Why MBA after Engineering (B.Tech)?

Pursuing an MBA after engineering has become a trend among engineers in the last decade. In fact most of the toppers of management entrance exams like CAT are engineers from IITs.

The student profile of IIM Ahmedabad's Post-Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) clearly shows the domination of engineers (94%)

But what relevance does an MBA have to the highly technical skills of a professional engineer and is there a need for engineers to pursue MBA? Let's take a look at the various reasons that engineers have for opting for an MBA after completing their B.E/ B.Tech:

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Read: List of engineering entrance exams

Reasons why engineers choose to pursue MBA

1. Halfway through their engineering course, they lose interest in the subject and field & decide to go for an MBA instead.
   
   
2. The realization that in India, MBA graduates get paid more than their engineering counterparts.
   
   
3. Pathetic quality of education (engineering curriculum) being imparted in most engineering colleges in India - major reason why students lose interest in the subject in the first place.
   
   
4. Engineers find it quite easy to crack CAT, XAT, SNAP and other MBA entrance exams, since a major component of these entrance exams are the Quantitative Aptitude & Logical Reasoning sections which are a cakewalk for engineering students.
   
   
5. B.Tech graduates who have no desire to pursue M.Tech often end up opting for an MBA.
   
   
6. "All my friends were planning to go for an MBA, so I'm also appearing for CAT."
   
   
7. Lack of enough engineering jobs in India. India churns out more engineers than China + USA!
   
   
8. Engineering is considered a "safe bet". Following it up with an MBA is the "safest bet."

Most students go in for engineering with no clue about what they want to do in future. Image courtesy: quora.com

Good reasons to study Management after Engineering

1. An engineer who is in a technical role and wants to move up the hierarchy can pursue an MBA to transition easily to a managerial role.
   
   
2. Engineers with a good product they've built and who want to convert it into a profitable business venture can benefit from studying management and entrepreneurship.
   
   
3. In a world that is technology-driven, engineers need to go beyond creating products to pricing them & putting them up in the market for what they're worth. An MBA helps here.

Read: List of MBA Specializations in India - Top MBA Specializations and Streams

The most important question that most of you are facing is whether MBA a must after engineering? Today we see that 70-80% of the students appearing for the Common Admission Test (CAT) exam are engineers and in most of the cases it is not even a well thought decision but an act of going with the flow.  Today, MBA has carved a niche for itself today in almost all the professions of the world. Doing MBA entirely depends upon individuals their priorities in life. Ideally speaking it is always good to have a PG degree because just an undergraduate degree in this highly competitive market is mostly not enough. Before choosing MBA as a career you must analyse whether it is the career for you or not.

One of the most important questions is whether to join MBA immediately after engineering or to work and then join. Well, some of the major institutes do prefer people with some work experience and many of the courses during the MBA program revolve around concepts and principles that one would get exposed to only at work. In such cases work experience becomes the distinguishing factor. The ability of the person with some work experience to interact, discuss and handle a particular situation will always have a more practical approach than a fresher.

It is significant that engineers widen their knowledge and skills in the management area if they wish to become senior managers in an organization. Having already obtained a technical degree, an MBA expands the horizon of their education in the wider areas of management. The role of the engineer is changing rapidly within an industrial organization. The engineer is likely to be the manager that has to implement new practices and new technology.

Read: 

MBE vs MBA

MBA gives you the confidence to pursue your dreams and gives you a force to innovate and experiment. A management degree polishes your managerial skills making you to work towards the goal of the application with greater productivity and lesser cost. The course makes you acquainted with all the aspects of running a company. It grooms the person to serve the best to oneself – only then can he be an asset to an organization.