With 75% of MBA aspirants being Engineers, is MBA after Engineering a new trend?

According to the current industry record, around 15 lakh students graduate as engineers every year. However, only 2.5 lakh engineers successfully get a job in their own domain. About 2.2 lakh engineers work in Software services, and the rest are into IT services. A report by Scaler suggests that 80% of engineers pursue non-technical jobs in India.

MBA is one of the most popular courses after BTech as a career option for engineers. Most students in PGP courses of Top MBA Colleges in India, such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), share a background in engineering. An MBA degree provides several advantages, which contribute to the popularity of management courses among engineers.

97% of Executive MBA students have experience of 13 years in the industry. Over six years of work experience is held by 89% of part-time MBA students. 89.6% of full-time MBA students have worked for more than four years. 79% of MBA graduates go on to work for renowned organizations. While 10% of MBA graduates choose to start their businesses as self-employed entrepreneurs.

Is an MBA a Right Path After Engineering?

In the above sections, it has been made clear that just an Engineering degree is not enough to get a high-paid job. In most of the IIMs such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Kolkata, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Bangalore, about 75-80% MBA pursuant belong to engineering background. About 30% - 35% pass out from IITs and NITs.

Here are some of the reasons why students from engineering backgrounds are willing to take up MBA to boost their careers,

• The structure and the course pattern is such that it helps the engineers groom themselves enough and make them capable of bringing out innovative ideas, enhancing their spoken as well as business skills.
• MBA degree assures the growth of an engineer across all the verticals of an organization. Engineering graduates can combine their technical knowledge with functional areas such as finance, sales and marketing, human resources, operations, logistics, and so on, and advance to managerial and leadership positions.
• MBA is not just a degree; it helps the students get an overall enhancement in themselves. Students improve in their oral skills, analytical skills, negotiation, decision-making, and teamwork spirit. These, combined with problem-solving, critical, and analytical thinking abilities, give engineering graduates an advantage. The overall exposure and networking opportunities provided by an MBA program also help shape a student's personality.
• Students who have passed out from the Top Engineering Colleges in India also opt for an MBA degree after completing their graduation to get a good salary. Engineers who pursue MBA can earn a salary of INR 7,00,000 - INR 8,00,000 per annum as freshers.
• Scaler estimated that only as engineering graduates, a mere 3% of engineers get INR 8,00,000 - INR 10,00,000. After possessing an additional MBA degree, at least 70% of engineers get a starting salary of INR 8,00,000.

MBA is the New Trend

• About 12.5 lakh engineers every year think of rerouting their career options because of the lack of job scope and sufficient pay. This leads them to pursue MBA to keep their career going and get a good income and get into managerial positions.
• In 2020, when the industry saw that 80% of the engineers were unemployed, an MBA degree was the only way out. Till 2011, the number of women who pursued an MBA was negligible, while in 2019, the number rose to 32%.
• Several MBA courses can be pursued after engineering, like MBA in Finance, MBA in International Business, MBA in Marketing, MBA in Human Resource Management, and MBA in Operations will provide a smooth career path for engineers.
• The Faculty of Management Studies(FMS), Delhi, has stated that they will be accepting 279 students for MBA for the year 2021-2023. FMS has also said that 68% of students are from an engineering background. 
• The FMS also confirms that the batch comprises 16% from IITs/BITS, 20% from NITs/NSIT/DTU, and 18% from Delhi University's premium colleges.
• Average salary of the engineers holding MBA degree are: Finance manager – Rs 5,93,000 to 25,96,000, Operations manager – Rs 3,00,000 to 20,00,000, Marketing manager – Rs 2,92,000 to 20,00,000, Business development executive – Rs 1,74,000 to 5,55,000, and Human Resources Generalist – Rs 2,39,000 to 8,44,000.
• India's most prominent MBA entrance exam for any single B-school is NMAT has revealed some intriguing trends among applicants. The proportion of engineers has risen from 65% last year to 68% this year. The ratio of applicants with technical work experience is 35%, while the percentage of candidates with more than 20 months of experience has increased from 23% last year to 26% this year.

Given the country's economic & financial condition during COVID, it has become challenging for students to pursue full-time MBA courses. Hence, many students have paved their way to Online MBA programs to get their MBA degrees at affordable prices. Collegedunia.com gives a complete 360-degree knowledge about MBA degrees.