What Can I Do with an Engineering Management Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Grad­u­ates can lead and man­age engi­neer­ing projects, blend­ing tech­ni­cal exper­tise with man­age­ment skills.
• Engi­neer­ing degrees open up roles in var­i­ous indus­tries such as man­u­fac­tur­ing, tech­nol­o­gy, and con­struc­tion.
• The degree lays a foun­da­tion for fur­ther stud­ies or spe­cial­iza­tion in fields like indus­tri­al, mechan­i­cal, or sys­tems engi­neer­ing.

Engi­neer­ing is a vast field that focus­es on solv­ing prob­lems and cre­at­ing solu­tions through small- and large-scale appli­ca­tions. As a pure­ly tech­ni­cal field, it’s often nec­es­sary to have some­one who can com­bine that tech­ni­cal capa­bil­i­ty with lead­er­ship skills to help guide projects and achieve goals. That’s what engi­neer­ing man­age­ment is all about.

But, is a degree in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment worth it? When it comes to engi­neer­ing, it’s impor­tant that lead­er­ship, guid­ance, and plan­ning come from some­one who under­stands engi­neer­ing basics, fun­da­men­tals, and appli­ca­tion. This is what makes an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree worth it. Indus­tries that hire engi­neers also need some­one who can help make deci­sions that include both tech­ni­cal knowl­edge and busi­ness insight.

What Is Engineering Management? Is An Engineering Management Degree Worth It?

Because the engi­neer­ing field is vast, there’s also a need for engi­neer­ing man­agers who have spe­cial­iza­tions. Through an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree pro­gram, engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion­als can learn how to take their tech­ni­cal skills and apply them to man­age­ment. Some things that an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment pro­gram will teach can include:

• Prob­lem-solv­ing as a leader and tech­ni­cal con­trib­u­tor to projects
• How to apply engi­neer­ing and sci­en­tif­ic prin­ci­ples to lead­er­ship capabilities
• Man­ag­ing tech­ni­cal pur­suits in mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary tech­ni­cal environments
• Using tech­ni­cal knowl­edge to cre­ate work­flows and inter­pret infor­ma­tion from var­i­ous sectors

Keep in mind that engi­neer­ing man­age­ment con­sists of two things; the engi­neer­ing aspect, and the man­age­ment aspect. That means this is, at its core, a man­age­ment degree. That means a lot of the cur­ricu­lum will have to do with the man­age­r­i­al aspects of busi­ness, rather than the pure­ly tech­ni­cal aspects of engineering.

Engi­neer­ing and tech­ni­cal employ­ees or orga­ni­za­tions have a spe­cial need when it comes to man­age­ment, and the engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree pro­gram is designed to facil­i­tate that need. In addi­tion, there are peo­ple with engi­neer­ing or tech­ni­cal back­grounds that may want to learn man­age­ment and lead­er­ship skills to help with their own businesses.

The world needs engi­neers of every type, in every sec­tor, in every indus­try. But the world also needs engi­neers who know how to lead, ana­lyze, admin­is­trate and man­age. So, the ques­tion of is engi­neer­ing man­age­ment a good degree, is often answered with a resound­ing yes.

Beyond all oth­er con­sid­er­a­tions, it’s worth not­ing that an engi­neer man­age­ment degree is still a man­age­ment degree. That means grad­u­ates can apply their knowl­edge to oth­er pur­suits that require man­age­ment train­ing as well.

How Important is Accreditation for Engineering Management Programs?

When it comes to tech­ni­cal and STEM fields, accred­i­ta­tion absolute­ly does mat­ter when choos­ing a school or pro­gram. This is espe­cial­ly true for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment pro­grams. There are sev­er­al dif­fer­ent types of accred­i­ta­tion. For engi­neer­ing school accred­i­ta­tion, it’s impor­tant to look for both region­al accred­i­ta­tion and spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion for any engi­neer­ing program.

