Good day to u all

I am an Controls & Instrumentation engineer working for GE Energy, with 2 years of work experience. I have looked through many discussion topics on energy management and selection of an appropriate specialization. My Gmat score is 710 but still I will wait another year because I read for grant/scholarship one needs atleast 720.

Coming to the point, I am confused with the specialization I should take. I want to continue in my technical field. What I seek through an MBA is a career jump not a career change. I dont want to go into finances or marketing. I want to run this business, being specific I look forward to become the Head of Instrumentation in an Energy/Oil &Gas sector company or a similar post in a control system business like GE, Honeywell etc.

Earlier I thought that energy management would be the best for me, but now I think I am limiting my options. Now I feel more inclined towards Project management which doesnt keep me restricted to energy business. Please give me some advise on the kind of specialization I should take to reach my goal.

thank you

PS: Please do not advise me for MS, because I have checked in my line they end up in R&D. I dont want to spend rest of life in a lab.

What you read is mistaken: there is no universal threshold of 720 for MBA scholarships. Admissions committeee are looking at more than MBA scores, and there will be different policies for each school. However, should should remember that most schools use scholarships to increase the diversity in their class.

I think you are right to focus on an MBA rather than an MS, but you need to be careful to understand the difference between those US-style MS degrees which offer research training and European-style MSc degrees which offer professional training. As you can see from the FT's MSc ranking, those graduates do not end up in laboratories.

if you want to become a manager I suggest you do not take a specialised degree, but instead aim for a general MBA. Looking at North America, MBAs in instrumentation roles seems to have studied at schools like Northwestern and McGill, which have a broad, general management, approach. If you did want to specialise, then a more valuable area would be operations management, marketing or technology management.

Thank you Duncan. I sincerely appreciate your advise. After reading your post I checked out few programs for General MBA.
I need your help again. I dont really understand the placement system in US and UK business schools. Like in India, eg in ISB or IIM we have placement offices where companies come at the end of the program and most of the students get placed even before they complete their MBA. Moreover I feel that MBA in US or UK universities is quite risky because of the H1B visa problem. Specially with my name I dont think I would be getting one. I checked out few of the European MBA programs too but I feel that as most of the European nations are suffering this economic crunch MBA schools are sure to suffer if not now then later.

I find Canadian Programs quite attractive and affordable. From what I know through some of my friends there, the govt. gives 2 years time for you to find a job. Their placement system is also quite similar to the one in India and they also have quite no. of scholarships/grants for MBA aspirants. I checked out Rotman, Schulich and Desautels (Mc Gill). Mc Gill was a little over the budget but the other are affordable. I also did some research on part time employment opportunities in Canada and found out that it is not much of a hassle. All in all Canada looks quite good to me.

Please do tell me if I am on the right track. I would really be grateful if you could also advise me few programs with operations or technology management as their specialization, preferably in Canada or elsewhere.

Thank you for your time

Hi there,

Yes, I think you have quickly grasped the situation. Placement is often indirect in Europe and requires students to network their way into roles.

To find programmes by specialisation, you can use the search feature: http://www.find-mba.com/search