How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up later? Hardy
Management and Engineering
Started by ●March 15, 2010
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
HardySpicer wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later?http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/cynicism/ I think it should be encouraged, but not forced. Engineering is engineering, management is management. If someone were to teach management specifically for engineers, the first lesson should be "these domains are almost completely orthogonal". Understanding business concerns will make you a better engineer, but if you really want to be a manager you should either pick it up on the job, or make business your minor, to study along with engineering. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
HardySpicer wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later?Just enough so they could manage themselves. An engineer should be a technical nutcase. It is very counter productive when an engineer thinks like manager. VLV
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
On 15 Mar, 20:35, HardySpicer <gyansor...@gmail.com> wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later?Engineers *should* learn *some* management. Basic economy, legal aspects of contracts, some group psychology. I am sure one could debate how much of each they should learn, but students should learn *something*. If for no other reason, so to get "managment" or "economy" on the CV. Stupid as it sounds, that entry alone can make or brake a job application. But then, we are talking about managment decisions... Rune
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
HardySpicer wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later?None. Jerry -- Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought. .. Albert Szent-Gyorgi �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
On Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:35:53 -0700 (PDT) HardySpicer <gyansorova@gmail.com> wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later? > > > HardyThey're having a hard enough time teaching any engineering in an undergrad engineering degree. God help us all if they try to teach some 21 year old who's never touched a soldering iron how to run the show. -- Rob Gaddi, Highland Technology Email address is currently out of order
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
Rune Allnor wrote:> On 15 Mar, 20:35, HardySpicer <gyansor...@gmail.com> wrote: >> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering >> degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up >> later? > > Engineers *should* learn *some* management. Basic economy, > legal aspects of contracts, some group psychology.Basic economy, legal aspects of contracts, and some group psychology are tools managers should have. So should engineers, shopkeepers, parents, ministers, and rabbis. They don't constitute management /per se/. The only people I worked for who actually studied management as undergraduates were among the worst managers I had.> I am > sure one could debate how much of each they should learn, > but students should learn *something*. If for no other > reason, so to get "managment" or "economy" on the CV. > > Stupid as it sounds, that entry alone can make or brake > a job application. But then, we are talking about managment > decisions...I question applicants I interview about what they claim to know. I'm less concerned about what they may lack than about what they claim they know but don't. Jerry -- Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought. .. Albert Szent-Gyorgi �����������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
Jerry Avins wrote:> Rune Allnor wrote: >> On 15 Mar, 20:35, HardySpicer <gyansor...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering >>> degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up >>> later? >> >> Engineers *should* learn *some* management. Basic economy, >> legal aspects of contracts, some group psychology. > > Basic economy, legal aspects of contracts, and some group psychology are > tools managers should have. So should engineers, shopkeepers, parents, > ministers, and rabbis. They don't constitute management /per se/. The > only people I worked for who actually studied management as > undergraduates were among the worst managers I had. > >> I am >> sure one could debate how much of each they should learn, >> but students should learn *something*. If for no other >> reason, so to get "managment" or "economy" on the CV. >> >> Stupid as it sounds, that entry alone can make or brake >> a job application. But then, we are talking about managment >> decisions... > > I question applicants I interview about what they claim to know. I'm > less concerned about what they may lack than about what they claim they > know but don't.I'd rather work with an idiot who can dig a straight ditch and won't attempt a curved ditch because he knows it is beyond him, than to work with a genius who thinks he's God. Same principle, different directions. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
On Mar 15, 3:35�pm, HardySpicer <gyansor...@gmail.com> wrote:> How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering > degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up > later? > > HardyZip. Engineers that want to go into management will already be smart enough to learn the "technical" aspects of management, and the people aspects of management cannot be taught at the college level.
Reply by ●March 15, 20102010-03-15
>How much management should be taught in an undergrad engineering >degree? Or should management be left to industry for you to pick up >later?Management is a pretty broad term. If I look at what my wife's MBA course covered, I'd say some of the law material should be compulsory in engineering courses. When I was at college we considered the Law for Engineers option to be for people who couldn't face the tougher alternatives. I later realised this was a silly attitude. All engineers bump against legal issues regularly. If you are doing the deepest of technical work, you'll still bump against patent, copyright, trademark and liability issues, that few engineering graduates, even today, seem to have been given much grounding in. If you go into more customer facing work you'll bump against a variety of commercial laws. Steve