For most brick-and-mor­tar schools and uni­ver­si­ties, the first thing to check for is if the school has region­al accred­i­ta­tion from one of the accred­it­ing bod­ies sanc­tioned by the Coun­cil for High­er Edu­ca­tion Accred­i­ta­tion (CHEA). This is the de fac­to accred­i­ta­tion that most schools and orga­ni­za­tions should have as it’s a stan­dard across the country.

As region­al accred­i­ta­tion is gen­er­al­ly accept­ed around the coun­try, it’s eas­i­er to trans­fer cred­its and move between schools. It’s also eas­i­er to trans­fer cred­its from a region­al­ly accred­it­ed pro­gram to one that isn’t accred­it­ed than it is to do the opposite.

Specialized Accreditation of Engineering Programs

How­ev­er, engi­neer­ing also requires sep­a­rate, spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion. For engi­neer­ing pro­grams, this type of accred­i­ta­tion will come from groups that con­sist of engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion­als and engi­neer­ing aca­d­e­mics who set guide­lines, stan­dards, and best prac­tices for teach­ing engi­neer­ing cours­es as well as for prepar­ing stu­dents to enter the field.

There are many accred­it­ing bod­ies for engi­neer­ing, espe­cial­ly since there are var­i­ous, dis­parate types of engi­neer­ing out there, each with its own con­sid­er­a­tions for teach­ing and learn­ing. How­ev­er, for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment, the engi­neer­ing school accred­i­ta­tion will typ­i­cal­ly come from ABET.

Is ABET accred­i­ta­tion impor­tant? The Accred­i­ta­tion Board for Engi­neer­ing & Tech­nol­o­gy (ABET) is the most rec­og­nized accred­it­ing body for STEM edu­ca­tion in the coun­try. It’s even rec­og­nized inter­na­tion­al­ly with many engi­neer­ing pro­grams around the world that adhere to its guide­lines for education.

ABET accred­its pro­grams, not insti­tu­tions. It’s pos­si­ble to find a school or uni­ver­si­ty with lack­lus­ter accred­i­ta­tion in oth­er areas, but an excel­lent ABET-accred­it­ed engi­neer­ing program.

ABET accred­i­ta­tion require­ments typ­i­cal­ly require pro­grams to have some gen­er­al edu­ca­tion, some math­e­mat­ics, as well as a year of study in phys­i­cal or nat­ur­al sci­ences. ABET accred­i­ta­tion require­ments set the base­line stan­dard for bach­e­lor-lev­el edu­ca­tion, which means all stu­dents will have a basic skill set that will allow them to enter an engi­neer­ing field or to pre­pare them for future study for a high­er degree or specialization.

Engi­neer­ing school accred­i­ta­tion or sanc­tion­ing can also come from ATMAE or ASEM. Even though there are some oth­er accred­it­ing bod­ies for engi­neer­ing, it can make an appli­cant ask does ABET accred­i­ta­tion mat­ter. Gen­er­al­ly, yes, ABET accred­i­ta­tion does mat­ter, but for espe­cial­ly dis­cern­ing appli­cants who know pre­cise­ly what type of career tra­jec­to­ry they want, it might not mat­ter as much.

For exam­ple, if an engi­neer­ing job or indus­try in a par­tic­u­lar town val­ues grad­u­ates that have a degree from a spe­cif­ic local engi­neer­ing pro­gram, then a stu­dent who wants to join that town’s indus­try may not need an ABET-accred­it­ed degree. How­ev­er, hav­ing an ABET-accred­it­ed degree is typ­i­cal­ly prefer­able in most circumstances.

Anoth­er thing about ABET is that they do ful­ly accred­it online degree pro­grams. So, it’s pos­si­ble to earn an ABET-accred­it­ed online degree. That might not always be pos­si­ble with oth­er accred­it­ing bod­ies that don’t do full eval­u­a­tions of online programs.

Are There Different Types of Engineering Management Degrees?

