Another career thread: Operations research / industrial engineering?

I just sold my e-commerce distribution business. We were operationally profitable, but we weren’t making the money I wanted to see and I was tired of my business partners. We got an opportunity to sell the company, make some money and walk away so I took it. I figured 5 years was enough time to gamble. I’m now very experienced with enterprise software implementation and business process integration. I also have many ancillary related skills in this area. I’m following up on opportunities and I hope to have a steady gig or at least some decently paying consultant roles relatively shortly. That’s short term though.

I’ve been thinking about where I want to go long term, and I’m extremely interested in the operations research and industrial engineering fields. Applying analytical techniques and technology to solve business problems is extremely interesting to me and I have experience in the area at least from the analytics side.

I’m interested in working my way to a master’s in either operations research or industrial engineering. My undergrad degree was in finance. So while my education was quantitative, I’d have to seriously bone up on the higher math to meet the prerequisites. There are a couple of programs locally (SoCal) and I’ve begun reaching out to professors for some guidance.

Does anyone here work in the field or have a degree in it? Is there any real money in the field? Are positions abundantly available or few and far between? If I do it, am I just going to end up working on ERP and software implementation projects anyway because that’s what work is available? In which case I might be better served pursuing an MS in information systems and specializing in project management or data analytics. It’d certainly be faster.

This is a long-term goal for me and I don’t need it to make good money. Some of the work people do seems extremely cutting edge and I’d like to be involved, but maximizing my earning potential is also a big consideration. Just like I’d love to work in the motorcycle or bicycle industries, but I don’t see any potential money in it so I’ve avoided them thus far.

I have another less rational motivation. I originally wanted to study either engineering, physics, or astrophysics. I got it into my head that finance would be a better career choice all around so I went that route, but in a lot of ways I feel like I always should’ve been an engineer.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

What aspects of the fields are you most interested in? Are you ready to be referred to as an imaginary engineer?

 

Haha they can call me whatever I like if I get hella paid!

I’m very interested in business process redesign and optimization. Domain wise I like information technology, retail, and logistics.

Touching on the imaginary engineer bit, how valued and influential is this role in an organization? Not just compensation wise. Would implementing a project for 3 years to have upper management completely run it into the ground be a typical scenario?

 

Does information technology mean/include software, where there are obviously good, high paying jobs? Learn software development. Project managers without this background can't possibly address the real cost centers/pain points in any meaningful way. The only people in a position to optimize production are experienced and analytic developers. Managers are probably the only ones who can enforce changes on a systemic level. Most/all of them rise up through the ranks as developers. On one hand, having to come to work every day and produce sucks. On the other hand, you get paid well, and it's as intellectually challenging as you make it, especially if you spend time thinking "how can I do this better and faster?". As you get better at it, you might actually make a difference on an organizational level. You write a good enough piece of software, the impact is about as big as anything, e.g. think Linux. Maybe tangential, but a thought.

 

Look for jobs at Amazon, the skillset you mention and the thing you want to do is what they are currently looking for to boost aspects like economies of scale to customer satisfaction and more.

 

I thought about replying with some insight from my work, then realized my OR and systems theory domains are so far removed from yours that its not really even relevant. Plus I work for the state, and don't make bank.

 

I'm not sure the compensation you are looking for. Experienced Engineers in a needed specialty are around 100k a year although many degreed engineers make much less. This is in typical job markets, more in the overpriced cost of living areas.

As far as math prerequisites for engineering, they cause many to leave the engineering major but 300 and 400 level engineering classes are more difficult.

Some IEs are probably involved in Enterprise and business software but I think this is more the computer people. With your finance degree, maybe you could do prerequisites and go straight for a software masters degree. One problem is there are too many computer degrees all ready. Maybe the masters or a finance bachelors would make you stand out among other computer people.

You are right to talk to people other than profs or school counselers. They don't understand industry and may have a hidden agenda to get students in their program.

If I had it to do over again (I am an engineer) I would consider big data in the financial world, since it is very flush with money. Maybe a bachelors in business or finanes plus a bachelors or masters in math/statistics. I would be looking into what best prepares you to predict data trends.

 

Well the good thing is, you can get hella paid, the bad thing is - it can be hit or miss with opportunities without niche specialization. My background is more industrial, manufacturing, energy, but a number of industries have really become on board with industrial or systems engineers as of late. I serve on an engineering advisory board at one university, where a good percentage of their industrial engineers have been picked up by the banking industry. In my experience (mostly with Deloitte), most ERP consultants have backgrounds in information systems or computer science, I'm not sure I've ever encountered one who was an industrial engineer.

It depends. If you get into some of the specialization areas, it can be an incredibly valued, lucrative, and influential role within organizations. Particularly if you have executive buy-in and a management of change program. Having a finance background and leadership experience from your previous background, would help tremendously in championing your projects and building executive buy-in. While I'm not an industrial engineer, my masters is in a specialization of the field, and most of the work that I do or enjoy is related to industrial engineering. As long as you're able to be your own advocate, it's a fun field, particularly when you see changes successfully implemented for everyone's benefit.

Yes. Although I'd argue, that you do have some control over this.

 

So SGV, I am curious as to where your ruminations on your future choices are taking you.

 

Have you considered an MBA? that, coupled with project implementation/project management experience may take you where you want to go.

 

I've considered it. I don't know that I feel an attraction to it like I do business process engineering. I would like to be able to build bots and do things that help me in my work, but that's more of a necessity of the job type thing.

I have considerable animosity toward them because of previous dealings. I guess I could get over it and join the dark side for the right opportunity though.

If I keep developing my skills in the ERP and business consulting world, I can easily make more than I ever would as an engineer. I feel like a lot of that is same shit different day though. So even though I can make an excellent living, I don't know that it'll hold my interest.

I agree with the big data part. A large part of the reason I would go back to school would be to get some harder skills in math and analysis. Statistics, financial economics, and econometrics definitely interest me. Most of the masters in information systems programs have a focus on big data analytics. I haven't taken a super detailed look at the course offerings though, so I don't know how much technical training you're getting there. I'm studying several programming languages on my own. A developer friend suggested that I take on small debugging jobs to build my skills and that actual projects will be more helpful than formal schooling. I'll be doing that just so I can sharpen up. I definitely won't be going back to school immediately anyway.

I've considered it, but I feel like I want to go in a more highly technical direction. That could be engineering, stats, econometrics.

Short term I'm interviewing for business and system analyst / coordinator type roles. Working on some other businesses also, but I want a regular job.

Long term, I'm going to search out some local IE and OR people and talk to them about the field. I think no matter what I'll probably go and get a graduate degree to develop my technical skills.

I'd be very interested to hear your experiences of the career field, regardless of domain. OR is fascinating to me. I would definitely like your perspective on choosing an OR vs IE path.