Speaking of the title, many would mentally relate to Aamir Khan’s dialogue in 3 Idiots wherein he questions the same logic. There are a lot of perspectives to this question – Slow career progressions, sticking to a secure line, Lack of interest in Technical Specializations, Peer pressure and a higher probability of engineering candidates doing well in MBA Entrance exams as well as managerial roles.
While it is true that Common Admission Test result for 2016 has seen 20/20 engineering candidates scoring a 100 percentile, it has started to become a norm among engineering students to choose an IIT first and then jump to an IIM. Educational experts claim that CAT is suited for engineering students in terms of Math and aptitude in Logical Reasoning.
While the above-mentioned aspect is from a higher education perspective, certain domains like IT wherein candidates can rise up through ranks only by having an MBA degree that adds an additional feather to his domain of expertise. While the candidate rises through leadership to handle projects in addition to developing skills like budgeting and recruitment. In addition to this, MBA adds a variation or additional skills to engineering graduates whose fields do not have much scope for growth or a stagnancy at some point in their career.
Engineers also seem to have an aptitude to understand businesses better as they are good with quantitative. They are able to find amazing opportunities in the field of finance and stock markets. Some of them choose an MBA specializing in Operations Management as they are good at industrial research.
Even from the salary perspective, Engineering + MBA gives them a competitive package once they enter the industry as a fresher.
Overall, while these may be touted as possible reasons, certain graduates claim that a technical specialization might give them an overview of multiple concepts but only a practical or a degree that is slightly a variation from this field, can help them assess the economic feasibility of a technical specialization and its utility in the market.