<p>yeah, yeah I know, to be a good engineer you have to like problem solving etc. etc. but I just saw a post on college confidential. You see, I want to become an enterpreneur and invent machines and software, but in case they don't work out, I want to have good career opportunities to fall back on, so I'm thinking of studying it. However the post said that I'll miss out a lot in college, and the industry favors younger engineers so I'll lose my job by 30. That kind of scares me because I would like to enjoy my time in college, no I don't want to party all the time, but I would like to have a little fun at least and I wouldn't like to lose my job when I get older. And are engineering jobs repetitive? Like for example if I work as a mechanical engineer, will I make new types of things or will I have to make the same things over and over again because I really hate repetitiveness.</p>
<p>It’s this one, right? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/584100-dont-go-engineering-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/584100-dont-go-engineering-college.html</a></p>
<p>Nothing about that post is straight up wrong, but at the same time there’s no profession that doesn’t have serious downsides. Take that post as a warning that suggests, “this is what you might have to deal with if you choose engineering.” </p>
<p>If any of those are, in fact, a deal-breaker, then maybe you should consider the possibility of a different career. Which one of those bothers you the most?</p>
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I love people who say “I want to be an entrepreneur” but don’t have an actual idea. Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur (as in, run your own business, set your own hours, etc, etc) but doing so successfully requires good ideas and far more hard work than most realize. And if you don’t even have the idea, it is just a pipe dream.</p>
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I didn’t. I mean, you can pick another major and spend your college years partying more, but there is a substantial price to that later.</p>
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I’m 37. Computer science favors younger people, most other fields of engineering are (in my experience) relatively age-indifferent. What they don’t like is stagnant engineers, so keep improving!</p>
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Some are, I suppose, but engineers don’t make things, they design things. Generally speaking, if it is truly routine, they wouldn’t need an engineer to do it.</p>
<p>That having been said, it is a relatively well-paying professional job. If it was 100% sunshine and puppies they wouldn’t need to pay anyone, would they? It’s called a job for a reason. Suck it up - ALL jobs are like that.</p>
<p>As an engineering student who is a senior: There is a lot of work involved that will require you to put in a lot of study hours. But I don’t feel like I have missed out on college life. If you manage your time well, you won’t have to worry about missing out on social activities and leisure time. I am an engineering intern at a federal contractor that specializes in Defense and there are engineers of all ages, so as far as I’m concerned the young engineer bias is a myth. I would not say that engineering jobs are repetative, it all depends on what you do. Because the field of engineering is broad, you should research the different types of engineering and see what would be the best fit for you.</p>
<p>I have some ideas. Not fully realized but the basic ideas are still there. But anyways, as for what bothers me most-
- you will miss out on a lot of fun in college, forsaking some of the best years of your life. </p>
<p>I mean, like I said before, I don’t want to party all the time, or do really wild stuff, and I don’t mind studying for a reasonably long time, however I don’t want to miss out some of the best years of my life.</p>
<p>8) by the time you’re in your 30’s you will be worried about keeping a job </p>
<p>I’m scared to lose my job so quickly.</p>
<p>10) the long-term outlook for engineers grows more dismal each year</p>
<p>But I saw everywhere that the outlook is pretty good, so is this accurate?</p>
<p>some engineering students had a lot of fun… some not so much, depends on your personality. If you need time for fun, you will always find time. </p>
<p>Some industries do favour youth, such as startups for new technology, but from experience (i am in my mid twenties), i found that you have way tougher time to convince people that you know your stuff than if you are in your forties (speaking on energy sector). </p>
<p>Job stability wise, I dont see a problem but I am in the utility sector, which is known for stability.</p>
<p>As for the whole entrepreneur thing, you could always start something up while working. Its tough, but alot of people (including myself) did just that because you can get a stable salary while trying to creating your own company (just make sure you read your offer letter carefully before signing first). Remember, making a profit is not hard, making a profit enough for you to live solely on is a very hard thing to do.</p>
<p>Entrepreneurs study business, not engineering. Some engineers manage to muck their way into the business world because they are smart and driven, not because they had an engineering background.</p>
<p>Engineers end up married into an industry, or to a specific product. The trick is not to go down with the ship when it inevitably sinks. What does an antenna designer do when demand falls? What’s going to happen to all those solar panel engineers? What about avionics when we hit a saturation point? Did the display backlight designers make the transition to LEDs?</p>
<p>I once met the last vacuum tube engineer in the US. He had lost everything. I know an EE from Ga Tech who ended up in truck driving school. Days were a company would take an engineer and train him in their industry. Those days are gone.</p>
<p>Current engineering student (civil). Wow, that old thread is kind of… ugh. Anyways:</p>
<p>1) This all comes down to scheduling and priorities. I don’t party or drink, but there’s always time to schedule in game parties or midnight hangouts for me. Just don’t spend hours upon hours just wasting time (on the internet, doing nothing…).</p>
<p>8) If you look at companies right now, you’ll see that they have quite a number of workers over the age of 40. In my office (co-op), the vast majority all have wives and kids and quite a few gray hairs. They’re not going to ditch you for the next youngest worker because (logistically), they’d lose a lot of money and time with the new guy, and he’d be a gamble. If you’re a good employee, you should have no greater risk than if you were at a different job, with regards of firings.</p>
