Are engineers happy people?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I'm currently a first-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley in the chemical engineering major. My courses are interesting, I'm reasonably content with my studies, but recently, I started really thinking about what awaits me after college. A job at an oil company? Some manufacturing analysis position away from civilization? Location is important to me. I'd rather stay within the bay area, if not within the immediate San Francisco area (my home city), though I suppose if I need to I could relocate elsewhere in California, as long as I'm close to an urban environment. Also, I want the option of raising a family. I get worried that I might not be able to do that to the extent I want to if my work demands so much. </p>

<p>My idealized idea of research sounds fun, but in reality...damn, chem labs can get freaking boring/annoying/frustrating. But in the end, I suppose I will deal with the stress if I get the occasional progress. But how competitive are research positions and how much is the typical salary? </p>

<p>For these reasons, I started wondering if I should switch to civil engineering or IEOR instead. They seem to have jobs that are more team oriented and, in the case of civil, provides opportunities to get out of an office/lab environment for field work. In the case of IEOR, the degree seems so flexible. I could work essentially anywhere. </p>

<p>Also, does anyone know of the prospects of mechanical engineers regarding my concerns? (location, family balance, relative level of frustration on the job? etc.) It seems slightly broader than chemical engineering. </p>

<p>Your thoughts, guys? Thanks.</p>

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<p>Consulting Firms are splattered all over big cities. For ME’s these would be for mainly for HVAC/Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings and some industrial sector. </p>

<p>My brother is an ME and works in the Energy Efficiency and Carbon Management division of this company. [Nexant](<a href="http://nexant.com/]Nexant[/url]...he’s"&gt;http://nexant.com/)...he’s&lt;/a&gt; happy : ) so there’s a lot of consulting firms like these for ME’s. I don’t know squat about Civil but I’m sure this same applies too…</p>

<p>and it’s based in Cali go figure : )</p>

<p>random question…do nice homes really costs like millions of dollars in cali??</p>

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<p>^Cost of living will look absurd all over the west coast. Especially to someone from Iowa, lol.</p>

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<p>Looking at that company’s website, I thought chemical engineering would be an applicable degree, yet I see that openings specifically list mechanical, electrical, and civil… =/
I wonder if I could argue my way into an environmental engineering job as a chemical engineering major. I’ve been told that chemE is versatile, but I suppose there are even more versatile engineering options to study as an undergraduate? </p>

<p>Answer to your random question: yes, homes get very expensive. >< Unless you want to buy outside of the cities. I know someone who’s attending UC Davis and his parents are buying him a house there that is much larger than the one they live in at San Francisco.</p>

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<p>Haha why are people ignoring the basic question from the title?</p>

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<p>Because it is an impossibly general question?</p>

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<p>^ok then, yes, my dad is an Electrical Engineer, worked for GE on contract for NASA, he’s had a very enjoyable career.</p>

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<p>Although general, I wouldnt say it is impossible to elaborate on. Anecdotal evidence wouldn’t hurt. But I digress, its not my thread.</p>

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<p>I’m a 3rd year EE major at Stanford and I’m happy. More happy now that it is break.</p>

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<p>No i hate my life this field sucks everything in dilbert is true</p>

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<p>I’m an engineering major, and I am happy. (Especially now that all my technical finals are done)</p>

<p>Is that what you’re looking for?</p>

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<p>a corporate career in engineering has many pros and cons. but keep in mind engineering is NOT your only option after graduation. engineering is considered an excellent analytical major, and you can find employment in many different business roles. </p>

<p>you can also jump into the startup scene. tech skills are essential in early stage companies so with the right skill set it can be a lucrative and exciting career path. as we read in the news, successful startup company founders often make millions when selling their company.</p>

<p>finally, there are also professional schools (law or medicine). Law, in particular, doesn’t even require any pre-law courses…</p>

<p>but anyway. what are those pros and cons of the “traditional” engineering career.</p>

<p>Pros:
–> In demand. It’s fairly “easy” to get an engineering job. You will never starve, and will live comfortably.</p>

<p>–> Chance to work on interesting stuff. You probably love tech as an engineering major, and you will deal with it every day at work.</p>

<p>–> Intellectually stimulating. Most jobs are boring…you might actually enjoy yours.</p>

