is it worth going into IE?

pegasus135 · 10-24-2007, 07:53 PM

With the demand in Manufacturing going down hill, is it good to go for IE?
(and only like 100 schools offer IE) which is low compared to EE, M E etc.
is IE just manufacturing and factories?

How is IE (w/ an emphasize in OR)? IEOR?

is it true IE-OR is applicable in other industries like finance/banking, health, transportation, Fed Gov, etc?

Some schools offer Financial Engineering as part of the IE Dept.
What exactly is FE? How is the field?

Of all the Eng. major, IE(OR) seems to be the strangest type.
The business orientation of the major seems interesting.

Mr100% · 10-25-2007, 01:55 AM

i'm wondering about the same thing...maybe this would help:

http://cap.cs.columbia.edu/john/IEOR...deoplayer.html

tom725 · 10-25-2007, 02:58 AM

IEOR Columbia is a great school.
But since their Ivy, its different for them compared to other public IE or IEOR programs in terms of job opportunities.
(jjust saying because Columbia IEORs go to places like Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, etc.)

sam21 · 10-26-2007, 12:47 AM

If you really think of Industrial and Operations Research Engineering I would recommend going to either Georgia Tech or Michigan since they are the best IOER programs in the country. A lot of students from these programs end up going to I-banking and consulting companies.

ken285 · 10-26-2007, 07:12 AM

Quote:

is it true IE-OR is applicable in other industries like finance/banking, health, transportation, Fed Gov, etc?

Yes. IEOR is all about cost savings and efficiency, and that's definitely not limited to just manufacturing.

undefined · 10-28-2007, 09:27 AM

IE-OR is ok, but I interned in the IE-OR division of a major aircraft company (as an EE) and let me tell you - they're useless. For the 3 months I was there, they made no progress and all they did was talk and BS the whole time. This may not be the case at top banking firms, but in engineering, I find them useful sometimes, useless most of the other times.

sakky · 10-28-2007, 02:42 PM

Quote:

IE-OR is ok, but I interned in the IE-OR division of a major aircraft company (as an EE) and let me tell you - they're useless. For the 3 months I was there, they made no progress and all they did was talk and BS the whole time. This may not be the case at top banking firms, but in engineering, I find them useful sometimes, useless most of the other times.

Oh, trust me, there are plenty of useless bankers too.

The major difference is that they're getting paid several times what their peers are getting paid despite still being useless.

Mr100% · 10-28-2007, 06:15 PM

for some reason, all the other engineers tend to dislike industrial engineers.

Treetopleaf · 10-28-2007, 06:30 PM

I've met a few useless EEs, for what it's worth ;-)

My friend is an IE. She's currently out of work after a recent layoff (directly related to the collapsing housing market). She's watched manufacturing outsourced and watched US engineers manage this process.

If you intend to work in an geographic area where manufacturing is strong (e.g. Detroit), then I think IE is still viable. But you can't work just anywhere, since so many factories have permanently relocated overseas.

As for engineers disliking IEs... Not every engineer would want to manage people in the direct manner that many IEs do - working with factory floor folks, purchasing agents, etc. I think it reflects badly on hardcore techies when they look down at those engineers with technical skills that also have people skills.

sakky · 10-29-2007, 11:58 AM

Quote:

My friend is an IE. She's currently out of work after a recent layoff (directly related to the collapsing housing market). She's watched manufacturing outsourced and watched US engineers manage this process.

If you intend to work in an geographic area where manufacturing is strong (e.g. Detroit), then I think IE is still viable. But you can't work just anywhere, since so many factories have permanently relocated overseas.

Actually, I would say that the impact of the outsourcing of manufacturing on IE is unclear. Obviously it reduces the number of manufacturing jobs that IE's can hold. On the other hand, it increases the number of transportation/logistics/supply-chain jobs that IE's can have, and these are some of the fastest growing jobs for IE's. We have to keep in mind that even if you outsource manufacturing, you still have to somehow efficiently move goods from those outsourced factories to the end-customers. {Put another way, there is no point in trying to save money by outsourcing manufacturing overseas if you then lose all those savings because you can't cheaply transport those overseas-manufactured goods to the customers.} Many IE's that I know are working on international supply-chain and procurement projects (i.e. Boeing's global supply chain and international partners that produce components for the 787), or are working for companies that manufacture nothing at all and just provide logistics/transportation/warehousing services (i.e. UPS, Amazon, the airlines, Costco, Walmart, etc.)

As a case in point, I know a guy who just graduated from MIT with dual-degrees in Sloan management (specializing in operations) and in civil engineering (where MIT houses its de-facto IE program), and he got a very cool job at Apple coordinating the international supply-chain/procurement of components for the Ipod. Basically, almost all of the individual components of the Ipod are manufactured in Asia, so that basically means that he spends at least half of his time travelling throughout Asia (China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea etc.) striking procurement contracts and overseeing partner performance. If Apple hadn't outsourced the component manufacturing of the Ipod to Asia, then he wouldn't have this job because it wouldn't exist.

It should be said that this guy is not Asian himself. He's a white guy. He speaks no Asian languages. Nevertheless, he got a very cool job that allows him to hang around in Asia a lot.

red sox 7327 · 10-29-2007, 12:42 PM

Sakky knows 47.354 million people. Combined, this group of 47.354 million people have experienced every possible outcome for ever possible major.

Mr100% · 10-29-2007, 06:38 PM

i'm deciding between IE and ME. which one do you guys thinks has better job security/availability and salaries? i'm really liking what sakky said about his friend's job at Apple. is it true that ME's can do IE's stuff but not the other way around?

tom725 · 10-29-2007, 07:10 PM

I think MEs can do the IE-manufacturing related stuff. I guess.

Mr100% · 10-29-2007, 07:23 PM

what about the non-mfg stuff? i'm quite concerned about job security and growth with ME because of outsourcing. i've also met quite a few REALLY smart ME students from China. and you know how much they're willing to work for. so i don't see the point of paying extra to hire US engineers while the stuff is already made over there. seems like IE is a more practical choice even though all the other engineers tend to look down on IEs.

undefined · 10-29-2007, 07:30 PM

No one really looks down at IE, it's just that it's easier to get a degree in it.