Studying engineering management is a good way to prepare yourself to enter leadership in a technical industry. Just about every form of engineering, from chemical to civil, needs managers to keep projects on-track and within budget.
Broadly speaking, engineering managers oversee projects from conception to execution. The exact process, though, depends heavily on the industry. Engineering managers may oversee a production scale-up, the construction of a bridge or the creation of a product.
Professor Abel Fernandez, the chair of University of the Pacific’s engineering management program, will tell anyone who asks that it can be hard to explain the program. People rightly wonder how a fresh college graduate can enter management. And the answer is, they typically don’t.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t study engineering management, though. In fact, it’s a great degree for people who are looking ahead in their career. By training as an engineer while also getting comfortable overseeing systems-level issues — think budgets, timelines and team leadership — you’ll be ready for advancement when the opportunity arises.
Tyler McIntosh
At Pacific, engineering management student Tyler McIntosh landed an internship with America’s fifth-largest winery, Delicato Family Wines in Manteca, California. Tyler believes his real-world experience and background in engineering management will help him find success in intellectual property law.
This degree is also a great option for students who aren’t necessarily interested in engineering management itself. Plenty of engineering jobs have feet in two worlds: sales engineering, project cost estimating and technical marketing are just a few examples. Engineering management students develop their technical skills alongside their business and leadership abilities.
If that sounds interesting to you, here’s what else you need to know about pursuing an engineering management degree.
What does an engineering manager do?
The day-to-day job depends heavily on the industry and even the individual company, but you can generally think of it as a specialized form of project management.
At the front end, an engineering manager might design a plan and timeline, get a budget ready and source tools or components. They call on their technical knowledge and experience to predict project issues, then plan accordingly.
As the project gets underway, engineering managers may shift from planning to delegating work, keeping their team on-track and preparing updates for outside stakeholders. Being a strong communicator is very important in this stage, as they may have to coordinate with other teams in the company or build relationships with clients or vendors.
Engineering managers may still have to get their hands dirty during these projects, especially if they’re working with a smaller team.
Keep in mind that the particulars of this job depend heavily on the industry and company. That might be frustrating if you’re trying to wrap your head around it, but that’s also one of this degree’s great strengths. You’ll still learn and train as an engineer in a field that interests you, while also building skills that are helpful for advancing your career anywhere you go.
Engineering manager skills
- Engineering education
- Engineering managers need to understand the principles of their field in order to appropriately direct their team’s work. That knowledge — along with years of hands-on experience — will be used at every stage of the project.
- Leadership
- A good leader is responsible for motivating their subordinates, keeping track of their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning tasks to the person best suited for it.
- Management
- Management and leadership are often used interchangeably, but it’s better to think of them separately. Management relates more strongly to the logistical problems of running a team. This could mean organizing collaborations between subordinates or with outside parties, or it might mean dealing with office conflict. Projects also have a lot of administrative work which falls under this purview.
- Project management
- Overseeing anything is a can of worms, let alone a multi-person project with a rapidly approaching deadline. Bringing a project to fruition means tracking lots of details, large and small, while keeping everything according to schedule.
- Communication
- Clear communication can determine whether a vendor gives you the right parts, a team member does a task correctly or whether a boss understands that a project needs more time.
- Problem solving
- It’s inevitable that engineering managers will run into problems, so it’s essential that they learn how to overcome, solve or avoid them.
Where do engineering managers work?
Engineering management degrees offer a flexible way to combine technical training with an education in business and leadership. It will equip you with the tools to step into a field you’re passionate about.
That’s not to say that every engineering management degree looks the same to an employer. You will build a portfolio through your coursework and internships, getting more familiar with certain industries and technical specializations as you advance your career.
So, even before you start college, it’s important to start thinking about what kind of work you’d like to be doing in your career. Knowing that will help you choose the right electives as you work toward your degree.
You don’t need to worry about being perfect. It’s very common for college students to adjust or even fully change their goals as they advance their learning. The important thing is to have an educational plan that guides your choices, even if you do course-correct during your college career.
Listed below are industries that have engineering management roles. Learning more about each one is a good way to create a well-informed plan for your studies.