<p>–> Stability. Its one of those careers that you will eventually build up vacation time, get a pretty decent salary, and find a nice balance between work and family. A great career for raising a family.</p>

<p>Cons:
–> “Low” salary cap. Engineers are usually very intelligent, and they are earning well below their potential as corporate engineers. Lawyers, doctors, bankers, consultants, managers, dentists, accountants, etc etc. all will make more money than a corporate engineer. You are most likely going to cap out in the mid 100k range, whereas lawyers (for example) start at that salary out of law school from the top places. Opportunities are limited for advancement without an MBA, and top MBA programs favor applicants from banking and consulting rather than engineering.</p>

<p>–> Capitalist exploitation. Corporate engineers get completely shafted by capitalism. They get paid a moderate salary to design a product, then the corporation makes a ton of profit off that product, which goes to pay the rest of the workers (including top level managers) and the shareholders. Basically, engineers are some of the main value providers but do not get compensated as such.</p>

<p>–> Low power. Engineers are often thought of as (pretty well compensated) low level workers. While you can progress to senior engineer, lead engineer, etc. there is often a ceiling in how high you can go due to a combination of stereotypes and lack of business connections. </p>

<p>–> Bad stereotypes. In your professional and personal life, you will always face some stereotypes and expectations…bad social skills, no business sense, nerdy, etc. </p>

<p>–> Over specialization. The nature of our economy forces specialization, and its not uncommon for engineers to become an expert at X only to have X get outdated in 10 years and the engineer is suddenly in job trouble.</p>

<p>these trends are pretty consistent across all engineering fields (from talking to my mech e, chem e, electrical e, etc friends). </p>

<p>basically, its an excellent career path for those that lack sociopathic tendencies (seeking power and money), want a good work/life balance, and love technology. </p>

<p>if you are power/status/money seeking, you probably will find yourself frustrated. but keep in mind the other job options to satisfy those tendencies (law, banking, etc) often require MUCH more hours and stress.</p>

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<p>"No i hate my life this field sucks everything in dilbert is true "</p>

<p>Dilbert is right on!</p>

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<p>Sorry, I suppose I should clarify one thing. I am sure that I can be happy studying engineering in a university environment. What I’m worried about is what will become of me afterward, when I’m out of school and on the job, when I can actually call myself an engineer and not an engineering student. Yes, I’m concerned about job satisfaction. I do have thoughts that there are easier, more enjoyable paths out there for me to earn a stable income. Those cons listed by BostonEng (thanks very much for your post) have passed through my mind once or twice. </p>

<p>I love studying science, but if it will lead to a job I won’t be fond of…maybe I should switch majors, if not out of engineering completely, out of chemical engineering and into a more flexible engineering field (mechanical or IEOR). </p>

<p>Maybe…I just think too much…but I kind of have fits of craziness where I really don’t know if chemE is the best major for me. Then one instance I’m 100% sure I want to switch to civilE. Then I’ll think about mechE and its flexibility. Then I’ll forget it all and tell myself that I want to stick with chemE and maybe minor in nuclear chemistry or nuclear engineering. </p>

<p>Who knows…I suppose I could try out for patent law. What does that entail? Working for hours reading, researching, collecting data? Err…maybe that’s not better than the typical engineering job. I don’t know! I’m just really afraid that I’ll end up regretting my major choice…</p>

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<p>Engineering is an awesome major to have. As I said, you probably have access to more options than you even know…you are definitely not stuck as an engineer. The only reason to switch would be if you are bored by or struggle with the coursework. It seems like you actually like your school stuff so I would stick with it.</p>

<p>For law, engineering is a good pre-law major even if you don’t want to do patent law. If you can keep up a high GPA, adcomms appreciate the rigors of the major and its required analytical skills. You can also pursue corporate law, litigation, public interest, criminal defense…basically anything. Your path is not tied to your u-grad major.</p>

<p>Within business, engineering is considered a prime degree for both banking and consulting. It may seem strange, but those jobs sometimes even prefer engineering majors over business majors. You can break into wall st and become a quant trader, or join a strategy consulting firm to help companies make decisions. </p>

<p>Finally, pretty much any job that is accessible by a college grad is obtainable by an engineering major: teacher, sales, etc. I don’t see how you are limiting your options by staying as engineering, unless you do it yourself by only applying to engineering jobs.</p>