Engi­neer­ing con­sists of var­i­ous dis­ci­plines, so it makes sense that there are var­i­ous types of engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degrees. An engi­neer­ing man­age­ment bachelor’s can come in a vari­ety of types. In many cas­es, an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment bachelor’s can look like a man­age­ment degree for a spe­cif­ic concentration.

For exam­ple, instead of a bach­e­lor of engi­neer­ing man­age­ment, a stu­dent may pur­sue a bach­e­lor of infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment. This is still an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree, to an extent, but it has a fine focus on IT. Gen­er­al­ly, the degree type name may con­tain a branch of engi­neer­ing com­bined with a man­age­ment or admin­is­tra­tion designation.

In addi­tion, dif­fer­ent schools may have dif­fer­ent names for their bachelor’s in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment. For exam­ple, appli­cants may see degree types such as:

• BSEM – Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Engi­neer­ing Management
• BEEM – Bach­e­lor of Engi­neer­ing in Engi­neer­ing Management
• BSc – Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence (in Engi­neer­ing Management)
• BSE – Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Engi­neer­ing (in Engi­neer­ing Management)

If in doubt, an appli­cant should pay close atten­tion to the course struc­ture and cur­ricu­lum. In some cas­es, the degree type can have more to do with a spe­cif­ic aspect of man­age­ment in an engi­neer­ing field, rather than on engi­neer­ing man­age­ment in general.

A bach­e­lor of engi­neer­ing man­age­ment can have some flex­i­bil­i­ty to it, espe­cial­ly if a stu­dent wants to spe­cial­ize in one of the many aspects of engi­neer­ing. How­ev­er, most bach­e­lors in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment will offer a career-ready edu­ca­tion that pre­pares a stu­dent to either enter the work­force or to take their knowl­edge to the next lev­el of their education.

Every­thing here also applies to an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment bach­e­lor degree online. An accred­it­ed online degree holds just as much recog­ni­tion as one earned offline, but appli­cants will still need to put as much con­sid­er­a­tion into the degree type they wish to pursue.

The course­work for full-time enroll­ment will include gen­er­al cred­it hours for core cours­es, elec­tives, and typ­i­cal­ly a cap­stone project. Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment can also include spe­cial­iza­tions like:

• indus­tri­al engineering
• mechan­i­cal engineering
• com­put­er science
• chem­i­cal engineering
• oper­a­tions management
• elec­tri­cal engineering
• aero­space engineering
• sys­tems engineering

Many engi­neer­ing man­age­ment pro­grams will also empha­size busi­ness man­age­ment skills like writ­ing bud­gets, human resource man­age­ment, deci­sion-mak­ing, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, prod­uct devel­op­ment, and oth­er busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment skills beyond just those in the engi­neer­ing discipline.

While many stu­dents will pre­fer on-cam­pus learn­ing, work­ing pro­fes­sion­als ben­e­fit the most from online edu­ca­tion pro­grams. Before sign­ing up for your under­grad­u­ate degree, con­sid­er the admis­sion require­ments and finan­cial aid oppor­tu­ni­ties. Every col­lege of engi­neer­ing will have its own requirements.

As before, when look­ing at a poten­tial engi­neer­ing man­age­ment bach­e­lor degree online, appli­cants should pay atten­tion to the degree type, the course, the cur­ricu­lum, and its struc­ture. They should make sure they’re going to receive the engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree that adheres to their goals.

Does Engineering Management Require Licenses or Certifications?

Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are impor­tant in the STEM and tech­ni­cal fields. In many cas­es, a degree will show an appli­cant has the basic knowl­edge to accom­plish man­age­r­i­al goals, but a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion shows they have the train­ing and recog­ni­tion to do so. In some oth­er cas­es, a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can become required to show that an appli­cant has spent time beyond the class­room learn­ing a specialization.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can also show com­pe­ten­cy in man­age­ment or in an engi­neer­ing-relat­ed field. For these and more rea­sons, engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are worth con­sid­er­ing. Some employ­ers may require engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as it can show an appli­cant under­stands what’s expect­ed of them in that par­tic­u­lar job or industry.

