Ive been looking at the engineering BLS and for most engineering majors it’s not showing great growth. I was wondering how easy it was to find a job in engineering once you graduate? I know it depends on location, just specify your location
At https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/employment-outlook-for-engineering-occupations-to-2024.htm there is a graph you probably viewed. Note their is a dramatic difference between engineering majors. Nuclear engineers are on the loosing end while Biomedical engineers are on the high end. Environmental and Civil Engineers are also looking good…
Nuclear engineering is still reeling from a chain of bad accidents and may not recover, but there are dissenting opinions See https://www.wpi.edu/news/nuclear-engagement-powerful-attraction-keeps-diana-hart-92-energy-industry. Personally, I would not vote for this one.
The US infrastructure needs to be rebuilt and at some point in the near future and we will have to responded with government investment. See the national infrastructure report card at https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/ .
Climate change is real and there will have to be a response as water levels rise and threaten valuable ocean shore properties.
Meanwhile biomedical engineering is rapidly advancing and not yet understood by much of the general public. See https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/biomedical-engineering/research,. See the fruits of its labor @ https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-team-grows-heart-tissue-spinach-leaves and tell me that the BLS is wrong.
Science has a funny way of shaping development and engineering is where science goes to get the job done.
How about robotics? If you are not yet aware of the explosion here, take a look at http://cmtoday.cmu.edu/sections/robotics/ from CMU or https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/robotics-engineering/research at WPI
Go to https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes for a detailed and recent history of job placement salaries and grad schools by discipline. I don’t see the bad news here.
What are you actually looking for?
We will always need doctors, but it seems no one wants to pay for them. It might be easier to rebuild bridges.
Predicting the future is a very tricky business. Remember, it is the first chemists (alchemists) who were early pioneers in the this prediction business. Now economists play at it while engineers do the work.
:bz
@BrendanG
Thought this article related well to your concerns about the future of engineering jobs. Check out https://www.wpi.edu/news/economic-renaissance. It reflects the national interest with a $1,000,000,000 investment in teaching and researching for the future. It did not stop with the wheel nor with the computer. However, studying for yesterday’s applications of engineering may not be the best route.
With the rapid changes brought about in engineering fields by the growth of science, students need to “learn how to learn.” Your four or more years of study will only get you started in a field. Like medicine, you will have to continuously study new developments to remain competitive. As the patient, you would not want a doctor who does not know the latest research in medicine. It is a professional’s responsibility. It does make a good living, Some get very rich and we here about them in the media. To be good at something, you have to want it.
With engineering, you can help people and also MIGHT get rich. Dean Kamen can explain this better than I, watch https://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm.
:bz
If you are a US citizen you should not have a problem finding an engineering position, even in nuclear. There are many defense and energy related employers that hire only US citizens. The hot fields now will be tougher to find a job in over the coming decade - anything that starts with “bio” and ends in “engineering” is popular.
I live in upstate NY and we cannot hire engineers fast enough. Go to Boston and the opportunities are even greater. Recessions do occur though, which can cause companies to slow hiring temporarily. Typically in those situations the BS engineering students just go into a master’s program.