing, an executive search firm with offices in 45 U.S. markets, says essentially the same thing in its 2006 employment guide: While routine tech jobs remain vulnerable to outsourcing, strong demand continues for those who combine technical aptitude with industry-specific knowledge and business skills.
The perception among many of these engineers is that an MBA—techno or traditional—is now the quickest route to the executive suite. Intel may be setting an example. Under CEO Andy Grove, engineers essentially ruled the company. Today, under CEO Paul Otellini, who isn't an engineer, it's mostly about marketing.
An informal survey taken at two recent trade shows suggests engineers are getting the message. Paul C. George is a young system design engineer at Intel in Hillsboro, Ore. He says just about all of his engineering friends and colleagues, perhaps nine out of 10, are pursuing or plan to pursue MBAs rather than graduate technical degrees.
STILL TECHNICAL BUT FLEXIBLE
Stevens' SEEM program offers master of engineering degrees in systems engineering, engineering management, integrated product development, and systems design and operational effectiveness, as well as a PhD in systems engineering or engineering management (see the figure). Stevens' fiveyearold ME program has grown to more than 400 students and 75 PhDs. Students can also opt out of the program after the first four courses and obtain a graduate certificate in engineering management.
You don't even have to attend these courses on campus. Increasingly, they're offered at various locations around the world. Farr also teaches regularly onsite at IBM, ITT, Lockheed Martin, Nokia, Northrop Grumman, and other company and government (mostly defense-related) facilities.
Other schools have moved in the same direction.They offer new integrated engineering and business programs, culminating in a master's degree in engineering management or, in the case of Carnegie Mellon University, a bachelor's degree in engineering and an MBA. Carnegie Mellon's program, begun in the fall of 2003, was designed to admit 20 students who were interested in completing a five-year program leading to the BSEE degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and an MBA from the university's business school.
"I think this approach takes us back to what I experienced when I was an engineering undergrad," says Philip L. Dowd, a member of Carnegie Mellon's board of trustees and a managing director of financial services company Sherick Enterprises LLC. Dowd, who received his undergraduate engineering degree in 1963, says he went into an MBA program right after graduation. "I found that the addition of an MBA to my engineering degree changed the way employers looked at me."
Georgia Institute of Technology offers a similar program, enabling students to earn an MBA in one year if they earn another MS degree at the school.
"We do have a few students earn our MS ECE and then spend another year earning an MBA," says Doug Williams, associate chair for the academic programs in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Our students earn the MS Electrical and Engineering (ECE) first, so I'm not sure how many go on to get an MBA."
At Northwestern, all of the students seeking its so-called techno MBA hold down full-time jobs. "Everybody's working," says professor Marc Meyer, co-director of the program. "They're all fast-track managers, who tend to be between the ages of 30 and 45."
Georgia Tech's MBA program is currently 128 students strong. Most of these students (62%) received undergraduate degrees in engineering/ computer science.
"While most MBA programs have a good number of engineers enrolled in their programs, I would say that our percentage in that area is significantly higher than most," says Paula Wilson, director of MBA admissions in the College of Management at Georgia Tech.
But the engineering program remains strong. "In any given year, about 75 of our BS students enter our graduate program in electrical and computer engineering," says Doug Williams. "About 60 continue directly after earning a BS, and another 15 have come back to school after being gone for a while. We graduated a total of 385 BSEE and BSCmpE [bachelor of science in computer engineering] students this past year."
Reprints
