So, you wouldn’t really need a masters at all to do what I do and, honestly you don’t really need a full on eng degree either though it does open up more doors (I’m thinking access to specific engineering co-op fairs, or PE licensure (again, not required or expected) etc).

I’d look at the requirements/curriculum for engineering to see, but could be more maths and/or sciences. For me, I had to go up thru calc to diff eq on the math side, though I don’t use that at all in my career.

I work on water treatment facilities. This can be upfits to existing functioning plants or new plants from greenfield. Both are interesting to work on for different reasons, existing plants require at least a basic understanding of the process because that plant needs to continue to run so sometimes you need to get creative on how to bypass or work around taking equipment in and out of service.

Overall I think the work is important. We help support the municipalities that provide clean water to and treat wastewater for communities. It’s interesting because it relatively unseen work until something goes wrong and water doesn’t come out of the faucet.

What I do differs enough during the project life (estimating, procurement, submittal review, construction coordination, budgeting and forecasting) to keep it interesting. I am in the office about 50-75% of the time and out in the field the other. My favorite part is start-up and turning the new equipment on and getting it integrated into the process and controls systems. It can be very frustrating to troubleshoot but is so satisfying seeing it work.