Aina in search for a balance between engineering and economics

In this post we will learn about the case of Aina, a student of the master’s degree in industrial engineering at the ETSEIB. The case of Aina is remarkable because we find a person who has learned to make decisions with open-mindedness and without renouncing her interests.

The interview with Aina makes it clear that she has lived her time at the GTIAE with passion. Likewise, that she enjoys the moment she is living now. She considers with moderation the opportunities for the future that lie ahead, which are many.

The step towards the university master’s degree at the ETSEIB

Aina started her degree in the 2020-2021 academic year. Therefore, she is a graduate of the third promotion of the GTIAE. She is now in the first year of the master’s degree in industrial engineering.

When I ask her how was it, Aina thinks about it for a few moments. When you finish the degree, many options open, even the situation in which you find yourself is impressive. She considered two options.

Firstly, start doing an internship in a professionally attractive company and thus start your journey through the job market. Secondly, she could do the master’s degree at the ETSEIB. 

Therefore, Aina had doubts about where to turn. However, she does have a golden rule that he put into practice. She has always been told that you must make the decisions that open the most doors to what you like. Consequently, she made the following reasoning. To begin with, the master’s degree focuses more on engineering as such. This contrasts with the fact that during the degree you are prepared to be an engineer “in the abstract”, you do not act as such, as a professional engineer.

Therefore, she decided to do the master’s degree precisely because it offers many possibilities for the future: mobility programs, double degrees, and internships. Additionally, in the industrial job market it is not the same to have a master’s degree as not to have it.

And Aina expands her reasoning even more to justify her decision. She speculates that one might wonder why he chose GTIAE if, in the end, he will end up doing the master’s degree. And she answers herself: the experience of the GTIAE is very different from the bachelor’s degree in engineering in Industrial Technologies (GETI), and she has loved the economic component.

The option for the GTIAE, passion and reason

Asked about her interest in the GTIAE, Aina points out that she completed her scientific baccalaureate. When choosing a degree, she considered several options in the scientific and technological fields. She had already gone to the open doors of the GETI and the GTIAE. The option for the GTIAE seemed more attractive to her. Why? Well, because an engineering degree like GETI was very focused on engineering and Aina was curious to see other fields of knowledge. Therefore, she saw that there was more diversity in the GTIAE than in the GETI.

She was confident that this choice would give her another vision, beyond strict engineering. Knowing the field of economics seemed very appropriate to her, and when she looked at the syllabus, she found it interesting. And the fact that it was in English was also very attractive to her. It was, for short, a decision made from passion and reason.

The years of the GTIAE and the look back

Asked about the characteristic features of the GTIAE, she says that the key thing is that you should be interested in engineering and economics at the same time. If so, you enjoy it. Aina makes explicit the differential features of the GTIAE:

• At the UPC you will not find the same profile of lecturer as at UPF. Having access to these two fields of knowledge is a privilege and a great opportunity.
• In terms of academic organization, the two academic subjects (engineering and economic analysis) are magnificently interspersed.
• It is also key to know the people around you, your classmates. You are with them every day for three years (in the fourth year each one does more of their own). It creates a feeling of class that allows you to form a group and establish connections or share notes. You stick together and help each other.
• In addition, we communicate with the teachers together as a class and everything can be managed more easily. She liked doing everything together. She also appreciates that they have had clear support from the ETSEIB and the UPF Faculty of Economics and Business.

In short, she now looks back and feels satisfied when she hears the news related to the economic field and understands it better. In short, she has enjoyed the degree a lot.

Consultancy: the balance between engineering and economics

She started her master’s degree in September 2024 and in February 2025 she started her internship at IDOM, an engineering consultancy in Cornellà de Llobregat. She is doing an internship in the Strategy and Operations area and is very happy about it.

Aina values that during the degree you see essentially different subjects, and that it is difficult to see the relationship between engineering and economics. But by doing her internship, she has understood that there is no engineering without economics and, at the same time, economics allows engineering to move forward. Both disciplines need each other. They are studied separately, but in real life they go hand in hand.

However, as a consultant, Aina does not work as an engineer, but she works with industry and interacts with professional engineering profiles. She values that consulting is the middle ground that advises specific industries and companies with a holistic vision to achieve their objectives. Therefore, it continuously combines the two disciplines. And many engineers end up studying economics and management once they graduate.

In short, during the degree and internships, the relationship between the two fields of knowledge is progressively understood.

The next few years

Finally, Aina appreciates that when you start working, another world also opens to you. For next year she has been given a mobility place at a university near Paris. There, she will do a master’s degree in management, which is what she likes.

The immediate future is to finish the course well. Logically, with the internship she is too busy. If all goes well, she will study in Paris for the next two years. And later, she would like to work in project management in the industrial field. In short, she does not want to lose the compatibility between engineering, management, and economics.

Aina, thank you very much for your testimony and for illustrating the opportunities GTIAE opens!