How to find out which engineering field is right for me?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I will be going back to school fairly soon after taking a 7 year hiatus to work full time. My first time attending college I chose Computer Engineering but due to life circumstances I was not able to stay in school very long. </p>

<p>While attending the only 'Computer Engineering' class that I managed to take was Intro to Programming (learned some C). At times I enjoyed the class but overall I do not think a heavy code writing career would be right for me. This leaves me wondering what I should pursue. Luckily my local community college offers most undergraduate courses for many engineering majors. This would give me at least 1-1.5 years to decide while not stalling my progress. I could easily complete physics, chemistry, calculus 1-4, and general education requirements before transferring to another school.</p>

<p>For majors, the big ones that seem obvious to me are civil engineering, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering. I've always enjoyed working with mechanical objects, breadboard circuits, and DIY home projects. My line of work has given me small amounts of construction related work and I enjoy traveling to job sites and building/designing based on CAD. In addition to enjoying my work I also want a major that will have entry level jobs in 4-6 years. I don't anticipate things being 'easy' but I don't want to invest 4-6 years and tens of thousands of dollars only to find out that I will never have a hope of finding any internship or job opportunities.</p>

<p>I've been researching different options for several weeks now but am mostly lost. I have already determined that I will have to relocate to the Bay Area in 2 years for school and job opportunities but want to have a general idea what might work for me if I head down this road.</p>

2

<p>In your shoes, I’d major in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Electrical Engineering. That would give you quite a bit of hands on opportunities. Such an education alone has a wide range of applications in a range of industries including defense, medical, automotive, consulting, HVAC, etc. Simply said, you don’t have to choose a career field for the future right now but mechanical engineering will open many different doors for you. If your college has a 4+1 program to get a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in 5 years, even better! The latter degree will boost employability and pay. If you love your field of engineering, an extra year of engineering for a Masters degree is the way to go.</p>

<p>Do sufficiently well and you’ll even graduate with a job in line for you! I would also venture to say that your decision to return to college will be looked upon positively as a sign that you want to continually better yourself.</p>

<p>Of course, having basic programming abilities is always helpful for the engineer in a tech filled world so even if you aren’t a huge fan of programming, basic competance in comprehending and writing code will boost your career options.</p>

<p>Best of like to you.</p>

3

<p>My son was a mechanical engineering major. Within his ME department was a specialty called “mechatronics”, which is the ME version of robotics. It is more heavily on the mechanical side of robotics as you might assume, but does require a fair amount of programming. You may find this interesting as he did. </p>

<p>As of today, it seems to be an area in which it fairly easy to find employment. The job market can change quickly, but I believe this area will have some staying power.</p>