Do i have to get Master Degree? 2

[Riko_93]

Hi,
Could you please, help me to decide that if i have to get master degree or not? My field is Process Engineering. And, i want to be qualified to work internationally.
So, it'll be time lost or i will use it somehow in future?

 

[NorthCivil]

For what its worth:

I once worked at a small private structural firm, doing mostly wood frame buildings, 50/50 new builds-alterations, with a high volume of projects and on-site involvement.

By trial and error experience, they actively preferred to hire young engineers with a BS over MS, as they found the MS engineers always "tried to make a thesis out of everything" where as the engineers with the BS were better at giving the jobs an "appropriate" level of number crunching, and getting projects out the door.

Not typical in the structural world, most of the big name outfits prefer an MS. Those firms also have a lot of paper pushing, form filling, flashy websites etc.

Which is why I prefer small outfits. As a young engineer, you actually get to do something

As a young gun I would prefer a job where I push out 50 projects in a year with not much more math than wl^2/8, than working at a firm that gives me 3 weeks to analyze the loads of every bolt in a connection. Just my opinion, but I think you learn more that way.

 

[lacajun]

I got my master's many years after the bachelor's and many years after working in manufacturing plants all over PPG Industries. They didn't encourage me to do it but they did pay for it because it related to engineering. In the late 1990s, what I learned about Statistical Quality Control, in one semester, they paid tens of thousands/person for many people to learn through third parties. They had a lot of time away from work so the company lost that productivity and incurred travel expenses. Many courses helped me do my job better and the concepts were applied, from economic analysis of projects to controls. I wasn't adding IP, technology, or products but simply taking knowledge gained at the graduate level and applying it across the board in old, mundane, boring, heavy manufacturing plants.

My career began in PPG's formerly owned chemical plant in Lake Charles, LA, which is a continuous chemical plant. I then moved to Pittsburgh and worked in one of their batch paint plants. I then moved to discrete windshield fabrication and lastly moved into a corporate position in flat glass, which is continuous. They are different manufacturing processes but each has its own challenges to solve, from deteriorating equipment to complex politics to navigate.

I've found that education has a refining effect on the way the brain works. It's always a good investment to make in yourself. I've found that formal education, i.e., institution provided education, has the most refining effect because of the pressure to perform and really think through what you are turning in for evaluation, interaction with the professors and students, preparing for exams, etc. Informal education, to me, does not have the same effect. I found that structure helps me get more from education.

I and other master's degreed engineers never turned a project into a thesis. That depends on the individual, primarily, and the culture of the company, to whatever extent.

I had a tendency to overthink every aspect of projects at the beginning of my career because I feared making a mistake. My mentor called me on it, politely, and I changed.

Early in my career I think Control Magazine published the financial differences between educational achievements in ROI and payback period. A master and doctorate have higher ROIs than a bachelor degree. The payback period on the master is much shorter than the doctorate. I don't know how it all shakes out now.

Bottom line, do what you want to do. I enjoyed engineering education and wanted more. If you enjoy it and want it, do it.

If you really want to become an international expert in some aspect, I would strongly recommend you get the doctorate along the way. A Colorado School of Mines professor recommended it to me several years ago because that's what truly leads to being an expert and commensurate compensation. I kick myself often for not following through on his advice. Partly because he gave it and I'd had it from others over the years including my undergrad advisor. You need to sit down and do the hard work to determine what you want to do with your life and how to do it. If you ask others, you'll get all of the above answers, which will not lead you one step closer to determining what you want to do. The previous answers are all over the map, which will lead your brain all over the map. It's pure chaos and you need order to make your decision.


Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program:

http://nspe-co.org/events.php

 

[HamburgerHelper]

I enjoyed getting my masters way more than my undergrad. When I was doing my masters, I was only taking classes that were related to the field I was working in so it was easy for me to invest my time and money into learning the material. I think it has helped me some careerwise, not the degree itself so much but just the benefit of having more tools and knowledge. There are certain analytical skills that are very hard to pick up or understand without having taken the classes but in most jobs you rarely run into those type of problems but when you do you'll look pretty smart. I would always recommend it if the company was paying for it. I suppose the biggest thing I got from my masters degree was going from "what's a bushing or what are Vars?" to being able to explain those concepts in detail to other laypeople and engineers. The masters degree also puts me closer to the front of the line for jobs that I am interested in. Being able to get the jobs that you want is of incredible value in of itself. Being able to be picky about who you work for or what you do is worth its weight in gold. The extra money you probably will make is just gravy.

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If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.

 

[lacajun]

Agreed, HamburgerHelper!

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program:

http://nspe-co.org/events.php