<p>I'm trying to choose my college major. I'd like to go in the field of engineering, but I would dread a job where I am stuck in my office all day in front of a computer. Ideally I would like to go outside sometimes. My top three choices for majors at the moment are mining engineering, geotechnical engineering, and civil engineering. How do these three majors size up considering my preferences? And are there any other decent-paying jobs that fit my preferences?</p>
<p>Most fields have specialties that take you outdoors regularly. At my company we have EE’s who do flight test, and spend about half their time in a plane. We have other engineers (mostly EE’s and ME’s) working on location around the world as field engineers. Not to mention the fact that ALL the engineers I know spend at least SOME time in a lab or shop (for some it is nearly all their time)!</p>
<p>I have been searching jobs for ChemEs since that’s where I’m interested, and practically none of them sit at a computer. A lot of them ask for a bunch of lifting, or climbing, or some other physical task. These are the ones in plants, and the ones who work in oil and gas don’t appear to get an office much either, upstream or downstream. Environmental Engineering would be another option, if that suits you. Lots of field work there.</p>
<p>I know quite a bit of future mining engineers at my school. It’s fair enough to say they are doing anything but sit in an office when they are doing internships or study abroads. Except for some tedious paperwork :D</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I will research some of the other engineering fields a bit further. </p>
<p>When diving into the actual career, do mining engineers, civil engineers, and geotechnical engineers get a lot of outdoors time?</p>
<p>Define “outdoors”. I’m guessing that some mining engineers spend a lot of time underground.</p>
<p>Outdoors as in “not in a building”.</p>
<p>petroleum engineers; it’s a very lucrative career and you are outdoors</p>
<p>Most petroleum engineers I’ve worked with sit in an office. They rarely, if at all, went into the field.</p>
<p>kldat1: I’m curious, do you know what they were in? Upstream, downstream or midstream (maybe)? Or in management?</p>
<p>Anyway, I know mining engineers do. They get to go to weird foreign places to get diamonds, or gold, or whatever it is. A lot of good travel in this field. If you are in the right area working for the right company, you might not have to travel very much.</p>
<p>And what exactly is a geotechnical engineer?</p>
<p>@ BeachyPeachy Geotechnical engineering is a specialization of civil engineering. Geotechnical engineers work on creating good foundations for infrastructure.</p>
<p>Most were reservoir engineers. Some geologists too. They spent more time in court as an expert witness than they did in the field. Maybe right out of school they did some field time and have advanced passed that phase in their career.</p>
<p>Doctors, business administrators, lawyers,… also work with computer all day now.</p>