MBA Program

BirdGrave · Mar 8, 2020

Has anyone here done an MBA program in the evenings while working full-time as an engineer?

If so, how would you compare the difficulty of the course work / time constraints compared to studying for the PE or completing an undergraduate engineering degree?

Wow_PE! · Mar 8, 2020

Interesting question...I’ve been wondering this as well

civilrobot PE etc etc · Mar 9, 2020

BirdGrave said:
Has anyone here done an MBA program in the evenings while working full-time as an engineer?

If so, how would you compare the difficulty of the course work / time constraints compared to studying for the PE or completing an undergraduate engineering degree?

I have an MBA. I worked full time as a Project Engineer for a construction management company while in grad school and I started my program 2 years after graduating from undergrad with my Civil Engineering degree. To be honest, it was a lot of fun. I really loved learning something new and learning the business of my field. I loved it so much that I switched jobs to apply my skills. After killing myself to get through a 5-yr engineering program in 4ish years, I took my time with grad school. I found a program that provided the option for on-line and in-class study. It took me 4 years to complete it but again, I only took 2 classes a semester. Most people took 3. I went on a study abroad trip to Berlin for my International Business course and I wouldn't change a thing. I made some great friends on that trip that I still chat with today.

Find a program that fits into your life. I was single and enjoying life. I had a lot of balance between school, working out, and hanging out with friends. The workload was NOTHING compared to engineering. I think the only true "math" class I had was Statistics. Everything else was qualitative and theoretical. I enjoyed class discussions and learning about the other industries that my classmates were involved in.

So in summary:

Difficulty: Low

Work/Time Constraints: It's what you make it. Enroll in as many or as few classes as your program will allow. I had (non-engineering but still technical) friends who went to Wharton and other prestigious schools and they basically had to take a sabbatical from work.

Compared to the PE: lol no. I'm studying for round 2 of the PE. I'd rather be working on a doctorate. lol But I love reading and I love school, so...

Road Guy · Mar 9, 2020

I did mine at night over 2+ years - its defin easier than studying for the PE, and easier than your BS degree in engineering.

The hard part for me was getting the marketing, accounting, finance, business, etc majors to do anything on the group projects, getting people to do the speaking parts of the presentations was a chore and just all the joy in college group projects -

I really enjoyed the finance classes, and the international finance classes were defin not Differential Equations, but also not easy.

Booo · Mar 9, 2020

I do not have a MBA but my wife is currently finishing hers. Apart from the above advice, I think you need to think of the time requirement for finding a new job. The commitment required is much more if you plan to change your field than if you plan to get the next level up promotion. My wife was changing her field of work and she spent substantial amount of time networking and preparing for job interviews etc. This is not for the entire duration of the study but it did last 7-8 months. So consider that in time commitments.

Tiger15 · Mar 9, 2020

I haven't done the MBA (yet?), but I have lots of friends who have. Their experiences mirror @civilrobot's. The difficulty of business school was much lower than engineering school. Time management was the tough part. You have to make time to do the work (lots of reading, lots of writing, some project), but none of the content is difficult to understand.