Seek MBA-Style Skills With a Master of Engineering Management
To hold their own at a business conference table, fledgling engineers need more than technical skills, says Daniel Moorer, professor of engineering practice at the University of Colorado--Boulder. In fact, the know-how they need, he says, sounds a lot like an MBA: leadership and management, product development and accounting.
At Colorado, though, those skills are also taught in the master's of engineering management program, which is emerging as kind of an MBA-lite for anyone aspiring to a senior role in industries with engineering as their backbone.
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"An MEM prepares you for technology leadership," says Colin Drummond, a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio whose specialty is health care technology and who serves in ABET, the organization that accredits engineering programs.
How do the degrees differ? The MBA is generally more expensive -- a traditional program takes two years, compared with a calendar year for an MEM -- and still more recognizable to nonengineers, though that may change.
The MBA offers exposure to a more comprehensive menu of business subjects, and greater depth in those. For example, most MBAs require at least two courses in accounting; an MEM might provide just eight weeks' worth. And an MEM will likely skip over such subjects as retail and real estate.
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Students typically apply for MBA programs already boasting several years of work experience, whereas an MEM is often referred to as a "fifth year" -- a good solution for science majors who realize they don't actually want to be bench scientists.
"Normally, you'd need an MBA to do what I do, but as soon as people hear what my degree is they understand why I chose it," says Timothy Harvey, 29, who earned a degree in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Denver and hopes to run a company someday.
He's getting an MEM part time at the University of Colorado while working as an associate product manager at Terumo BCT, a maker of medical devices. His compensation is in the "upper $70,000s," and benefits include $5,000 per year of tuition reimbursement.
"I should graduate with no debt. Whew!" he says.
Harvey's boss, Joy Duemke, notes that Harvey has to translate customer needs so products meet them. His degree says he's got both the people skills and technical know-how to do so.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News "Best Graduate Schools 2016" guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
