How do I pursue a career in both business management and engineering?

I find your question fascinating and loaded with potential.

Start by thinking about engineering... the job is to take existing and emerging technology and develop solutions to real world problems. Work-a-day engineers take direction from company leadership and develop products and solutions for customers. Company leadership might mean senior engineers or it might mean business managers or more often a team of both. Engineers are problem solvers and good engineers love to "think outside the box."

Now think about a business manager. This person supplies the vision... where is the company going or what problems shall the company tackle; it takes understanding the work-a-day engineers and understanding the customer. In organizational management theory, the business manager is often the "outside" interface, the face of the company to the customer or to other departments while most engineers are "inside" players that interface with small groups of developers in their own area. The business manager is always aware that only by selling an end product will the company stay in business - no matter how "cool" the stuff the engineers might build -- somebody must buy the product.

The desire and talent to do both engineering and management is often found in the discipline of Systems Engineering. You don't see this in many university catalogs, although Pepperdine and a few other universities offer the course of study. The Systems Engineer is a massive integrator of various disciplines and is usually working complex projects.

You might look carefully at Test Engineering. Test engineers take the requirements set out in a requirements document and develop and execute test procedures to prove that a product does what it is supposed to do. So the Test Engineer must work with engineers and management to meet cost schedule and performance. It is here you will hear the old expression, "Good, Fast, Cheap; Pick two because I can't do all three." Test engineers try to break stuff, sometimes in a spectacular fashion.

Personally, I am a senior citizen with a bachelors degree in engineering and a masters in management. I have been a product/development manager and I have done a lot of work defining requirements that a product must fulfill. Much of my time now is spent writing technical proposals offering engineering services to various customers. Understanding the customer and understanding the engineer are skills I use all the time.

I wish you all the best.

Hi Bronwyn!

Congratulations on wanting to combine engineering and business. Here is a site that will be very helpful:
https://www.asme.org/career-education-retired/articles/teachers-academics/engineering-and-business-a-combination-for-success

Best of luck! Please keep me posted. I would like to follow your progress!

Hi Bronwyn,

One thing to consider is that an engineering degree will allow you work in engineering, where you will also be exposed to business and management. Many engineers go on to focus on the business side of their field, either as managers of other engineers, or by moving to more business oriented roles within their company.

Compared to a business degree, which would not allow you to work as an engineer, starting with a technical degree and position will give you experience in engineering that will be valuable even if you decide to focus on management later.

Keith