I recently had the opportunity to share my thoughts on engineering leadership with EngineerJobs.com, the most-visited engineering career site online. It's a tricky and dare-I-say controversial topic, not the milquetoast subject you might imagine. The innate traits required to be a successful leader balanced against the learned ones, the nature vs the nurture, and the importance of technical skills in a role that traditionally is heavy on soft skills - I touch upon them all and more.

Will getting a Masters Degree in an engineering discipline be worthwhile? After all, it's more years in school, more late nights studying, and a delayed entry to the job market and officially kicking off your career.