Unlike an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, some places can require an engi­neer­ing man­ag­er to have licens­ing before they can work in any capac­i­ty as an engi­neer or engi­neer­ing man­ag­er. This is a lev­el beyond an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate and may become an absolute neces­si­ty in some juris­dic­tions and industries.

Many of the pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in engi­neer­ing offer cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and licens­ing for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment. Through these offi­cial pro­grams, appli­cants can often gain titles such as Cer­ti­fied Asso­ciate in Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment (CAEM) or Cer­ti­fied Pro­fes­sion­al in Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment (CPEM).

In addi­tion, col­leges, indi­vid­ual orga­ni­za­tions, and even busi­ness­es may offer an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate. Some engi­neer­ing man­age­ment pro­grams offer a cer­tifi­cate in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment on com­ple­tion of the pro­gram. So, a grad­u­ate will have their degree and some cer­ti­fi­ca­tion when they start.

There are spe­cif­ic types of cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for engi­neer­ing man­agers, such as an engi­neer­ing project man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. In this case, an engi­neer­ing project man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate shows the appli­cant has both an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment edu­ca­tion, but also extra train­ing for deal­ing with man­ag­ing projects which are often mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary and doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly con­sist of just the types of engi­neer­ing the man­ag­er has an edu­ca­tion with.

It’s pos­si­ble to earn an online engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate. Many of the engi­neer­ing groups have online avenues toward cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or licens­ing. When look­ing to earn an online engi­neer­ing man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate online, appli­cants should make sure the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is com­ing from a rel­e­vant or rep­utable group.

What Are Some of the Careers in Engineering Management?

Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment is both a career unto itself, but also a path toward many oth­er poten­tial careers across just about any indus­try. When con­sid­er­ing an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment career path, appli­cants should always keep in mind that career path can include both engi­neer­ing careers, man­age­ment careers, and any com­bi­na­tion of both.

An engi­neer­ing man­ag­er career path can also include job-hop­ping. In this way, an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ate can gain addi­tion­al skills, poten­tial­ly high­er salary, and improve their port­fo­lio as they go. Because engi­neer­ing man­ag­er careers often exist because of a spe­cif­ic need, it’s pos­si­ble for some­one to find engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree jobs in var­i­ous places at var­i­ous times.

While some engi­neer­ing man­age­ment careers can con­sist of direct­ing a par­tic­u­lar busi­ness, these careers can also mean mov­ing from project to project with­in or out­side of a par­tic­u­lar com­pa­ny. As the need for engi­neer­ing man­agers can come and go with­in a sin­gle busi­ness, jobs for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree hold­ers can also evolve as they move along in their careers.

For those who won­der what can I do with an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree, the answer typ­i­cal­ly involves fig­ur­ing out what that person’s goals are. There’s a lot some­one can accom­plish through engi­neer man­ag­er careers, but the degree allows for a lot of flex­i­bil­i­ty when it comes to jobs and careers. Some of the jobs with engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree cre­den­tials include:

• Project man­ag­er
• Senior lead analyst
• Indus­tri­al management
• Con­struc­tion management
• Tech­ni­cal recruiter
• Engi­neer­ing manager
• Chief engi­neer

There are plen­ty of career oppor­tu­ni­ties in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment and oppor­tu­ni­ties beyond that as well. Some of the career oppor­tu­ni­ties in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment can require cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or licens­es, so appli­cants should make sure they know what’s required of them before pur­su­ing cer­tain jobs.

In some cas­es, engi­neer­ing man­age­ment jobs will hire some­one and give them a chance to earn the need­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tion dur­ing their train­ing peri­od. Dif­fer­ent indus­tries may have wild­ly dif­fer­ent require­ments for peo­ple with engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degrees.

