<p>Also wondering why this thread ws resurrected after 2 yrs. Oh, and as an aside, my s, who just graduated with a degree in Mech Eng., was turning down $80k+ job offers that were rolling in even before the first month of his sr year. He had at least 4 job offers, and made his choice by last September. He starts in a few weeks.</p>
<p>There are lots of fields that have mediocre pay and long hours. A good example of this is design/art. Most designers don't even make what engineers make and put in long hours. However, they do it because they love what they do. Many couldn't see doing anything else. Musicians put in lots of hours of practice and have a hard time getting a job. If they do get a job, it is usually for mediocre pay. Teachers actually have a hard job with all of the lesson plans, grading, parent meetings etc,yet their pay is mediocre.</p>
<p>The KEY is to really LIKE what you do. If you do, the longer hours and mediocre pay won't affect you as badly as with the OP. Moreover, if you like what you do, you will probably rise in your profession as well.</p>
<p>I am a sophomore physics/government major at the College of William & Mary (which doesn't have an engineering major), and I am currently thinking about transferring to a school where I can earn an undergraduate engineering degree. I am interested in CIVIL ENGINEERING. Any thoughts? I see that the people on this thread have a lot of varying opinions and information, which is wonderful.</p>
<p>Also, on the same topic, to which SPECIFIC FIELDS OF ENGINEERING did the original post by marleys<em>ghost apply? I understand how Electrical, Computer, or Industrial Engineering might be outsourced or construed as "boring" or whatever. However, marleys</em>ghost just talks about "Engineering" in general, which I think is absurd because many of the points marleys_ghost made (such as outsourcing, job availability, dead-end-ness) surely cannot apply to all fields of Engineering, such as Civil, Structural, or Environmental Engineering...</p>
<p>To add, not that there's any need to, engineering majors from top schools can do other fields of study as well! Many of my friends from ECE at Carnegie Mellon are now doing Ibanking/Consulting on Wall St. for companies like Lehman/Goldman and are making 80-100k.</p>
<p>i think the OP is right on in most of his points, he doesn't have an agenda in typing out all of that. I would add that engineering is still a good field to study, but it's for the prepared students.</p>
<p>interesting</p>
<p>marleyghost absolutely owned everyone in this thread...</p>
<p>My favorite one on there was.....you will be working with foreigners
HAHA
are you serious?!
what the hell is that suppose to mean?....lets all be homogenous and work with only people who are the same as us and not culture ourselves one bit.
probably one of the most ridiculous things i have ever read on CC...seriously...
in an ever expanding world it is all the more IMPORTANT!!! to work with and learn about foreign cultures.</p>
<p>@ a balding loser</p>
<p>where do you get that from? he was absent for most of it, only stopping in to cherrypick. Lot's of opinions and thinking in this thread to consider.</p>
<p>I'm astounded by how old this thread is. nearly 2 years old. At first I thought it was a "fresh" thread until the OP said he bumped the thread for kids who were away on labor day. A lot of people are disagreeing with the OP but not many of them are presenting evidence to the contrary. For people who are saying that the OP is bitter - well duh why would he dissuade people to stay away from engineering if he liked it so much? He didn't completely convince me but I've definitely been warned.</p>
<p>Why is this thread back from the dead again?</p>
<p>Every decent, high payng job has a cost. Doctors pay with the best years of their life, lawyers pay with long hours throughout their life, and engineers pay with the problems listed.</p>
<p>I'm surprised I missed this thread, considering I first registered here in 2003. Anyway, here's my line for line rebuttal.</p>
<p>
[quote]
As an engineer
1) you will miss out on a lot of fun in college, forsaking some of the best years of your life.
2) you will miss the best chance you'll have to explore academic areas
3) you will be limited to working in a few major cities.
4) the hours will be excessively long
5) you will be surrounded primarily by men at work
6) many if not most of your coworkers are going to be foreigners
7) your salary will top out early and those liberal-arts majors will catch and pass you
8) by the time you're in your 30's you will be worried about keeping a job
9) you're NOT going to get into management
10) the long-term outlook for engineers grows more dismal each year
[/quote]
</p>
<ol>
<li>I absolutely enjoyed my college years. As long as you manage your time well, it's not a problem. </li>
<li>I had no desire to explore other academic areas.</li>
<li>There are plenty of civil engineering jobs across the country, from the rural town to the megalopolises. Everywhere you see infrastructure, there was a civil engineer involved.</li>
<li>What do you consider to be excessively long? I'm working 8-10 hours a day, and I don't consider that long.</li>
<li>On my project, of the 8 people I primarily interact with, 4 are women.</li>
<li>Huh? Why does this make any difference?</li>
<li>I can potentially end up earning 6 figures down the road. The average American earns $40-50k.</li>
<li>I've worked with plenty of older people. Many of them don't even want to retire.</li>
<li>Ha! that's what I do actually. I manage construction projects.</li>
<li>Absolutely false. With our aging infrastructure failing us, there is an even greater demand for engineers now.</li>
</ol>
<p>I enjoyed the fact that the starter of this thread cited the belief that immigrants smell and don't wear deodorant as one of the reasons why one shouldn't major in engineering. Is this guy for real?</p>
<p>I'm guessing the main reason why this posting was written, was that the author was too bitter from his lack of success in the dating realm.</p>
<p>The OP is hilarious. I would love to point out to him or her that some leaders of today's Fortune 500 companies hold engineering undergraduate degrees. For example, the CEO of Citigroup has an electrical engineering degree from Columbia.</p>
<p>This old tired thread made its way to pg 1 again?? LOL. The OP posts it periodically and it gets laughed off the boards again and again....</p>
<p>Maybe he has an ulterior motive? Perhaps he wishes to rid the world of all engineering students to create less competition for him in the future.</p>
<p>I get the feeling that this guy probably had trouble getting dates and got beat up a lot on the school bus, and it carried over into his college and work years too. I majored in EE back in the 70s and though it was definitely a lot harder/more work than most of my friends that were non-engineering (except for those doing pre-med, theoretical physics, etc.) I managed to have more than my share of fun, I was popular with women, I was considered a good athlete, and I was a decent guitar player/singer too. After college, I joined the US Navy and became an aviator. I’d have to say that being an engineer helped a lot in achieving that goal. Since leaving the Navy, I completed my MSEE, got my PE, and now I’m a professor of EET. I could have taken any number of defense-related jobs at small companies (<50 employees) to giant multinational corporations, making a salary well into 6-figures, but I like teaching so I’ll take a moderate salary hit there… although having the summer off is worth it’s weight in gold :-)</p>
<p>So here’s the executive summary: If you have an aptitude for math and you like designing things (often from first principles), then EE may be for you. If the high-level math is not quite your cup of tea, then maybe EET would be right for you. You can specialize in analog or digital, microwaves/RF or power systems, microelectronics or electricl machinery, biomedical electronics or microcontrollers, digital signal processing or mechatronics, antennas and waveguides or thin-film transistors… you get the idea. And the opportunities for transitioning into management are outstanding. Hope this helps. Thank you, you’ve been a lovely audience.</p>
<p>thank you for the warning OP, I was considering ENG. Now at least I can put it out of my mind.</p>
<p>Engineering is a lucrative major. My sister’s an engineering major at Harvey Mudd, with later emphasis on chemical engineering. And engineering majors from HMC get jobs almost right after B.A., and of course, better after (usually free) graduate school.</p>