Hey!
I’m an incoming senior in high school looking into mechanical, chemical, or cilil engineering. I don’t think I will be able to decide which one I would actually want to do without some experience. Are there any opportunities out there for high school seniors to either intern or learn more in depth about engineering majors?
Thanks!
Thanks for the advice! The internet has gotten me down to 3 majors:( I don’t wanna pick mechanical then want to switch to civil. If you have any websites or any informative sources would be awesome! My parents have a really close friend who is a successful civil engineer with his own firm. Going to talk to him and just get his perspective on different disciplines, establishing a firm, and how to break through the cap you reach at any company when you are really just a pawn in the whole grand scheme of things.
OP, civil engineering is a good field - that’s what my husband and I are in.
We started our own structural engineering firm in 1999. It’s been great for us - we have a home office and we love the flexibility. We had about 13 years experience before we started working for ourselves.
I started working as a receptionist for an engineering firm my freshman year of high school. I worked my way up to drafting for a couple of years, and then did engineering calcs on high rises in Austin. It was great experience.
Ahhhh! This feels like such a hard decision that will impact the rest of my life!
I’m probably leaning more towards mechanical. I have dreams of having my own company. How doable is that in the engineering industry? My google searches have been bringing me to info saying that a lot of engineers are loosing jobs due to the fact that the engineer technicians learn from the engineers then once they know everything the engineer has to offer, the engineer is let go. That is no a situation I want to be stuck in. A place where I am at the same value as a technician.
What are y’alls thoughts on double majoring in something like business? Is that useful at all?
Don’t double major in business if you want to start your own firm. Your engineering skills are what you need to concentrate on. Take all the analysis/design classes you can.
You’re putting the cart before the horse. It IS possible to start your own firm, but you need to concentrate on becoming an excellent engineer first. Then you’ll get business through word of mouth. We were busy from day one because people knew we were good engineers.
We found working for ourselves to be more stable than working for companies, because we can keep our overhead low and ride through the hard times.
Thanks for the advice maine! I actually messaged you (at least I think I did it right) with some questions about UT. If you get a chance, I’d love to hear your opinion
Can you copy and paste your message and resend it? It’s gotten lost in my deluge of PMs.
Done!
Technology Association of Georgia is the Georgia tech company trade association. TAG-ed has a stem-related internships for HS http://www.tagedonline.org. I suspect most states have an equivalent. Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) sponsors a number of engineering and construction camps for HS students. Wiki list of other engineering societies/trade groups to search: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_engineering_societies.
You don’t have to be employed there to get a sense of what fits. You can visit engineers on the job or take them to lunch and pick their brain.
This is a bit of a gross simplification of engineering, but an engineer who used to advise first years at Arizona State guided my son this way. First, he said do you prefer tangible things (Mechanical and Civil) or are you more intrigued by intangible things (Electrical, Chemical and CS). My son chose tangible. Then he asked if he wanted to work with moving things (Mechanical) or non-moving things (Civil). He chose moving and is happy as an ME.
Again, it’s simple and partially incorrect (for example some structures built for space deploy and thus move), but you don’t know what you don’t know and won’t until you’ve been immersed in a program. Start somewhere. You can always change as you get to know more.
Good luck.
" don’t wanna pick mechanical then want to switch to civil. " - At most schools, that’s not big deal.
I switched during my 3rd semester from civil to mechanical. No Biggie. I had a Civil Engineering surveying course that I used as one of the Mech Eng free electives. All the other credits were directly applicable to my Mech Eng coursework, including the Intro to Engineering that was geared toward Civil majors.
Coursework for the first year, and even much of the second, is usually very similar for all engineering disciplines. In other words, you’ll have plenty of time during college to figure out which area of engineering is right for you, and at most schools, it’s generally easy to switch from one engineering major to another (getting into the school/college of engineering in the first place is often the hard part).
Find a couple of engineers in your town, and contact them about shadowing them for a period of time. It will give you an idea of the way the workday goes. You might like it…and you might not!
Also, what makes you think engineering is the right choice for you…even without seeing what engineers actually DO?
Anecdote…our DD knew engineering inside and out. Her dad is an engineer, and we also have several relatives who are engineers. She saw engineering work, and her dads firm more than once. She chose to major in engineering in college. By the second year, she realized she NEVER wanted to be an engineer. She liked the courses, but the potential work was not her cup of tea. She completed an engineering degree, but picked up a double major that is more her thing.
There is so much overlap in the course requirements that it’s not a final decision that needs to be locked in until years later.
You’re needlessly stressing over this.