<p>I'd like some tips, because personally I hate life, look forward to nothing, and only have respite from my own mind when I'm sleeping. it seems a lot of my fellow engineers hate life or at least what they are doing</p>
<p>serious post btw</p>
<p>don't go to college.</p>
<p>kthnx</p>
<p>Are you saying you think engineers are more depressed on average than people in other occupations? </p>
<p>And I'm quite content right now!</p>
<p>yea, sorry, thats what Im asking. Is the depression thing just during school? or is it just at my school? or does it continue into the workforce</p>
<p>Those stats say engineers have the lowest rate of depression in the workforce. I wonder if there have been any studies done on students among majors...</p>
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Those stats say engineers have the lowest rate of depression in the workforce.
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<p>Oooh, wow... Unless you're a woman, in which case the incidence of depression for women engineers is over three times the incidence of depression for the guys.</p>
<p>Just goes to show ya, be nice to us, or we'll get depressed and leave. ;)</p>
<p>From the people I've talked to, a lot of engineering STUDENTS are depressed, because of the workload that tends to cut into other areas of our lives and prevents us from really controlling things like we'd like...</p>
<p>...but the life in the industry is a lot less stressful.</p>
<p>That's what I'm looking forward to.</p>
<p>Being an engineering student is stressful. Being an engineer is about as stressful as most other careers. We just get better compensated for it.</p>
<p>Have you figured out why you're depressed? md5fungi hit on a good point about the workload of students. Is it too much for you? Are you depressed because you don't have enough time for outside interests? Do you just not like the subject matter?</p>
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...but the life in the industry is a lot less stressful.
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<p>Well, that part depends upon what company you work for... My previous job wasn't dreadfully stressful (except for the stressors which led to the 40% attrition rate at that particular branch office, which also led to my quitting), but the job I'm at right now is every bit as stressful as college was.</p>
<p>I think the thing that makes it different is the fact that at the end of the day, I see actual progress. I'm one of five engineers working on one <em>huge</em> project right now, a pair of hospital towers in the Texas Medical Center. At the end of the term as a student, I'd have worked hours-and-hours-and-hours and would get... a slight fluctuation in my GPA. At the end of the term of this project as a graduate engineer, I'll have worked hours-and-hours-and-hours and will get... to watch two hospital towers being built, that I did a large chunk of the design for.</p>
<p>I'm still pulling twelve hour days at my desk in my office four days a week (taking the occasional break to post on CC and let my brain re-gel, of course... there's only so long a human being can stare at a beam schedule...) and when I'm not pulling twelve hour days I'm at least working ten, and my first week here I actually spent all weekend in the office, but the rewards for my hard work are a heck of a lot more tangible now than they were when I was a student.</p>
<p>I'm just basing my judgments about the industry on what other people in EE have told me; one thing I'm warned about by older students is that the semester back from a co-op/internship experience, it is extremely difficult to get used to the regular onslaught of information in classes.</p>
<p>That doesn't comfort me, because I think I'm taking some of the hardest classes my school's EE department offers after my co-op! :(</p>
<p>I guess it's a combination of the horrible engineering school, the ridiculous assignments (nothing in the lab works, yet reports are still expected, the monotony of the material, and the inept faculty</p>
<p>If it is that bad you might as well help prospective students by getting it on the record of what school you are now attending. Where are you attending engineering school and do you think other current students might also share in your view?</p>
<p>i'm not going to name it, but I wouldnt worry, since no one goes there (~100 undergrad and 10 grad in each department) and its not ranked in the top 100.</p>
<p>Everyone in my major complains, its one of our best pastimes</p>
<p>If it's that bad, then have you considered switching majors or transferring to a different school?</p>
<p>One more year til grad school, so Im hanging in there. Just wondering about how widespread engineering unhappiness is</p>
<p>Are you sure you want to go to grad school if you describe your field as monotonous? Or were you just referring to how your professors teach?</p>
<p>recent field switch. I was a mechanical, and just could no longer stand the concept of stresses in metals, and the breaking of them</p>
<p>So this has nothing to do with engineering in general, it has something to do with you not being really interested in the field so your not committed to do the large amount of work since your not passionate about engineering.</p>
<p>No, I was not passionate about solid mechanics, so I made a switch from mechanical. But that was just one aspect on my unhappiness. How about my friends at my school and others, who have engineering related depression?</p>