Why MEM after an MBA

Jeevitha Shanmugam (MEM '25) spent time working in consulting, operations, software development, and strategy. Amidst the variety, the common thread for each of her roles was turning complex challenges into tangible results.

But when Shanmugam faced her own professional challenge, she turned to Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program for help.

Prior to MEM, Shanmugam was a strategy and operations manager at fintech startup Revolut, where she worked extensively with the marketing and creative teams. She relied extensively on the knowledge she gained while earning her MBA from the globally prestigious Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and while she had the skills to guide a marketing plan, she lacked the deeper knowledge to guide a product through its entire lifecycle.

“Having an MBA from one of the top schools in India was great, but I didn't deep-dive into product management specifically,” Shanmugam said. “MEM was something that stood out for me. I wanted to learn about how you design a product, how you build a product, how you identify unmet needs of a customer, and then how you convert them to a fresh product that you want to launch into a market.”

Less than six months into her MEM journey, Shanmugam said she is finding everything she hoped to find in the program, and more.

One of her first classes centered on exactly what she wants to do after graduation — product management. The course is taught by Kellogg School of Management assistant professor Birju Shah, whose background includes time as Uber's head of healthcare products and head of product for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Shanmugam said she is particularly impressed by the corporate experience the MEM faculty bring to the classroom.

“They bring that practical experience and couple it with theoretical concepts, which is extremely fulfilling to learn,” she said. “It’s been great.”

One quarter into her MEM experience, Shanmugam is finding herself learning not only from the faculty, but also from her classmates and their varied professional experiences. Couple that with site visits across Chicago that provide networking opportunities and the chance to see classroom principles in practice, and Shanmugam said she cannot imagine a better start to her MEM journey.

While the MEM program is providing Shanmugam with the depth she wanted to transition into product management, she still values her MBA. She knows a common question from some prospective students is whether to pursue an MBA or MEM. She thinks an MBA is probably a better fit for certain types of professionals, depending on their career aspirations.

"I look at MEM as a specialized degree for engineering professionals who want to go into leadership and managerial positions within a similar industry," she said. "I see an MBA as a general management degree for someone who wants to transition into a completely different function or industry."

Shanmugam’s goal is to have that product manager skill set finely honed by the time she graduates from the MEM program. For now she is keeping her post-graduation career plans open. She knows she wants to be a product manager, but whether that’s with another fintech company or in a different industry remains to be decided.

Shanmugam encouraged students who are in a similar position as she was to research their options before deciding whether to pursue an MBA or a more specialized program like MEM.

“They do serve different purposes,” she said. “MEM is the perfect mix for me in terms of offering an opportunity to learn all the skills within the timeframe that I wanted so I can transition seamlessly into the role I want. After all the research I did, MEM was the perfect runway.”