S&P 500 CEOs - Engineers Still in the Lead

Curious Cat:

2006 Data from Spencer Stuart on S&P 500 CEO (pdf document) shows once again more have bachelors degrees in engineering than any other field.

Field (% of CEOs)
Engineering: 23%
Economics: 13%
Business Administration: 12%
Liberal Arts: 8%
Accounting: 8%
No degree or no data: 3%

This data only shows the data for 65% of CEOs, I would like to see the rest of the data but it is not provide in this report. 41% of S&P CEOs have MBAs. 27% have other advanced degrees.

By the time I graduate GMU, I will have degrees in the all three top fields (plus law). Does that mean I should give up my goal of becoming an academic and found a world-class company instead?

As I've written before, I still think engineering is a great degree to get at the undergraduate level. It continues to be well represented among top-salaries of recent college graduates:

Chemical engineering: $56,335
Computer engineering: $53,651
Electrical engineering: $53,552
Mechanical engineering: $51,732

It also provides strong quantitative and problem-solving skills that can be an asset in any profession you pursue. I studied Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and my degree has certainly opened many doors for me over the years -- giving me opportunity to travel overseas for business which is what first got me hooked on international travel, paying most of my tuition for me to get my MBA, and exposing me to many facets of business and technology that I think will well serve me in my future career as a scholar studying law and economics. It also gave me enough mathematical and programming exposure to make it significantly easier for me to pick-up skills in things like agent-based modeling and mathematical economics (although I'm still dusting off a few cobwebs in my mind).

If I were starting over today, I would probably major in electrical engineering and/or computer science, but I would certainly stay within the technical disciplines at the undergraduate level. The work is hard, but the pay-offs are great. As a friend in Orlando who used to sing for Disney once told me (after confronting the realities of her job prospects as a music major):

"You can either play for four years in school and work the rest of your life or work for four years and play the rest of your life."

I think she may have been on to something...