<p>I've seen many different opinions posted in this forum about IE being a dying field, or "Imaginary Engineering" yet others as a good field to go into with high salaries. Would anyone be able to straighten theese claims out and inform me about the reall strenght of the filed, and job prospects?</p>
<p>Ive been wondering the same thing....good thread. Can anyone help us out?</p>
<p>Let me give you my perspective. I've talked to a number of companies in our area about different majors our school could offer. Most of them have said they have no interest in hiring an IE graduate. Why? Because they would rather have the skills of an ME or EE and teach them the IE stuff they need. At the University of Arkansas many graduates are having a hard time finding jobs. One guy I know had a 3.8 and could not find a job for over a year. One of the other professors I work with was in IE but got out of it as he was seeing the same things happening in Tennessee.</p>
<p>But others have quite a different perspective. They see many IEs doing less of the traditional manufacturing IE and doing a lot more of an IE that is closer to the business and financial fields. It seems like the prospects in this area of IE are a lot better. I think the threads here have come to the agreement that traditional IE in a manufacturing plant is dying but this new form of IE is growing.</p>
<p>I still consider IE imaginary engineering. I saw what the IEs were doing and it was a lot easier than what I was doing in MechE. But I'm certain that there are still a lot of smart IEs out there getting great jobs.</p>
<p>Say if I were to switch from ME to IE...how could I establish myself in more of a Business concentration rather than a Manufacturing? Thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>I think the reason you get different answers is that your question is interpreted differently. Industrial Engineering is a long-standing field, with lots of legacy areas of study. Some of these have limited applicability in a service-based economy. </p>
<p>But, the engineering schools understand this, and they are responding to the changing market. (Well, some are, anyway.) That's why you see lots of IE departments including something called 'systems engineering' in their curricula, and sometimes in the department title. </p>
<p>It does no good, however, to just put old wine in new bottles. Systems engineering is, itself, a rapidly growing and changing field. Five years ago, it really meant <em>computer</em> systems engineering. Nowadays, however, information technology has become so closely integrated into the functioning of a modern corporation that it is difficult to say where IT processes end and business processes begin. Also, "systems engineers" are becoming "systems architects" and "decision engineers". Sometimes it includes "financial engineers" or "sytems analysts". The techniques and tools include modern modeling and simulation methods, lots of math and statistics, and the ability to plan for and oversee large projects. </p>
<p>Some universities have adapted well to this new paradigm, while others have not--and the variation is quite striking. Some schools are educating the next generation of systems engineers and architects. Some are still training modern blacksmiths. You need a clear-eyed assessment of your own university's curriculum in "systems engineering" to be able to judge whether you'll be making money or horseshoes five years from graduation.</p>