<p>10) I don’t think anybody really knows, and there are so many industries and subsets of Engineering that it’s too much of a blanket statement. Besides, many industries are cyclical. </p>
<p>There are people graduating college with engineering degrees past the age of 30 and doing fine. If you don’t want to be an engineer though, don’t force yourself to. A lot of the kids who drop out do so because they figure the “grief” isn’t worth any of the benefits they think engineers get.</p>
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You sound a bit risk-averse to me, judging by the content of your posts. Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but if you can’t deal with the risk and figure out how to build a profitable business out of your idea, you’ve failed before you even begin. </p>
<p>There’s nothing inherently wrong with not starting your own business though. You won’t have as much money, but if you work hard you can have pretty much everything else. You can invent new machines and software (without risking your own money as well) as part of corporate development, you can have the autonomy you want, and it’s far more stable with a reliable income. Businesses wash up faster and more often than employees.</p>
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Entrepreneurship is not conceptually difficult. You don’t need a degree to succeed; you just need to be able to make a profitable business.</p>
<p>Man when I was in school as an engineer, I was so busy and unable to have a life that I had to miss two whole football and basketball games in my four years. What a sacrifice!</p>
<p>I disagree that EVERYONE wants to be an entrepreneur (as in run your own business). My impression is that folks that own their own business feel like they work ALL the time, rather than setting their own hours.</p>
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Everyone likes the idea of a little more money and the chance to control your own destiny, along with enough money to retire off.
The reality is a little less pleasant because it takes a special kind of person to succeed in business.</p>
<p>I hate to belabor the point, but I disagree. I disagree that most people my age at least, equate being an entrepreneur to making more money and controlling your destiny. Perhaps its a generational or cultural thing, but when I got out of medical school, my parents did not seem nearly as happy with the idea of my owning my own practice as they did with me working for an HMO. For my family, not “having to” run you own business, because it was difficult to find enough employment, seemed like a step up.</p>
<p>But I won’t take this any further off topic.</p>
<p>Lets be honest, engineering and science are the best choices you can make. Liberal arts and business majors as well as other free riders are idiots (who are interested in getting it free in a non-free world). Work hard, the world doesn’t run for free (it’s even a physical truth). That may also make you think again about “avoiding repetitiveness”, if repetitiveness is an “unfortunate necessary” (unless you get into automation technology or CS :D).</p>
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<p>In general, industry favors competent engineers, not necessarily younger engineers. The problem, however, is that with more experience comes a higher price tag. Therefore, if you want to keep your job prospects strong as you get older, you will need to keep your skills sharp and know your stuff backwords and forwards (and this is not that hard to do by the way). Oftentimes, older engineers lose their technical (as well as technology) skills as time goes on, and the natural career progression is to move towards management as you get older, away from technical work. The combination of eroding technical skills and increasing salary is not really what companies want to see. </p>
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<p>Arguably, half of college is about the college experience and the other half for academics. For engineers, it may be more like 30:70. Regardless, if you choose to ignore the college experience (in pursuit of perfect grades), you will regret it later on. A good experience will help you stay motivated throughout your life (personally as well as academically), whereas a bad or forgettable experience may leave you unsure of your career and/or yourself. This is why college fit is so important…</p>
<p>I was talking shop with a successful tech business owner about 15 years ago and asked him why he didn’t understand all the technology of his company. His response? He can hire all the PhDs he needs at any time for cheaper than getting good business people. Even though others had the technical expertise, they were not challenging him in the marketplace because it took risk and capital.</p>
<p>I ran a company for about 6 months in my early 30s while the company president was on medical leave. When the big boss returned, I left that job, applied for desk engineering positions and haven’t looked back. Being around for my kids was more important than the extra money.</p>
<p>My wife opened her business 2 years ago when she got tired of working for others. She knew she would work more hours for less money, but getting out from under disreputable bosses was more important. We signed a $1M personal guarantee to get started and took out $400,000 in loans, not for the faint of heart.</p>
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<p>haha you are the funniest CC user by far lol</p>
<p>It depends on how many classes you take and how rigorous the program is but that post is obviously an exaggeration. If all you want is to make a lot of money and job security, then medicine is better than anything else. If you are the type of person who likes to know how things work and like problem solving, then go with engineering</p>
<p>To the guy who said that entrepreneurship is for those who study business, in my country, where I plan to do business when I get older, almost everyone I know personally who owns his/her own business studied something other than business, like electrical engineering, philosophy, Islamic studies, and sometimes no degree at all. May be it is different abroad but here, majority of the business students just become an executive etc.
Anyways, let’s ignore I ever said I want to be an entrepreneur.
So, another question. If I study in electrical engineering, will they teach me how to program?</p>
<p>Probably only an intro course on C++ and a pair of courses on digital logic and hardware.</p>
<p>You’ll have to teach yourself if you want to have any real understanding of programming. I recommend that course of action anyways; programming is a useful skill to have regardless of where you end up.</p>
<p>Can I work as a programmer in google if I do electrical engineering?</p>