Master degree in which field?

[Riko_93]

Hi,

I'm graduate process engineer and i'm planning to change my carrer ( in 5-10 years) to Project Engineer. For this, could you please, advice me which field is to be good to get master degree ?

 

[StrucPEng]

Riko,

I think it will really depend on the field that you plan on working in moving forward. To my knowledge there is no specific engineering discipline that a Project Engineer works in. With that said (and being a project engineer in commercial construction, so take this for what its worth) I have generally encountered Project Engineers in the civil engineering and construction industry, but again it depends on your anticipated career path.

You could always do a masters in project management as project engineers deal with similar tasks but to me that seems like a waste of a masters degree as the concepts are something you could learn through self study, online classes, and experience. Not to mention saving yourself the tuition.

 

[epoisses_]

That is typically learnt on the job.
As a chemical engineer in a big company, your usual first job is plant engineer on one or a few process units. Sooner or later a project will come along in your area (you're actually supposed to initiate or at least scope and screen them yourself) and that is the perfect occasion to get a feel for project engineering as you work together with the project team during the front end loading, and you can hop on the project engineering train if you like it. It will come as a natural move, either within the chemical company or a move to the engineering contractor.

Project engineering is 50% technical and 50% psychology. When the @#$% hits the fan you have to keep cool and focus on getting the thing done - safely, on spec, in time, in budget, as much as. You can't learn that from a master degree.

 

[IRstuff]

Are your Project Engineers responsible for budget and spending? If so, then some Econ and Business training would probably do you better. As a Project Engineer is essentially a managerial position, a higher degree, aside from possibly an MBA, doesn't seem warranted.

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[AlaskanME]

Some folks I have encountered (oil & gas industry) whose goal was to always get into project engineering earned their Master of Science in Project Management, but most the time project engineers were discipline engineers who were successful in that role and naturally moved into a project role.

 

[HamburgerHelper]

There are a lot of bad project managers that never were disciplined engineers.

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[Riko_93]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your response, they helped me how to think/decide. As you said (and my process Lead is saying) will be better to learn by working rather than spending time in master.

Regards,

 

[EngrPaper]

Here at work in textile, most of the engineers bear the title "Project Engineer." Some of the guys have their masters, but only in their technical field (EE, mostly). I've noticed that the MEs seem to gravitate toward PMI's PMP certification. That may be a good option without paying college level tuition.