How high of a degree should I get?
How high of a degree should I get?
(OP)
I realize that this is supposed to be a forum for real engineers (read ones that have actually graduated), but I will be finishing my degree soon and was wondering what people in the engineering fields think. I will soon finish my bachelors and am debating whether or not to try for grad school and get my masters? With so my people being laid off and jobs being sent overseas would this be a better guarantee of being able to find a job? Or should I start working when I finish my bachelors and come back later to take on a masters? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Damon
Damon





RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
I know that I took off a couple of years and was actually "hungry" to study again when I went back to graduate school. Did very well in my classes and my professors even commented on how I was much more studious and mature in my thinking coming out of a real job. I saw a lot of my classmates with less zeal for studying who had gone straight through from BS to MS.
Also, you may find a better feel for the importance of a masters degree in mechanical. I do know that an MS in structural is very very helpful.
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
Secondsly, go for the MS while undergraduate school is still fresh in your mind. I'm a design engineer in the electronics industry and the MSME is a good credential to have. Note that I said "credential." In the electronics business, often those who do the hiring are EEs who rarely understand (and often don't care!) the ME's role in the industry and, consequently, don't have a handle on what a BSME's capabilities are. They are simply impressed with the credential.
I've worked with a few pragmatic MEs who think that grad school is so far out in left field that it takes years to get the graduate back down to earth where he can make timely, practical, common-sense decisions.
Five years after graduation, I went back and completed ten courses in an MSME program under the belief that I could use that knowledge (thermofluids) in the electronics industry. In my jobs, I was able to apply none of the advanced theory to real world problems.
Of course I am speaking only out of my own experiences. You may get lucky and find a job somewhere where you can use the math and theory.
Tunalover
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
Yes, it is much harder this way, but hard stuff keeps us alive. The advice above is good, but it isn't the only way to skin that duck.
I can't say I've ever explicitly used anything I learned in my MSME. Many things that I observe in real life (the MS was in Fluids/Thermo) are easier to comprehend because I have that murky arithmetic lurking im the back of my head, but I can't say I've ever done any of that arithmetic in anger. The fact of my MS has avoided many tedious arguments, but it has also caused me to have to entertain a bunch of dumb ideas. Bottom line is that I'm really glad that I did it, but that is way more for personal satisfaction than for marketability.
David
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
The caveat is that you'll be stuck at that company for the duration.
TTFN
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
Sounds like you've made the right choice--graduate school should only be undertaken if one absolutely, positively wants it.
I was really leery of grad school but went direct after BS anyway only because I didn't feel like I knew enough with just the BS to get an interesting job. It was the right choice for me, but it doesn't seem like your case. Different field anyway.
MS will be a little harder if you've had a chance to forget what it's like to be in a classroom and play with pencil and paper, but it beats trying to sit through it when your heart's not in it.
I've known people who advise going straight through because "once you leave school you might never go back" but I think that's usually because it turned out you didn't need to go back.
You should be able to get MS funding when the time comes.
Hg
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
rosemaryeke
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
If you think that you need a masters or if you do not find suitable employment then stay in school if possible. Tuition reimbursement is nice if you can study at night school. Once you start work you may have to travel, spend lots of time on projects etc. that interfere with study. Also, after making good money it is hard to stop working and return to school.
John
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
It's good form to start a new thread when asking a new question, rather than disrupt the flow of an existing one.
To answer you question about Chartership, which institute did you wish to become Chartered under? The big institutes such as the IEE, IMechE, and ICE have stringent requirements for academic qualifications and for training and experience after graduation. If you have extensive experience in industry, the institute may waive the full academic requirements subject to submission of a written thesis. I doubt anyone much under 35 years old will have that level of experience. The best thing to do will be to visit the website of the relevant institue and have a look for professional development paths.
----------------------------------
If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
See what you truly would like to do for a livin' within the engineering business. And then decide on what should be the best step to take.
Engineering is a field where we must always be up to date with new technologies, and the evolution is getting faster...
So a little study and a degree wouldn't hurt. ;)
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
What matters more to me is my perception of the candidate's ability to learn and grow; the candidates work ethic; and how I think they will "fit" in my company and business.
If I had two nearly identical candidates, I would obviously prefer the one with an advanced degree, but most likely the other factors I just mentioned will carry greater weight than the degree.
This is also the advice I've given my daughter who graduated in May.
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
Thanks for the words of encouragement in regards to higher degrees. I was starting to get the impression that higher degrees are no good in industry even though I believe that a higher degree does allows one to have a thorough understanding of a subject.
I have now heard this word "fit" used several times. What exactly do employers mean when they use the word "fit"?
Does this mean the ability to start doing a job right away without training? Does this mean the ability to fit within the coporate culture? Does this mean the ability to work with a team?
TIA
Klaus
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
In my case at least, the best description of "FIT" is will the candidate "fit" in with my group of engineers, with other engineers "on the floor", and will he/she "fit" in with the customers we typically interface with.
Yhis includes, I think, being able to work within a team (my team). It includes only a little bit fitting in with the "corporate culture", but as I'm sort-of a rogue myself keep in mind the adjetive "little". "Fit" does not, to me at least, have much to do with technical competence. In fact, I suppose I could use two terms to fully describe a person: (a) their technical competence, and (b)"fit", which may imply everything else.
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
TTFN
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
Hg
RE: How high of a degree should I get?
From my perspective as a working senior engineer and group manager, there exists both a "corporate culture", as well as a "local culture", and these are often very different.
Most working engineers, IMHO, don't have to worry too much about the "corporate culture". Senior managers do, of course. Working/middle managers, such as myself, do to an extent. The working level engineer, though, just has to "fit" into the local cultur, at least at first.
I suspect some find find my distinguishing between "local" and "corporate" as curious. But in my firm of approx. 3,000 employees, there are only about 250 engineers, and half are in my local office. My local office obtains it's own contracts from our own customers, as well as provide technical support to other offices, and as long as out "bottom line" numbers are good, corporate will let us "run our own show" - to an extent, of course.
RE: How high of a degree should I get?