<p>Personally, as an engineer, I wouldn’t place a person with a BA at the same “level” as someone with a BS, so far as their engineering skills go. That being said, if they were a manager or a marketing/business development type person in an engineering or industrial related industry I would give the BA more credibility than someone with a BA in marketing or business.</p>
<p>The more indebth you go into your field the harder it becomes to explain what you do to someone who doesn’t understand. If a business person doesn’t know how to do what I do, but understands what it is I am doing, I’m happy enough. Having just spent a month “dumbing down” a technical analysis and review of a commercial scale manufacturing facility I can feel the pain of how hard this is. There have been plenty of times that I have been asked, by people in my company, “what do you do?” Especially by non-science types, and when my position involves process improvements and troubleshooting, since this is never visible to them.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t know how much easier business would be with a BS vs. a BA. Though I have found that knowing is better than dealing with ambiguity, if possible. Regardless, if you want a job selling or marketing the products there is really no need for you to know the details on how it’s made.</p>