Are MBA's useful for Engineer's?

david4791

Hello,
I hold a Honour's degree in Civil Engineering along with Diploma's in Construction Mgmt and Water/wastewater treatment.Would it be wise to complete an MBA to enhance my career?, any Engineer out there who have some same?

Carlow52

It really depends on what degree of correlation exists between all the subjects in ur undergrad degree and what you will be doing in the MBA

In my case I have a pure engineering degree from the mid 70's with zero business content so I needed to do some : accounting/business law/marketing etc so I did a one year MBA to fill in the blanks.

The other consideration is what teaching method is used for the mba: is it case study orientated working in groups or just more bull added (mba) via slides, overheads and class work.
I would not consider an online one as firstly u are on the hind tit college wise and secondly u do need the F2F intellectual sparring with ur classmates as now a days the computers do the boring crap and its the people skills that are very important

Another consideration is the quality of the school where u do it: u need to go to a place which is at least on a par to ur u/grad college.

Finally, have a close look at what u want to do: perhaps chartered accountancy would give u an un-ambiguous financial type qualification. it can be done in industry

A lot of MBA's are woolly
HTH

david4791

Thanks Carlow 52, that is the whole question really ie what college to do the MBA in. Trinty/Smurfit UCD/ are all circa 28k for an mba, ,lot of wedge. There are other colleges liKe Griffith College and the new one in Swords Dublin called IBAT who offer MBA for 5000E recognised by HETAC and Wales university.The IEI have advertised a Certificate in Business Accounting through CIMA recommending Engineers to take it on, what do you think?

cerebus

david4791 wrote: »

Hello,
I hold a Honour's degree in Civil Engineering along with Diploma's in Construction Mgmt and Water/wastewater treatment.Would it be wise to complete an MBA to enhance my career?, any Engineer out there who have some same?

No offence intended, but enhance you career is a bit fuzzy sounding - it might be worth your while spending some time figuring out how an MBA might add value for you. As you point out, it can be a pretty significant investment (you identified the financial investment but don't forget the time you will need to invest as well)... you should do some thinking about what kind of return you expect on that investment.

What do you hope an MBA will do for you? Accelerate your trajectory in your current role? Allow you to switch roles in your current industry? Allow you to switch industries? Start your own business?

If you can identify what you want the return on your investment to be, you can start figuring out which MBA programs might be most effective at achieving that return.

I have an undergraduate and postgraduate degree in engineering, and did an MBA. It was the right decision for me as it helped me make some career changes I wanted that would have been very challenging otherwise.

david4791

Hello Cerebus,
To be honest Im not sure what I need or want. I work as a Civil Engineer with 11 years postgrad experience, the project I work on comes to an end in July. I am trying to "tool" up for the future, I spoke with some large hitters in the renewable energy side last week who stated there is a major shortage of power Engineers, I cannot afford the time nor the money to go back and do Electrical Engineering. My background has been Civils from roads to bridges to sewerage/water schemes, this area is quiet at present.I suppose the Civils people had their day in the sun over the past decade, its now time for Electrical guys to get a piece of the action.

After speaking recently to some top managers in Siemens and Bord Na Mona, they stated their is an over supply of courses on renewables and energy mgmt, what they actually need is Electrical Engineers. any advice?

cerebus

david4791 wrote: »

Hello Cerebus,
To be honest Im not sure what I need or want.

...

After speaking recently to some top managers in Siemens and Bord Na Mona, they stated their is an over supply of courses on renewables and energy mgmt, what they actually need is Electrical Engineers. any advice?

Perhaps jumping into an MBA isn't the best thing for you right now - it sounds like the first thing to do is to spend some time figuring out where you want to go with your career. It isn't easy, but very worthwhile.

You mentioned renewables/energy - have you thought about the sector carefully? If you aren't passionate about the area it will make it harder to succeed in finding a new career. You also mentioned that you have some water/wastewater experience. I'm involved in cleantech and my view is that there will a huge increase in investment into water technologies and water infrastructure in the next few years (seeing it already in fact). Maybe something that builds on your existing experience would be a good starting point?

Another useful thing to do is to speak to lots of people in an area you want to break into and get their advice - you seem to have some good contacts in Siemens, etc. already, why not leverage them to get input about what they recommend as a way to position yourself? You already got some feedback about the need for electrical engineers - can you find some postgrad course in EE that brings you up to speed and provides you with some useful skills?

Darren1o1

david4791 wrote: »

Hello Cerebus,
To be honest Im not sure what I need or want. I work as a Civil Engineer with 11 years postgrad experience, the project I work on comes to an end in July. I am trying to "tool" up for the future, I spoke with some large hitters in the renewable energy side last week who stated there is a major shortage of power Engineers, I cannot afford the time nor the money to go back and do Electrical Engineering. My background has been Civils from roads to bridges to sewerage/water schemes, this area is quiet at present.I suppose the Civils people had their day in the sun over the past decade, its now time for Electrical guys to get a piece of the action.

After speaking recently to some top managers in Siemens and Bord Na Mona, they stated their is an over supply of courses on renewables and energy mgmt, what they actually need is Electrical Engineers. any advice?

You could do an MSc in Energy from heriott watt by Distance and pick up what you need...

david4791

Thanks Cerebus, I should stay with what I know best, ie watermains and sewerage schemes. I guess there is no point starting at the bottom of the ladder in the renewable sector at this stage of my career, especially with future investment in water rehab schemes.

Darren 101 - With regards to Msc in renewables and energy studies, I spoke with Siemens and other players in this field, they are looking for power engineers and not guys with msc's in energy et al. They want Electrical Engineers which are in major shortage. If you know any person doing the leaving advise them to take EE degree. For me I couldn't afford the time nor the money to return to a 4 year EE degree

Turbulent Bill

david4791 wrote: »

Thanks Cerebus, I should stay with what I know best, ie watermains and sewerage schemes. I guess there is no point starting at the bottom of the ladder in the renewable sector at this stage of my career, especially with future investment in water rehab schemes.

Darren 101 - With regards to Msc in renewables and energy studies, I spoke with Siemens and other players in this field, they are looking for power engineers and not guys with msc's in energy et al. They want Electrical Engineers which are in major shortage. If you know any person doing the leaving advise them to take EE degree. For me I couldn't afford the time nor the money to return to a 4 year EE degree

Taking a 4-year course just to chase current jobs is rarely a good idea as circumstances can change so much, so I think you're right about not going the EE route.

Cerebus has a good point about water infrastructure, we'll see increased use of domestic water metering etc. in the next few years. The MBA might move you from the technical/installation end to a business-focussed area (water as a resource?), but I don't know anything about the area. MBAs usually suit engineers with some level of management responsibility/experience already (i.e., not purely technical).