My question is, would a Graduate Certificate in Engineering be worth it for a person with my background? I’m deciding between this or a more time-consuming Masters program in Engineering.
These certificates in Manufacturing Engineering from Columbia University which is offered online is an example of what I’m contemplating:
Currently, I have a Bachelor’s degree in Information Management / Electronic Commerce from a lesser-known college, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification from Villanova University, and I’m in the middle of a Master in Business Administration program from an amply reputable college in my region of the U.S. With my 5 years of full-time experience, I do not have direct experience with Engineering.
Would a Graduate Certificate in Engineering such as the ones offered by Columbia University plus my background education be enough to qualify me for many Engineering jobs?
The short answer is no - the only thing that will qualify you for engineering jobs is a professional engineering license, which usually requires an undergraduate engineering degree and four years of professional experience.
The longer answer is that you may be better qualified for engineering management jobs with a certificate than without. Do you have an idea of what kind of jobs you’re interested in? What field was your five years of experience in? Are you interested in continuing with that field, or looking for a change.
I’m not sure what you mean by a “Professional Engineering License.” Most Engineers I’ve known were able to get a job in that field immediately after getting a college education in a field of Engineering.
Ideally, I would want to change to a more direct role in the Engineering field or more precisely, Engineering Management. Furthermore, I noticed that other great fields such as Business Analysis and Project Management seem to be greatly dominated by Engineers as well because they understand technical subjects better than others.
Also, my company gives preferential treatment to Engineers (like many many companies these days) so I’m sure that educating myself in the field of Engineering is something I should do in one way or another. Currently, I’m in the field of Materials/Property Management which isn’t very lucrative.
None of the engineers I’ve met have mentioned taking that test and they seem to be doing exceptionally well. I’m not going to worry about that right now. I’m wondering if a Graduate Certificate in Engineering is worth the investment for my situation or is a much more time-consuming Masters Degree in Engineering something I’m going to have to dedicate myself to.
By the way, here is where I’m researching my potential Engineering education opportunities:
I worked as an engineer for 26 years with a BSE in Aero Engineering and no license. My husband has worked as a mechanical engineer for close to 25 years without a license. So you don’t *have *to have a license to get a job as an engineer, although certain jobs do require one. My quick and dirty look at the list of studies in your link tells me that you couldn’t have gotten hired as an engineer where I worked with such a certificate - they specifically required a degree from an ABET accredited school. Of course I’m one person with an admittedly narrow experience.
Moreover, the credits for the classes in their certificate programs can be transferred to their Masters degree programs in Engineering. The same applies to many of the longstanding and brick-and-mortar universities that I’m considering.
I would be surprised if 10% of the engineers in the workforce are PEs. I know hundreds of EEs out here in Si Valley, and not one is a PE. I think you see that more in MEs than in something like EEs or ChemEs.
I’m a civil engineer, and the license is critical to practitioners in my field. It’s less important for other fields, but people in those fields will have to speak to that.
If you want to be an engineer, you need to get either a master’s in engineer or a second bachelor’s degree. If you want to be an engineering manager, you can take the certificate path to shore up your background knowledge, but you’ll also have to bring other skills to the table - this is where your MBA and six-sigma certifications come in. In that case, you’d want to select the certification program to dovetail with your other qualifications and the kind of work you want to get into.
With one Masters degree in Business already on the way, I’m definitely trying to be cautious about my use of money and time. From your experience, what would require less time and expenditures: converting my current Bachelor degree credits to an Engineer bachelors degree program and taking the remaining Engineering classes or starting a Masters degree in Engineering from scratch? Is the Master’s Degree in Engineering much more intense?
I know I’m going to have to dedicate a large amount of time and effort to either option, but as someone who’s going to have a large amount of education at that point already, I would want to go with the choice that would have the least impact on time and expenditures. Either option should give me great results.
I’m not entirely convinced that you need an engineering degree. You mentioned wanting to move into engineering management, and that’s possible even without being an engineer. With an MBA and six-sigma certs, you have qualifications that most engineers don’t. A lot of engineers are managed by people without engineering degrees (ever read Dilbert? :p), so I don’t think it’s a necessity for the career path you’re hoping for. In this case, the certificate you linked to in your first post will show that you have some understanding of the engineering issues you’ll be dealing with, even if you don’t have a specific engineering degree.
If you do decide that you want a straight up engineering degree, it would depend on the school you’re applying to and your educational background. My first impression is that it would be easier to get a second BS than to jump into Master’s level work without the background in engineering… but that’s really just a guess. Look at a standard undergrad engineering program - if you apply for a master’s somewhere, they’ll assume that you already know most of that material, and you’ll have to make up any shortcomings on your own.
As someone who is moving from engineering towards engineering management, I can assure you that the certificate would be a waste of your time, energy and money. Places I have worked at, which have included manufacturing environments, would not give much thought to a certificate. Your BS, MBA and Six Sigma experience are much, much more meaningful.
I have a BSEE and am currently getting my MBA. I can also assure you that if you decide to get a BS in engineering, it will be a lot more difficult than the MBA.
To be worth it the degree has to get you a job. If the field requires licensing then you’ll need that job to qualify for licensing (in the cases I know of). I haven’t heard of the requirement for a bachelors in engineering as a requirement for a job or a license if you have a graduate degree or certification, but all the licensed engineers I know had a bachelors in engineering so it never came up.
But it gets back to the job. There must be some way to find out about the placement rate from a particular school. There should also be engineering publications that discuss employment needs and requirements. As occupations go, engineering has generally provided steady opportunities, good pay, and job security. There’s also a lot of flexibility in most areas allowing you to work almost anywhere.
I’m curious though, are you having trouble finding work with your current level of education? There are plenty of engineering jobs available to people without any specific degree if they have sufficient skills. And there are numerous people working in software who have any of the available engineering degrees and never use that specialized knowledge. Maybe you need to narrow your selection of employment areas and concentrate on the education that would be most helpful there.
There is the possibility that this type of Graduate Certificate would be a waste of time, energy, and money. After acquiring my MBA degree, it may make more sense to go for ASQ certifications such as Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Reliability Engineer Certification (CRE), and their version of the Six Sigma Black Belt certification to make myself a stronger employee in manufacturing/production environments. Those certifications are reputable, would require much less time and energy, and they’ll cost less than $2,000 altogether compared to a graduate certificate from Columbia University which costs over $17,000.
Thank you for your answer. I like honesty that is direct and upfront but doesn’t tear people apart either.
Yes, these types of graduate certificates do seem risky because of the fact that I don’t know whether I would get a job as a result of getting one. Additionally, they are very expensive and could require a great deal of study time. I may just go for the ASQ certifications I stated in my previous reply after acquiring my MBA since I can much easier gauge what to expect as a result of getting those.
I think I better just pass on getting a Bachelors or Masters degree in Engineering at this point. At this rate, I’ll probably have more hours of my life dedicated to education than 99% of the population within two years. I already find that my MBA program restricts my personal life along with the 50 or so hours a week that I spend at my job. An Engineering program right now would basically take a great amount of joy out of my life up until the point that I actually complete it.
I’ll just seek ASQ certifications to make myself more marketable for manufacturing/production based companies such as the one I’m in now.
I don’t know how you would survive a masters engineering program, or certificate program for that matter, without even a bachelors in engineering or physics. At least the high level math classes at a minimum.
Certificates are generally worthless and I’ve never heard of anyone getting a job due to having one.