Which MBA stream is applicable or relative for an Mechanical engineer Graduate

Hi Ravi,

Mechanical Engineers work in industries as varied as aerospace, manufacturing, renewable energy, automotive and medical products. Mechanical engineers work on very diverse projects ranging from developing a mechanical heart, building formula one cars to developing rockets. A combination of business and management acumen along with technical expertise, are engineering management degrees that play a key role in preparing the next generation of managers in the engineering sector.

Having said that, the choice of selecting the MBA stream for a Mechanical Engineer should completely rest on a student’s interest. Every stream of MBA is equally likely for a mechanical engineer as it is for others. There have been numerous instances where mechanical engineers have taken finance as their specialisation and have excelled high in their careers. You can select Finance if you want to play with numbers and want to dwell more on monetary impact. If you have good people influencing skills, and are open to field jobs then marketing is ideal specialisation for you. If you love being people’s people, and have affinity towards learning labour laws and issues, then you can choose Human Resource Management. If you want to stick to your own field of engineering and learn how to manage things in this field, then you must surely pursue Operations Management.

According to me, if you want to continue with your interest in mechanical engineering and want to do a management specialisation in the same, then you can select either of the two fields,

1. Supply Chain Management and Operations Management
2. Finance

Supply chain Management is one field that comes naturally to a mechanical engineer and it is always easy to prepare the story around it during the job interview. One can aim for Consulting, Automobile etc. kinds of companies and they would be more than ready to welcome you on board. One can also become a strategy person for the company, given before the MBA the person has some good experience. Supply chain Management jobs are in high demand, because not many people choose this as a career option. This is because it lacks the panache of Marketing and salaries of Finance. But supply chain management jobs are pretty highly paid in western world due to dearth of quality resources. If you want yourself to be in the thick and thin of the strategic decision making in the daily work of the company then supply chain management is the right choice. Though life will be tough in the beginning but as you progress, it will become smooth and equally rewarding in terms of pay as well.

Finance is the most misunderstood stream in MBA. People have a notion that some mathematics around the balance sheet and some accounting principles is what all happens in Finance. But Finance is much more than that. The industrial knowledge is a must if one need to work in some core Finance jobs like Investment banking, Private Equity etc. In that sense, if a person is smart in understanding the Industry overall (in your case Mechanical) then he/she can make a strong story around it. You can reach to a position where you can take important strategic decision at the overall company level and you can also improve upon the impact analysis of one departmental decision over another department. One important point to note over here is to make sure that MBA in itself might not be enough to bag a good job. One could back its MBA in Finance with other courses such as, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and do some other certifications as well to prove his/her mantel.

All the very best!!

Dear Ravi, if you can study MBA in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence or Machine learning, it will absolutely compliment your BE in Mechanical Engineering. The next relatively closer specialisations are Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, etc.