Industrial Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>HI </p>

<p>I am a high school senior and i have always been very strong in my and science. Growing up I always thought of taking the path of business (finance or accounting) and possibly getting an MBA with that. Earlier this year someone recommended me to go into Engineering because of my math strengths. </p>

<p>I am getting to the point where I do not know what I want to study because I truly don't know enough about IE's. What kind of job should I expect to get strait out of college? How about a few years into the career? Any information would help a lot. </p>

<p>I truly love business but have recently noticed standing out is the best way to get what you want and that is why I looked into Industrial Engineering as the bridge between business and engineering (which stands out). </p>

<p>As an industrial engineer, does one site down at a desk solve math equations and stuff like that? If so that is not the path i want to take. I have very good people and leadership skills and would love to put that to good use. </p>

<p>thank you! </p>

2

<p>I majored in Industrial Engineering and Computer Science (they’re pretty well related - moreso than you may thing) but Industrial Engineering was sort of my “main” major where as Computer Science was just there to help boost up my abilities in Industrial Engineering. Unfortunately, I found that the jobs available to a Bachelors in Industrial Engineering really were not technical at all in nature. As such, I think Industrial Engineering may actually be a good fit for you if you don’t want a technical job. A lot of people work in Consulting (either Management or Operations usually) or in Operations for all sorts of companies, but often the work that Bachelors degrees with no experience find are not technical, they are more about intuition and working with people and the such. You’ll be on excel a lot, but you’re not likely to be a programmer or anything like that. </p>

<p>I’ve ended up at a programming job based mostly on my CS degree, which I took in large part because the pay is good. It’s a good job and good company so no complaints or regrets on my part there. I’m hoping one day I’ll find a technical oriented job in Industrial Engineering (hopefully experience in Software Engineering will help me) but I don’t know. </p>

3

<p>Haha, who gets paid to sit and solve math problems all day? I’m currently in a Masters in IE. One of the reasons I liked it was for the same reasons you mention. And yes, like Vladenschlutte mentioned, there are a lot of business opportunities that can come our way. For my school Deloitte, Accenture, and Ernst & Young all hire us for consulting. Also, a ton of companies want us for operations or supply leadership development programs. You will definitely be using the analytical skills. Personally I am glad I have a larger quant skill set than all the pure business guys. I feel like it gives me a huge advantage.</p>

4

<p>See the following links for more info on IE:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ise.ufl.edu/prospective-students/what-is-ise/”>Academics | UF Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering;

<p><a href=“http://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/undergraduate/about/”>http://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/undergraduate/about/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>IE (more than most other engineering majors) lends itself to consulting and people skills. </p>

5

<p>I think IE is a great major. I have thought about changing my major to something more scientifical like Materials Engineering but I really like the broader approach of Industrial Engineering. </p>

<p>I am currently taking a Materials Engineering class, it is a very interesting subject but when it gets down to the mathematical aspect of it, spending 5 minutes trying to find the diffusion coefficient for a material and the answer is like 6.10 X 10^-12 bores me to tears.</p>

<p>I can sit through an Industrial Engineering lecture and feel like I am learning things that may not be as scientifical in nature but perhaps way more useful in “real life” situations.</p>

6

<p>Nothing like the Palette Stacking Problem to get the problem solving juices going B-) </p>

<p>IE has a lot of applications in everyday life, more so than a lot of other engineering disciplines. I was in grad IE with my two young children that went to daycare so we spent endless hours at the doctor’s waiting room when they got sick. I actually thought about using typical IE techniques to try to model service demand and develop some basic scheduling rules for them to optimize waiting time…</p>

7

<p>My favorite IE problem was the fish, chicken or beef airline meal optimization problem.</p>

<p>I guess that particular example doesn’t have much practical application these days.</p>

8

<p>I was taking Safety Engineering and while working on a home DIY project I removed the table saw blade guard to make a cut, the saw kicked, and I almost lost my thumb. I still got an A in the class. Good thing the professor never talked to the ER…</p>

9

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<p>Why not? Some domestic US flights now load meals, but now there is the added variable of what price to offer them at.</p>

10

<p>I haven’t seen a hot meal on a US domestic flight in 15 years.</p>

11

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</p>

<p>They’re back – at extra charge:
<a href=“Main Cabin and Premium Class food and drinks - Alaska Airlines”>Main Cabin and Premium Class food and drinks - Alaska Airlines;
<a href=“http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/economy/menu.aspx”>http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/economy/menu.aspx&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/Services/in-flight-dining”>https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/Services/in-flight-dining&lt;/a&gt; (may have included hot meal on some flights, but with an “upgrade” option at extra charge)</p>