Why Engineering Management at Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals?

Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals' part-time and online master's degree program in Engineering Management will prepare you to succeed in high-level leadership positions as you take on increased technical responsibilities. Stephanie Caporaletti, program manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, talks about her experiences in the program.

Learn more: https://ep.jhu.edu/programs/engineeri...

[Transcript]

My name's Stephanie Caporaletti. I currently work at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. I'm a program manager there. So I got my bachelor's degree in biological engineering. I then went immediately into a master's degree in that same area, and after working for a few years I decided to pursue a second master's degree in engineering management. So I got my engineering management degree from the Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals program.

I really enjoy the courses because I felt like they were immediately applicable to what I was doing. As I entered the program as a mid-level engineer, I saw that yes, there were opportunities available to me, but I definitely had gaps in my capabilities, gaps in my foundational understanding of topics related to management and how to lead technical experts. And so, having the immediate day-to-day application of material was foundational to being able to progress as a contributor, as well as a leader and manager.

The reason I chose not to get something like an MBA was I wanted to pursue things that were immediately applicable to the technical fields in which I was working, so the case studies, the examples, the various projects, and the application of the information was near and dear to what I was doing.

All of those things have kind of helped me to see problems in a different frame. I'm able to bring all of those lessons into my day to day, and so with that I'm kind of starting to progress into different areas and lead teams in new and evolving ways. But all of those things are really pivotal to being a leader, having an engineering basis, having a management style, and a management education.

Being in the Engineering for Professionals program was great because it's a part-time program. It's geared towards working professionals, hence the name. Having the opportunity to have online course instruction, as well as in person, was a nice composite because I could get that face-to-face interaction with my instructors but also having the online opportunities was valuable because I have a family, I have a working life that isn't always consistent. So I have a lot more flexibility in being able to pursue a broad range of courses because of the online aspects.

So if I were with somebody who is considering an advanced degree in engineering management, I would tell them that it's a great way to understand what leadership looks like for technical contributors. You also see things like what does innovation look like in an engineering workforce. So you get a broad brush of what engineering looks like both in the technical aspect as well as that leadership managerial. This is a really foundational way to build on your capabilities and demonstrate your value to your organization.