How helpful is a business administration minor to an aspiring civil engineer?

Why do lots of Chinese undergraduates choose a business related major?

• Just curious. I feel like lots of undergraduate Chinese kids are pursing a degree in Commerce, Business Administration, Accounting, and so on. I personally work as an Engineer. Even though there are still quite a number of Asians in E-school, it can still not comparable with those in B-school. Anyone has an idea?

• Answer:

  There are two growth path for engineers: Technical and Managerial. Having a minor is business is one way to prepare to take more advance courses in management. The Technical track is usually an MS and the Managerial track is usually an MBA, in some cases, both. There is a concept call the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle where engineers become obsolete technically unless they continue to train roughly 20-25% of their time, usually outside of the normal work week.