Which degree?

Diddums · 17 Mar 2016 at 13:35

I'm in the fortunate position of earning a decent salary, and have been promoted in the last year to lead a team of five engineers. I've got the taste now and I want more. More money, more recognition and more success.

Now I'm busy studying with the Open University and I originally wanted to do computing and IT which I've since swayed from. Luckily the first module I'm doing is maths and those credits can be used on a variety of degrees. I've got two options really:

Engineering - this is a general engineering degree. As good as it gets distance learning but I don't know if this is right for me. I've been fixing things for ten years now and know how to fix most stuff in my industry and although I could certainly benefit from this degree, I don't know how much I could benefit from it.

Business management - again this would be with the OU and give me more of the skills I need to manage contracts and staff. The downside is that my experience is only in the FM game so if I were to go down this route, I'd probably be starting on the bottom rung again if I were to change industries, whereas the engineering degree would be much better if I wanted to do say civil engineering.

No idea what to do really. I'll probably end up doing both eventually but I don't know which to do first.

Any ideas or suggestions?

iamtheoneneo · 17 Mar 2016 at 16:20

Difficult to give you a 100% answer without knowing exactly your quals, experience. but an Engineering degree is the ticket to the big bucks imo.

datalol-jack · 17 Mar 2016 at 17:36

Do you want to progress in management or close to the grindstone? Do you need a degree or just following a personal interest? Pick options to suit your motivation. If you don't have a degree, you'll likely qualify for student finance towards your part-time study; and both routes offer a progression to postgraduate study.

Kenai · 17 Mar 2016 at 18:34

Diddums said:
Engineering - this is a general engineering degree. As good as it gets distance learning but I don't know if this is right for me. I've been fixing things for ten years now and know how to fix most stuff in my industry and although I could certainly benefit from this degree, I don't know how much I could benefit from it.

Not sure what relevance fixing things has regarding Engineering because it's maths maths and more maths

If you want to go the engineering route, I'd recommend picking accredited courses to ease any future path to chartership should you wish to pursue it.

OU for example have specific pathways with theirs that result in an IMechE accredited Mech Eng degree but just picking any old modules is unaccredited.

I would also suggest specific discipline if you can pick one, whilst general seems flexible it can also work the other way and be not quite specific enough for any given job.

datalol-jack · 17 Mar 2016 at 18:45

maths maths and more maths

Applied maths, though, mostly continuum-based. If his study habits and physical intuition are good, he'll do alright.

theMilitant · 17 Mar 2016 at 21:20

Kenai said:
If you want to go the engineering route, I'd recommend picking accredited courses to ease any future path to chartership should you wish to pursue it.

OU for example have specific pathways with theirs that result in an IMechE accredited Mech Eng degree but just picking any old modules is unaccredited.

I would also suggest specific discipline if you can pick one, whilst general seems flexible it can also work the other way and be not quite specific enough for any given job.

Very good advice if you decide to take the engineering route OP.

Diddums · 18 Mar 2016 at 07:29

Kenai said:
Not sure what relevance fixing things has regarding Engineering because it's maths maths and more maths

If you want to go the engineering route, I'd recommend picking accredited courses to ease any future path to chartership should you wish to pursue it.

OU for example have specific pathways with theirs that result in an IMechE accredited Mech Eng degree but just picking any old modules is unaccredited.

I would also suggest specific discipline if you can pick one, whilst general seems flexible it can also work the other way and be not quite specific enough for any given job.

Thanks Kenai, this is some great food for thought. To be honest when I put all crap aside and get to the core of the matter, it goes like this:

I could go in to business management and pursue the trajectory I'm on now and end up in middle / upper management. This option is very viable because it's convenient but ultimately not where my heart lies.

The other option is to do the engineering route which (seemingly) offers more long term success and better job satisfaction (I'm not much of a paper pusher) but will have many more hurdles and I'll be starting further back than if I were to go down the business management route.

The problem is that all sorts of aspects come in to play which clouds my judgement but I think I just need to stick to my guns and do the engineering route, especially if I can get a chartership.

Cheers