What Employers Think of Your Online Master's in Engineering

When Travis Horton of Louisiana, an engineer at CITGO Petroleum Corporation, decided a few years ago to pursue a master's degree in chemical engineering, he enrolled in an online program at Columbia University. Horton knew that his employers wouldn't view his online degree any differently than they would for one earned in person; in fact, the company covered his tuition.

"I told them, 'It's the same program, there's nothing different about it. You're held to the same standards as the on-campus students,'" says the 38-year-old, who eventually moved to a more specialized role in the company after finishing the program in 2014. "Nobody blinks an eye."

Employers in the field of engineering have generally become accepting of online graduate degrees in the past few years, engineering recruiters say, particularly as well-established universities have built up their programs -- though a few employers would still favor the traditional student.

[Learnfour questions employers ask about job applicants with online degrees.]

"Now that you're seeing more and more people in that hiring chair that have come from perhaps their own online education, you're seeing a lot more acceptance to it," says Jack Cullen, president of Modis, a tech staffing agency with more than 70 branch offices throughout North America.

Online graduate programs in engineering have become more prevalent because, Cullen says, they enable engineers to work and pursue a degree at the same time -- there's no need to take a gap year to return to school. Balancing online learning and a full-time job also illustrates self-discipline and a firm commitment to engineering -- a field requiring skills in high demand, Cullen says.

And in most cases, Cullen says, earning a master's degree will let employees specialize in a particular area of the discipline and then apply this education directly to their work.

It's usually the degree itself -- not the format by which it was earned -- that employers see on a resume and really care about, says Dani McDonald, vice president of national engineering recruitment at the employment agency Kelly Services.

"They don't necessarily dig into whether or not that was completed traditionally or via an online or distance learning program," she says.

Many experts agree that accreditation and reputation are key factors when it comes to initially evaluating a grad program. It isn't necessary to state outright on a resume that a degree was earned online, especially because there's a slight chance that somebody who's reviewing candidates is unfamiliar with online learning or simply favors a traditional education, says Dennis Theodorou, vice president of operations for the national engineering executive search firm JMJ Phillip.

[Discoverhow to tell if an online program is accredited.]

Employers are more concerned about whether the name of the institution is one they recognize, for example, and whether the program gave the candidate the same experiences he or she would have gotten in a face-to-face environment, which is many times the case, McDonald says.

"The degree at the end of the day is really just a credibility statement," she says. "They're looking for your experience and what you've contributed and what you will contribute to their organization."

A company also recognizes that master's degree students typically have engineering-related undergrad degrees, Theodorou says. The fact that they already have the foundational education behind them makes the format of the subsequent degree even less relevant.

"Typically what we see is employers are a little more open to online engineering master's simply because of their undergrad requirements," he says.

Still, candidates shouldn't shy away from discussing their online education during job interviews, says Cullen, of Modis, and they shouldn't sound defensive if a potential employer asks them about it. In fact, experts say, explaining why he or she earned an online degree might end up helping the job applicant and illustrate their commitment to the field.

"I think it's a good step, and it's something we recommend in the interview process -- you take that interviewer through why you chose this field, why you chose this particular online degree and how this is going to benefit you and that employer moving forward," Cullen says.

In cases like Horton's, some companies are even willing to finance employees' online graduate studies if the skills they will gain can benefit the company and the employee's role.

"You can be productive, and you can immediately transfer those skills that you learned to what you're doing on the job, and I think they see a big benefit in that," says Horton, who sometimes participates in interviewing job candidates and encounters some with online degrees.

Tresha Lacaux, a structures engineering manager at Boeing based in the Seattle area, completed an online Master of Science in Engineering from the University of California--Los Angeles with a specialization in mechanics of structures. Like Horton, she says her company paid for her online graduate education, and "it wasn't an issue at all."

[Understand how totry convincing an employer to pay for an online degree.]

"It was more recognition that, 'Hey, you got your degree from a great school,'" Lacaux says.

Lacaux, who is sometimes involved in the hiring process at Boeing, says having an online degree as an applicant is generally fine -- so long as it's from an accredited institution.

"There's no issues with that at all," she says.

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Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.