Hey all, first year engineering student at Rutgers here. At the end of my freshman year I declare a major, and was wondering if you could help me out. I’ve been interested in mechanical things like military systems, tanks, gear, etc for a while and even more so in aerospace (especially fighter jets and such). However I’ve been hearing mechs tend to spend tons of time on CAD as well as other non-hands on work (hoping you could lend some credibility to these claims). Lately I’ve become far more interested in civil than I always have been, designing structures to support buildings and bridges seems really cool, as does being able to balance office work and being on the actual jobsite. Could you guys offer any advice for me picking, based on this info, as well as maybe some insight for the day to day operations of a mech/aero engineer vs civil?
I don’t know many mechanical engineers who spend most of their time on CAD, but it’s true that most don’t do a lot of the “hands-on” work down on the shop floor. That’s true of essentially any engineer, though, because the training lends itself more to the design and analysis of products and their manufacturing processes rather than the actual direct fabrication of them.
Still, any of these flavors will have some jobs that are more hands-on. You just have to look for them specifically.
Would you say though, that what you could do with civil lends itself more to someone who wants to be there at the site than other fields? For example I have a friend with a masters in construction engineering and management and he spends plenty of time at jobsites where work on buildings, bridges, etc is being done.
Not necessarily. The job sites are just different. A civil engineer’s job site might be a construction project, while a mechanical engineer’s “job site” is more likely a manufacturing floor at a plant somewhere making any manner of products. How often an engineer is at a job site and how involved they are while there is highly variable.
And for what it’s worth, construction management isn’t the same as civil engineering.
I generally agree with Bonehead here.
Engineering is complex. A person may have a job title of “Mechanical Engineer”, but that does not necessarily mean he/she will be sitting in front of a computer wearing a pocket protector and crunching numbers all day long. Some “Mechanical Engineers” may do design engineering type of work using CAD programs all day, others may be involved in test engineering, others in sales, and others yet involved in a mix of analysis/hands-on work. It really just depends on the particular company/organization/etc, and what they expect out of their engineers. Bigger corporations tend to have more compartmentalized positions where you focus on certain tasks, while smaller companies may demand more flexibility.
Bottom line, it’s not a cut and dried occupation where jobs are neatly categorized. If you want a Civil Engineering job where you can travel a lot, those are available. Likewise, if you want a Civil Engineering job where you sit in an office most of your time, those too are available. The big thing is to find a branch of engineering where the subject matter interests you (i.e. aero = planes/spacecraft, mechanical = broad coverage, civil = buildings/public structures, etc). When you are ready to start your job search, you will then see what’s available that fits your interests and capabilities.
Fractalmstr, have we met? (kidding) In no particular order, that comes pretty close to capturing the 25ish years of my engineering career. And each phase required an engineering degree and was dependent upon the prior phase. So be flexible, and be willing to identify where your interests are. The jobs are out there.
Depending on what specialty you choose in Civil, you may end up not designing cool structures but other things as well; a friend is doing an MS CE focusing on sewers, no kidding 
Stuff we don’t always think about. Also check out Architectural Engineering, where they tend to focus more on building stuff.