Is MS Eng. Degree useful?

cosmicfish
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:54:23 +0000

So, from your experience and from what you have heard from others, is it worth getting a MS in Engineering?

I would say no. A technical masters is really only valued and rewarded in technical positions - if you go into a business role, they are not generally going to care about an MEng one way or the other.



Do employer’s not want to hire graduate candidates because they have to pay them more (Especially if you hold an engineering master’s but are in the business world)?

For technical positions, BS and master’s holders are hired more or less equally - while the master’s holder may get more salary, they are also expected to deliver more return. For non-technical position, most companies will only credit you for “relevant” experience and education, so your MEng would be ignored - there are exceptions, especially in union-represented or government jobs where rules are often taken very literally and applied rigidly.

Some questions and comments for you, for clarity:

1. Go to graduate school for M.S. and a certificate in management of technology

I would avoid any degree like this without experience - while an MBA has some value without experience (primarily as a means of entry into finance), a masters in management of technology is probably only going to be worthwhile for experienced engineers looking to transition into management, and may actively inhibit your ability to get into a basic engineering job.



1. If I stay in the corporate world, I want to be a CO.

What does this mean, exactly? The corporate world is vast, and it is not clear what role you are referring to - engineer, business, what? And did you mean CEO? I am not sure what a CO is outside the military.



I cannot get an MBA right out of college because I want to get into a top business school, for which they require some work experience.

Not entirely true, many top programs WILL take some students straight out of undergrad, and the cost of applying is relatively low if this is what you want to do. This route would probably make it harder to get an engineering job (which you don’t want anyway) but would open some other doors for you.