For exam­ple, the engi­neer­ing project man­ag­er career path can look a lot dif­fer­ent for some­one who is enter­ing the field of sci­en­tif­ic research and devel­op­ment than it does for some­one enter­ing the oil and gas field. Still, every indus­try needs engi­neers of one type or anoth­er, so the engi­neer­ing man­age­ment career out­look only includes growth, accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The more expe­ri­ence some­one with a man­age­ment engi­neer­ing degree can accrue, the more desir­able they will look to employ­ers who need engi­neer­ing man­agers and project man­agers for engi­neer­ing projects. For this rea­son, engi­neer­ing man­age­ment majors should always seek to learn more, gain more cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, and make them­selves invalu­able to what­ev­er indus­try they choose to apply their knowl­edge and skills in.

It’s impor­tant to note that an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree career can also include engi­neer­ing jobs the appli­cant has train­ing in, as well as man­age­ment or admin­is­tra­tion posi­tions in just about any oth­er type of indus­try. This is because, once again, the degree is both an engi­neer­ing degree as well as a man­age­ment degree.

What Are the Salary Expectations for Engineering Management?

Salary expec­ta­tions for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment can vary quite a lot. Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree salary can also depend great­ly on the job title some­one has. In addi­tion, loca­tion, demand, expe­ri­ence, and indus­try can play a huge role in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree salary.

Anoth­er thing that can affect engi­neer­ing man­ag­er salary is the degree lev­el. It’s pos­si­ble to start an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment career and go far with an bach­e­lors in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment. How­ev­er, some employ­ers may want appli­cants to have a mas­ters degree or heav­i­ly spe­cial­ized degree before they will con­sid­er them.

Is a master’s in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment worth it? A mas­ters degree can help some­one claim a high­er salary, but a bach­e­lors degree with expe­ri­ence and some cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can also help some­one achieve a com­men­su­rate salary. Still, it’s impor­tant to keep in mind that engi­neer­ing indus­tries often con­sid­er the bachelor’s degree as the entry-lev­el require­ment. This is why it’s impor­tant to add as much as pos­si­ble to the degree while pur­su­ing an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment career path.

Accord­ing to the OOH, engi­neer­ing man­agers have a medi­an pay of ~$149.5k. Glass­door lists the aver­age base pay as ~$110.5k for gen­er­al engi­neer­ing man­age­ment posi­tions, but ~$150k for engi­neer­ing man­ag­er posi­tions specifically.

Accord­ing to Michi­gan Tech, engi­neer­ing jobs have the high­est aver­age start­ing salary in the coun­try. This means engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ates enter­ing the field have a good chance of earn­ing a very good salary that will only grow with time and experience.

As men­tioned, job title and indus­try will play a large role in engi­neer­ing man­age­ment degree job salary. For exam­ple, while Glass­door shows that the ~$110.5k fig­ure as an aver­age for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment posi­tions, it also shows that some com­pa­nies offer salaries far high­er than that for the same posi­tions. Some busi­ness­es are will­ing to pay over $200k and bet­ter salaries.

What Are Some of the Professional Organizations for Engineering Management?

Numer­ous pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions exist in the realm of engi­neer­ing man­age­ment. There are some large con­glom­er­a­tions of var­i­ous engi­neer­ing indus­tries and dis­ci­plines that form togeth­er to cre­ate pow­er­ful pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions in this field. There are also small­er, local orga­ni­za­tions that can play just as impor­tant a role for a new or senior engi­neer­ing man­age­ment graduate.

Because engi­neer­ing con­sists of numer­ous dis­ci­plines, there are also pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions ded­i­cat­ed to those indi­vid­ual dis­ci­plines. A grad­u­ate can join a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to engi­neer­ing in gen­er­al, or they can join one ded­i­cat­ed to a par­tic­u­lar dis­ci­pline, niche, or oth­er aspects of engi­neer­ing that the appli­cant works with.

