However, when most people talk about management, they are thinking of executives who are responsible for making decisions that affect large groups of people or that influence the spending of large amounts of money. Typically, these are the people at the very top of organizational hierarchies the chief executive officers, chief financial officers, presidents, vice presidents, senior directors, senior sales managers, and others with similar titles.
Why would engineers be attracted to upper management roles, positions that frequently take them out of the field, design rooms, or laboratories and away from the sort of work that attracted them to engineering in the first place? The most obvious reason is that top level managers and executives are richly rewarded in salary and other benefits. Typically, the chief executive of a corporation will receive a salary three to four times as high as that of the highest paid engineer employed by the corporation. Other benefits may include a share in the company's profits or part ownership in the company. Another major attraction to a management career is the opportunity to make important decisions. Some engineers desire this type of challenge. And some individuals discover through the course of their careers that they are more challenged and invigorated by the complexities of directing companies or organizations than they are by field engineering.
No doubt the power and prestige associated with upper management careers hold a certain degree of attraction to ambitious engineers. But any engineer who embarks on a management career path primarily for ego gratification will probably be weeded out somewhere well below the top of the career ladder. More often than not, engineers arrive in upper management through a willingness to make bold decisions, to take on risky projects, and to confidently manage large groups of people. These engineers are typically skillful in negotiating with, even occasionally arguing with, people above and below them in the company hierarchy. Obviously, such an individual will possess a high degree of self confidence and have a take command approach to problem solving. But most successful managers also display a willingness to put the interests of the organization ahead of their own personal interests and obligingly put in long hours of work. The rise through management ranks to the upper levels is typically slower than in field skill career tracks such as engineering design or construction supervision. Also, the risks of making bold decisions that put large quantities of money on the line is that some of these decisions end up being wrong. Most aspirants to upper level management endure bumps and setbacks on their career tracks and often operate under high degrees of stress. Nonetheless, as we have mentioned earlier in this book, civil engineers, no doubt through the benefits of their civil engineering education and experience, are unusually well represented in the upper management ranks of construction, technical, and consulting companies.
The typical career track of these engineer executives started in some technical area of civil engineering where they excelled at their jobs and showed an early affinity for managing people. At some point in their careers, they started focusing more of their attention on cultivating management skills. Indeed, engineers who seek a management track frequently pursue education in business related fields while still working as engineers or by taking time off and pursuing a business degree full time. These executives often have postgraduate degrees in finance or management in addition to engineering. In fact, many companies will either partially or fully pay the tuition of their engineers who show promise as upper level managers.
Functional Specialties
Within the broadly defined technical specialties we've just discussed, there are numerous functional specialties. A young civil engineer entering the job market may begin as an estimator or job site inspector for a construction company. At this point, the young engineer may aspire to one day owning a construction company or perhaps moving into the upper management ranks of a large international engineering firm. Many engineers will take this career path. Many others, as they gain more exposure to the engineering profession, will find their golden opportunities in research and development, in planning and design, or perhaps in engineering sales, or even academia.
The career path you ultimately take will be determined by numerous factors: your interests, your temperament, the unfolding of talents you might not yet even realize you possess, and by mentors, colleagues, and others who will offer you advice and guidance, not to mention job opportunities. You might also move from one technical specialty to another, and you may gain experience in several functional specialties as you advance in your career.