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<p>You should be in the Engineering discipline that most interests you, whether that is Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, etc. Getting an Engineering degree in any discipline is a long haul. You want it to be in something that excites you. I wouldn’t worry about the details of what you will do after - you really can’t know at this point. All you do know is that it is an excellent degree to have and opens many doors, depending on the choices you make once you are out of school. Each degree has it’s limitations. However, there are few products researched, designed, tested, sold, that don’t involve multiple disciplines. You will find you have a lot of options with an engineering degree, and you are not locked into a box of doing lab work the rest of your life. I earned a BS in Nuclear Engineering, an MS in Mechanical Engineering, and have worked in different environments. I have worked in R&D, project management, manufacturing, even a little bit of sales. So, my advice is, pick the one you will enjoy.</p>

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<p>‘Over specialization. The nature of our economy forces specialization, and its not uncommon for engineers to become an expert at X only to have X get outdated in 10 years and the engineer is suddenly in job trouble.’</p>

<p>I also heard that engineers don’t recommend others to pursue an engineering career because they don’t like their jobs and the pay isn’t great, and also because engineering doesn’t have very strong job security and over-specialization. Also, I heard that outsourcing will just continue to become a major problem, particularly in modeling/simulation areas such as CFD and FEA, which is especially troubling to me as those are the two areas I’m considering pursuing the most. Do you guys agree with what I said?</p>

<p>Do you guys think those with MS degrees in Computational Science and Engineering have better job opportunities than pure engineering degrees? Another engineer I heard even mentioned that overspecialization is such a problem that one would have better job opportunities with a physics than engineering degree</p>

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<p>CreepyPasta13,</p>

<p>You bring up an interesting point. I might be biased, but I actually like being a “systems engineer”. It is more broad and allows me to opt into other areas if I either get tired of my specialty area (databases) or there is a slow period in hiring of database professionals. With systems engineering, you do a lot of modeling, high-level design and “cutting trees” (read: documentation) but you are still working on developing a system…you are just overseeing its existence through all of the engineering phases.</p>

<p>For this reason alone and for the sake of being “broad”, I like degrees like Engineering Management, Systems Engineering, Engineering Science and just plain 'ole Engineering (no specialty).</p>

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<p>A career in structural engineering allows my husband and myself to run our own firm out of our home in Maine. We built an addition to our house, so our office has lots of windows that overlook beautiful woods. We’re home when the kids get out of school. We can close up shop early on Friday and take off without having to ask permission. We work on interesting projects - the internet allows us to work nationally - one of our best clients is in Texas. I can honestly say I’m much happier than I would have ever guessed I’d be as a stressed-out engineering student.</p>

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<p>Some engineers are happy. Some engineers are unhappy. Many more span the gamut between these two points. I work with many engineers who have many different outlooks on their careers for a myriad of reasons. It boils down to each individual person and what his or her goals, likes, and ambitions are.</p>

<p>One thing to keep in mind is that there is going to be some luck element involved in your level of job satisfaction, especially coming right out of college. Getting the right job that will make you happy is a matter of picking the right employer at the right time when they have a job opening you can fill, saying the right things during the interview so as to impress them, ending up working with people who you will get along with well, etc. in addition to just having good grades. </p>

<p>As a result, it’s impossible to say with much certainty that you will like (or dislike) engineering. We can offer up lots of anecdotal evidence and stories that you may be able to relate to in some way, but ultimately the only thing that matters is you.</p>

<p>Personally, my outlook on engineering as a career has changed substantially between the time I graduated from high school and today. Back then, when I thought of engineering I thought I would be working on many interesting, challenging, and meaningful projects. I thought I would be working with motivated, intelligent people on teams to tackle some of the hardest problems. And mostly, I thought I would be having fun while working as an engineer.</p>

<p>Fast forward to today. I no longer have such a rose colored view of my career. What caused this change? Some of this was the result of finally coming to terms with the reality of working for a large company. Most was the realization that what I’m doing is just not what I want to be doing. While I am not miserable, I would be reluctant to say to say I enjoy what I’m doing. Instead of having fun I’m bored and dream about the day when I will “escape” to greener pastures.</p>

<p>Please note that this is my personal experience with engineering. Do not take it to mean that “engineering sucks” or “run as fast as you can and change your major.” You may very well end up with an engineering job you truly enjoy.</p>