- Aerospace engineering
- Biomedical engineering
- Chemical engineering
- Civil engineering
- Computer engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Industrial engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- Software engineering
Engineering management vs. an MBA
Of course, studying engineering management isn’t the only path to leadership in technical industries. There are some who may learn those skills on the job, while others may return to university to pursue graduate-level studies.
As an example, a working engineer could pursue a Master of Business Administration degree, such as the one offered by Pacific, to get a foot in the door of leadership positions.
It may be a worthwhile decision, but earning an MBA mid-career also poses some challenges. Those who stay at their job, either full- or part-time, will have to juggle both commitments – doable, but no easy task. Others might leave their job altogether to focus on their studies, which can come at a significant financial cost.
Pursuing a degree in engineering management, though, can offer you a portion of that learning while you’re still an undergrad. Students who really take advantage of their time — maximizing their course load, getting good research and work experience — might even get a lot of the benefit of an MBA program. In other words, they’ll be ready when the opportunity for career advancement arises.
Neither route is necessarily the “right” option. If you’re already thinking about moving into leadership, though, engineering management might be the leg up you need in your career.
Studying engineering management at Pacific
One of the main things to know about Pacific’s program is that students truly make it their own. Fernandez estimates that between a third and a half of all classes are electives. This flexibility allows students to gain specialization in their fields of interest. This could look like a focus on a particular form of engineering, but you also can position yourself well for a specific type of job.
As an example, Fernandez points toward two program alumni who now work as lawyers focusing on intellectual property. Their technical background helps them understand the technology they now work with. At the same time, because engineering management is so flexible, they were also able to take classes that prepared them for law school.
It’s worth noting that these courses aren’t chosen in a vacuum. Rather, they’re grouped by field (for example, choosing two classes in engineering science, in business, etc.). This allows students to build their own experience while also making sure there’s a clear arc to their education.
Pacific also helps its engineering management students prepare for the real world as they near graduation. The first is the Cooperative Education program, better known as “CO-OP.” Pacific partners with employers who post CO-OP-exclusive programs on Handshake, which students — after taking a class to prepare — can apply to. These paid positions will last from six to eight months.
“I loved my CO-OP!” says Jeniffer Alvarado, a program graduate who now works for the City of Stockton, about her experience. “I went to Abbott, and I was a systems engineer. I would say, before my CO-OP, I was very shy. The CO-OP pushed me above my limits in the sense that I became a more confident individual in my work. Things that I had seen as weaknesses in myself became strengths.”
Engineering management students will also complete a capstone project in tandem with a team of peers, pulling together their education in design and execution. It’s also, Fernandez points out, an exercise in managing expectations.
“That’s part of engineering,” he says. “You are not going to eradicate world poverty in 15 weeks. So, what you have to do is learn bounded rationality. In other words, you have to figure out, ‘if there’s three of us, and we have this much experience and we have 14 weeks, what can we do?’”
Alvarado recalls Fernandez pushing her team to do their best within those constraints. Her team created a renovation plan for a campus building, trying to create a multi-purpose place for everyone. It was a challenge to seek out input from students, staff and faculty to try and design a space that works for everyone. But that’s the exact type of experience that’s invaluable once you enter the workplace.
With all this at their backs, students from Pacific’s program will enter the workforce ready to be engineering managers when the time comes. They’ll also have the skills they need to work entry- and mid-level jobs until then.
Alvarado says she still thinks about her classes in her day-to-day work. “Now that I’m a project manager for the parks division, I find myself thinking, ‘oh, this is the stuff that I learned back when I took these classes at UOP.’ I would say it’s all tied together nicely.”
Entry-level jobs for aspiring engineering managers
Because engineering management is such a broad umbrella, there are plenty of entry-level jobs available across a variety of industries including:
- Project engineer
- Quality assurance technician
- Design engineer
- Operations analyst
- Field engineer
- System engineer
Studying engineering management
An engineering management degree can help you step into a field you’re passionate about while also setting yourself up for a leadership position. You’ll learn hard skills that will remain relevant and soft skills that you’ll continue to build on throughout your career. There is a growing need for technical managers, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating a 6% increase in employment over the next decade.
If you’re just getting started, you should continue doing research on the industries and specializations that interest you. It’s also important to choose a program that will set you up for success, giving you classroom learning, practical experience and industry networking.