It is now again the time of the year when there is anxiety in the minds of fresh engineers and their parents alike as to which Master of Business Administration (MBA) post-graduation degree to opt for. This is true for engineers having decided that MBA is what they want to do after engineering. With changing trends, prestigious MBA colleges across the country are witnessing domination (with respect to admissions) by computer science engineers.

With computer science engineers (CSE) choosing MBA post-graduation degree programs (check out which mode of study to choose, here) being the criteria, we attempt to decode the best MBA specialisation that is recommended to be opted after a graduate engineering degree.

An MBA is worth it; don’t fall prey to rumours

An alarming trend in recent times has undoubtedly been rumour mills that have gone on record stating that an MBA after engineering is not worth.

“When the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) centres were established, majority of the intake for MBA courses was from engineering graduates,” states Dr Ali Khwaja, founder and chairman of Bengaluru-based Banjara Academy. Dr Ali has constantly been devoted in guiding students towards the right career path.

As far as present trends are concerned, expert career counsellors debunk myths about MBA post-graduations having saturated (in terms of number of post-graduates) and state confidently that the number of fresh engineers preferring MBA has in fact tripled.

Career counsellors also quote a reason here;

“Most of the engineers choose MBA as their career interest lies in administration and business. Failure to identify interests correctly and parental pressure are the main factors for students to opt for engineering at the graduation level rather than a Bachelors in Business,” states a professor at a reputed management institution in Bengaluru; on the condition of anonymity.

It is vital that fresh computer science engineers take up an MBA post-graduate program to work in a preferred line of career rather than looking at earning quick bucks.

Straight form the horse’s mouth

We consulted multiple MBA post-graduates having graduated recently, along with expert career counsellors to check recommendations on the MBA specialisation to select after completing computer science engineering. The unanimous answer, by most of the post-graduates, was an MBA in Information Technology (IT) also known as IT & Systems across some universities.

“An MBA in IT guarantees enhancement of computer science academic skills; especially programming. Even job designations offered are attractive, so is the overall pay package,” stated Harish Babu, a recent MBA post-graduate who works with a leading technology firm in Bengaluru along with doubling up as a part-time consultant to the Karnataka Government’s IT reachability training programmes.

Even other recent CSE graduates echoed identical thoughts.However, there were some who preferred a diversion.

For the uninitiated, job designations offered for fresh MBA IT post-graduates range from principal system architect to project manager.

Basically, an MBA in IT involves management skills that work in tandem with academic computer science skills mastered during engineering.

“Today’s IT sector requires complete engineers; not bookworms and unemployable ones. For this, an MBA becomes necessary,” states Dr Radhakrishna HK a Bengaluru-based career counsellor with nearly two decades of experience in guiding students.

However, armed with just an MBA might still not be sufficient to land that dream IT job. At this point, soft skills come into picture; these are required to be mastered even more intensively than an MBA post-graduation program. Nonetheless, an MBA is an MBA that comes with its own value.

“It is vital that engineers opt for an MBA specialisation that attracts maximum placement. In case of CS engineers, this could be an MBA in IT or even Marketing,” advise other career counsellors.

Multi-National Corporations have huge demand

“Today, it is all about how much it pays; more than the actual job,” adds the anonymous Management Professor. This is a clear reflection that CS engineers should opt for the in-thing in MBAs now.

“A senior executive role in an MNC in a metro city like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai pays well,” adds Harish.

Even career counsellors agree that MNCs are a hit amongst the fresh MBA post-graduates; especially those graduating from the IIMs. Placement activities are conducted intensively, by MNCs, for students graduating from prestigious institutions across the country.