Civil Engineer, Professional Engineer, soon to have FT MBA

Howdy y'all,

I'm a Civil Engineer, licensed as a Professional Engineer in my state and I'm about to start a full time MBA program, ranked ~30 overall. I've been doing site and land development for 5 years, the last 2.5 years in project management roles. I'm intimately familiar with permitting, inspections, engineering design, public bidding for public works improvements and common development and engineering problems that occur at multiple stages of commercial real estate development.

I realized that the part of my job the most was the networking and the more "businessy" parts of my job as an engineer. I don't dislike engineering, but I love these other parts, so I am going off and getting my MBA , full time.

My question here, is, how might I utilize this time to break into the development world, outside of the standard Professional Engineer route, of going and working client side of the development project management? What are some potential routes I could take? Are there any routes closed off, due to not going to a HSW? Would 2 years in strategy consulting, non MBB, help, hurt do nothing?

Thanks in advance

2 Comments
 
Best Response

Strat consulting would not help you break into development. In fact, it would take you further away than you are now. It is pretty logical to go from civil to dev. I know plenty of civs who have taken on PM roles with developers. You knowledge of planning, permitting, zoning, etc coupled with some finance knowledge you should pick up during your MBA will make you valuable to most developers. I would try to lateral without it if I were you given the opportunity cost and the fact that you probably won't increase your earnings much for the first 10 years or so after making the switch.

 

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