Is mba tech i.e. dual degree in civil engineering is good to pursue?

Would it be better if students who intend to pursue an MBA don't spend 4 years pursuing an engineering degree?

• How do we convince them en-mass? My thoughts are that: Engineering is technical line, of which only Math skills are probably useful for MBA aspirants. Coupled to this is the fact that as a developing country we need maximum number of innovators & technical masterminds. Wouldn't it be more useful to use our limited supply of quality technical education facilities to exclusively produce people who are more likely to use them in their future profession? Benefits for MBA aspirants: They don't have to make their way through 4 years of grind, which for most will be uninteresting. Instead they can stack up on skills/degree that are more apt for them, e.g Economics, Humanities, etc.

• Answer:

  No. I don't think so. Since engineering has the capacity to help a person in ways that can turn out to be an added advantage among his peers and also in ones day-to-day life. Engineering can help in following ways- Provide different perspective in this technically advanced world. Time has changed. What world is seeing right now is a technology revolution at a different level. With that said, there is an increasing requirement of people who understand both technology and management. Edge over other colleagues. A management person with technical knowledge gives him an edge over other management people as he/she will be able to understand and comprehend two different streams. Increases career options. In fact, people who pursue an MBA after engineering opens themselves to plethora of possibilities. They might be dealing with their own startups to working as product manager in a company. Sharpens problem solving skills. All the algorithms that a students goes through, subtly helps him in honing his problem solving skills majorly. This can be a major advantage for a manager. Have a look at this video- An MIT professor developed a platform called Scratch to help kids how to code. He also discusses the importance of learning to code. Kids might be taught the basics of engineering at the school level itself in future. So look out, it might just get added in the school courses. Being an engineer myself has helped me understand our modern environment better which is bombarded with laptops, touch-screen phones,  tablets, cameras and many more. Since I know that at the core of all this, its just 1 and 0 which tells me volumes about the limitations of the gadgets. Coming back to the question, my point is that studying engineering won't be a waste even if you do MBA as engineering tends to hone the skills of a person in ways that can help him in this technically advanced world. Why do you think Microsoft CEO is somebody who has B.Tech, MS and MBA and not somebody who is just BBA and MBA from MIT? After all, he is required to manage a company. Or for that matter- Indra Nooyi who is heading non-techinal company, Pepsico, but has her bachelors in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra_Nooyi I feel engineering coupled with Management is something which is both in need and demand. P.s. - I do have seen the advantages of it at my workplace.