In addi­tion, the fact that engi­neer­ing man­age­ment is both engi­neer­ing and man­age­ment, appli­cants can look for orga­ni­za­tions that con­sist of man­age­ment pro­fes­sion­als, as man­age­ment is a dis­ci­pline unto itself. A lot of this depends on the goals of the appli­cant. Nev­er­the­less, join­ing a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion or sev­er­al of them grants an incred­i­ble num­ber of benefits.

Why Should an Engineering Management Graduate Join a Professional Organization?

There are numer­ous rea­sons to join a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion as an engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ate and no rea­sons not to.

Exclu­sive resources that are impos­si­ble to find else­where. Many of them have online resources that only mem­bers or affil­i­ates can access. For engi­neer­ing man­agers, espe­cial­ly those who job hop, these resources can prove invalu­able to their careers and growth.

Net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties abound. Per­haps the great­est ben­e­fit of a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion is its net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. These orga­ni­za­tions include oth­er pro­fes­sion­als and some­times even the largest names in a par­tic­u­lar field. Hav­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to net­work, exchange ideas, pick brains, and gen­er­al­ly meet oth­ers who can take someone’s career to the next lev­el is worth what­ev­er dues or fees the orga­ni­za­tion requests.

Train­ing and devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Many pro­fes­sion­al groups offer train­ing, devel­op­ment, sem­i­nars, cred­its, and oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties for pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. In addi­tion, these orga­ni­za­tions can offer cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or advanced train­ing on new tech­nolo­gies and techniques.

Job oppor­tu­ni­ties. Many job open­ings appear on the boards of a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion first. As these orga­ni­za­tions often include job cre­ators and oth­er influ­encers in the field, they’re also the first place where new job oppor­tu­ni­ties might appear.

There are many, many more rea­sons to join a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion. In addi­tion, a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion looks excel­lent on a resume.

What Are Some Professional Engineering Management Organizations Worth Joining?

Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions exist at every lev­el of soci­ety, from local to inter­na­tion­al. All the ben­e­fits of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions exist at each of these lev­els as well, but broad­en the larg­er the group becomes. For exam­ple, a local engi­neer­ing orga­ni­za­tion may help with local oppor­tu­ni­ties and local networking.

How­ev­er, a broad­er, nation­al pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion can help with larg­er oppor­tu­ni­ties. Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ates should join those orga­ni­za­tions that will help them and their careers the most. To that end, it’s worth it to do some research into the pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that suit the graduate’s goals.

A good place to start is with­in their own school. Many col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties have pro­fes­sion­al net­works of cur­rent stu­dents and alum­ni with­in a spe­cif­ic dis­ci­pline. Look­ing at local or state groups after grad­u­a­tion can help as well if the grad­u­ate plans to work in their coun­ty or state. Some gen­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions for engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ates specif­i­cal­ly include:

• The Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment (ASEM)
• The Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety of Automa­tion (ISA)
• Nation­al Soci­ety of Pro­fes­sion­al Engi­neers (NSPE)
• The Project Man­age­ment Insti­tute (PMI)

There real­ly are a lot of these orga­ni­za­tions out there. In addi­tion, appli­cants should con­sid­er orga­ni­za­tions that are spe­cif­ic to their field of engineering.

For exam­ple, a pro­fes­sion­al IT orga­ni­za­tion can offer a lot more ben­e­fits to some­one in com­put­er engi­neer­ing than a more gener­ic pro­fes­sion­al group. For those in con­struc­tion, archi­tec­ture, and design, there are a lot of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions at every lev­el for that type of engi­neer­ing as well.

Engi­neer­ing man­age­ment grad­u­ates who want to focus on the man­age­r­i­al side of their degree can join pro­fes­sion­al man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tions. These are all things grad­u­ates should keep in mind when seek­ing out pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that will help to advance their lives and careers.

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