<p>I am a college student currently pursuing my undergrad in chemical engineering. However, I don't exactly fall into your stereotype of a "typical engineer". I love working with people, talking to people, and networking.</p>
<p>Going into college, it seemed like a business major made sense given my enjoyment of working with people. However, given my high math and science grades throughout my high school career, I decided to go with engineering. My engineering grades are good enough so far, with a GPA of 3.9, and I love the challenges and problem solving that come with my engineering curriculum.</p>
<p>I'm curious... given my passion for both PEOPLE and ENGINEERING, what career possibilities are out there for me?</p>
<p>Good news: many, if not most engineers don’t fall into your “stereotype of a typical engineer” and nearly every engineer works with people. In the real world, engineering is almost always performed in teams, meaning you have to work with people and you have to have some degree of social skills.</p>
<p>Engineering management and technical marketing come to mind. It might be worth taking a few business courses if you can fit them into your schedule, in management and marketing.</p>
<p>In my experience, the engineers who get promoted to be engineering managers are those with a good combination of technical skills and people skills, rather than just one or the other.</p>
<p>The misconception about social skills in engineers is probably due to most engineers not putting up with people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Business majors thrive on fluff.</p>
<p>I thought engineers become managers by doing their routine jobs better than others rather than …</p>
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<p>You must be one of those high achievers. Sales and Marketing need people with a lot of technical knowledge. I think you may actually do well there.</p>
<p>Larger companies will love your mix - high grades but personable. GE’s Edison program would be a good match. A friend of mine with similar traits went to work for Mobil and was fast-tracked to upper management.</p>
<p>It’s true that introverts are overrepresented in engineering. If you end up in a back-office design group and are chattering away, you will be getting on people’s nerves.</p>
<p>OP: I am going to disagree with those recommending sales or marketing - it seems you like people AND engineering, and those jobs are 90+% people and little or no engineering.</p>
<p>Instead, I would recommend simply going in as an engineer. At the beginning, most engineers have a very similar career focused on working in small teams to solve technical problems, but the paths quickly diverge. Some engineers will take a course that tends towards working alone or in small groups and becoming a focused technical expert. Others will work on the integration and management side, and it seems like this would be a good path for you. You could do anything from systems engineering to program management to functional management, spend a lot of time working with people (colleagues as well as customers) while still working engineering problems.</p>
<p>I would avoid going the technical sales or marketing route until you have really tried the engineering paths, simply because going back can be very difficult. Try it out, maybe in 20 years you will be a CEO or CTO instead of a marketing analyst.</p>
<p>I agree with Cosmicfish on this one. Start off working as an engineer. Be a part of teams, learn to understand the team dynamics and personalities, understand the business, network with other groups, and take advantage of educational opportunities offered. People will notice your people and technical skills and your reputation will grow. Then if you are ready for a jump into something new, you will have your network and reputation with you as you learn your new role. Systems engineering, program management, engineering management, business development and sales would most likely love to have you. And if your business is technology based, you will still have the respect of the people you need to be successful - the engineers!</p>
<p>Of course you might decide you would rather stay as an engineer. Extroverts also make excellent “experts”, teams leads, mentors or instructors. Since engineers do tend to be introverts, an extrovert will stand out. </p>
<p>All in all its a good mix giving you lots of options in the future.</p>
<p>OP did not ask us to rank the possibilities. He (just for easier typing) asked for POSSIBILITIES. There were no point for everyone to repeat a list all the possibilities.</p>
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<p>OP didn’t gave us his percentage: whether he’s 90% human and 10% machine or the other way around. My guess is he’s >50% human-like since he likes human interaction. (my apology for the kidding)</p>
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<p>I agree this is a very good option only if he can succeed. Sale and Marketing appear to have the least risk. Your advice has more risk than mine, but with better reward. OP could get a double majors or minor in business because he was thinking about Business as his major.</p>
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<p>This is a career question everyone faces. There is very little for going back and asking oneself the question what if…?</p>
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<p>I have to say the assumption was very very lopsided. If he has the ingredients to be CEO/CTO, why anyone would assume he would still be “a marketing analyst” in 20 years? Let’s not downgrade him and bring him up to VP of Sales and Marketing, fair enough? Then the question could be that does he want to be the CEO/CTO of a small company or VP of Sales and Marketing of a large company? We shouldn’t underestimate the power of VP of Sales and Marketing for a large company here. For the CEO/CTO of the small company, the company could go belly-up in a couple years or doing well (again balance of risk and award). Let’s say if the company goes bankrupt, what the most relevant and latest experience he would have and what’s the next company would hire him for? We can figure that out quite easily. </p>
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<p>I don’t dispute that, ONLY IF…</p>
<p>I have every reason to believe that he could succeed whatever he choose to do.</p>