<p>Someone on CC posted that, "factories are going away" and when i read that i thought it was really stupid. i mean how can factories go away? but now that i think about it more and more of our manufacturing is being outsourced, so do you think this would be a lucrative major? I am a junior in high school now, and I am deciding between accounting, industrial engineering, and supply chain management. How exactly are the job prospective and pay for this job? if you can give men any information you know about this field, that would be great!
Also I am average at math. I got A in pre- calculus honors, A in geo honors, but B's in algebra 2 honors. I also got a 760 in SAT math (the sat 1 test) and i still have to take the sat level 2 math.
Do you think I am qualified to go into any other form on engineering which is more lucrative?</p>
<p>IE is not just for factories. I’m getting a master’s in it and just last week I interviewed for 3 different internships:</p>
<ol>
<li>Process Engineer at a major bank working for the HQ</li>
<li>Manufacturing/Supply Chain at a global manufacturer</li>
<li>Tech Consultant at a top consulting firm</li>
</ol>
<p>I personally feel that there are plenty of manufacturing jobs out there. At least when I look they are available in every city I search for. But, as you can see from above, we are recruited by more than just the traditional factory. </p>
<p>Lucrative or not…What really matters is if you like it. Pick the engineering major that you will like.</p>
<p>It is not bad. However with those score you are better off in a field such as Computer Science, Chemical Engineering or Computer Engineering. They are a little harder but will get you better jobs plus for Computer Science the jobs are not boring at all. If you don’t like those then go for Mechanical Engineering which is broader and you can still work as an IE</p>
<p>@dowtor777, i dont think computer engineer/science is my thing. i go to a school which is literally 2 minutes away from the apples headquarters (in cupertino, ca) and everyone around me is somehow related to computer engineering. both my parents are computer engineers, and literally 50% of my school already knows how to code and are experts. they created ios/android apps, softwares, website, etc, and idk if i want to associate my self with those type of people and that type of lifestyle. industrial engineering sounded interesting to me because i liked business, and i heard industrial engineering is the least of “engineering” of the engineering fields. people say it involves management and i liked the idea of that. im not too sure about mechanical engineering, i dont really know what type of jobs you get, but i guess that CAN be an option. but do you think industrial engineering will still be a lucrative field for the next 60/70 years?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/ieproblems.php”>http://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/ieproblems.php</a></p>
<p>Check out this page from Georgia Tech, showing some of the problems tacked by industrial engineering grads. Don’t let the word “industrial” fool you. Factories are a pretty small part of their world.</p>
<p>@charado. ok, but that website does not talk about the job prospective and whether or not they are good. it just says what type of jobs you can get, but my question was whether or not it is a safe industry, or is there a lot of unemployment. thanks for the link though.</p>
<p>@toe, yes it is just as safe as any engineering industry. Everyone will at some point have their ups and downs. IE is currently on an up. I have had no problem getting internships (see my post above) and even job offers already, however your plan for 70 years of up just won’t fly. Engineering will normally be a lot better than the rest of the job market though…</p>
<p>Both me and my wife have IE graduate degrees along with undergrad degrees in CompSci and other things.I work on Human Computer Interaction, involved in the analysis, design, prototyping, clinic-testing, revising, and writing the software for user interfaces. Pretty good gig for 3 decades.</p>
<p>My wife has been doing manufacturing information systems for nearly 3 decades, Her projects include electronics and pharmaceutical quality monitoring, pharmaceutical manufacturing process automation implementation, and currently, manufacturing data analytics. Her days of hard hat and golf cart are over, thankfully, but it was fun.</p>
<p>Good stuff.</p>
<p>The point of that article is to show that there is no “industrial engineering industry”. Industrial engineers are employed by many types of entities–manufacturing, consulting, finance, healthcare, government, etc.–to solve all kinds of problems. Seems to me that IE may be the most broad-based (transferable) advanced skill set one can have.</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>I think there are only about 4-5 of us IE’s on here that regularly post, and you have heard from most of us. Maybe if @Vladenschlutte wants to chime in you will get us all. </p>
<p>My job isn’t an IE job, so I don’t know what to say.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who couldn’t get a job, but salaries were commonly 60-something for the 40-hr a week kind of thing. I can’t recall hearing of anyone getting more than 75K for an IE job, and that was in California. It’s not like it’s a bad time to get into IE, but if money is your objective there are better things. Compared to CS where I’m usually hearing 85-120K kind of range.</p>
<p>Things may be different in 4 years though, hard to say. I don’t have a lot of industry knowledge, but I’m hearing more about on shoring of manufacturing than off shoring. It’s my rough understanding that these jobs are moving to Alabama and Mississippi though, not Michigan and Ohio. Though, as others have said, there’s more to IE than manufacturing. </p>
<p>No one can tell you 70 years out into the future. Think about what IE was 70 years ago (in the middle of WWII), nothing like what it is today at all. I don’t even know why it matters, you’re gonna be dead in 70 years. </p>
<p>I have a CS job now, the people I work with are very different than the programming kids you know in high school. It’s not going to be what you are imagining it to be right now. Trust me, I know what you’re thinking. Though to be fair, a lot of the people I know here didn’t major in CS. </p>
<p>In the stuff I was interested in, it’s was more like Math than Business. There’s a lot of directions you can take with it, but I did take a class on lean (which is about as business oriented as I went). Certainly not the most interesting class I ever took. But read up on Operations Research (just what it is), see what you think.</p>
<p>According to my IE advisor, everybody who graduated from Iowa State last year found a job within 1-2 months. I think it is a very good field because it is broad and it gives you a lot more options that let’s say: Civil or Electrical.</p>
<p>Industrial Engineering is also more “business friendly”, which is an advantage in my opinion. I know people who are EE majors, very bright and technically brilliant but they don’t understand anything about efficiency, lean manufacturing or optimization.</p>
<p>An Industrial Engineer who has a solid understanding of efficiency and optimization can literally save a company tens of thousands of dollars by implementing some IE methods which are relatively simple and straightforward.</p>
<p>I have considered changing majors many times but now that I am starting to enjoy my classes more, I think IE is a great choice.</p>
<p>If you are interested in IE but not sure if it is something you would like, I would recommend taking the first Introductory IE course. </p>
<p>At Iowa State, it is called IE 148- Information Engineering. At Texas A&M, it is called ISEN 220-Introduction to Production Systems.</p>
<p>Usually, it is a hybrid course that covers Industrial Engineering problem solving techniques and VBA Macro Programming. I know many people who changed majors after taking this course.</p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte, . i keep hearing that CS and computer engineering are the most lucrative of the engineer fields; however i have NO experience with coding and softwares. i only use computers for basic tasks, but never really had an indebt knowledge in them. By looking at my academic stats above (posted in the question) and knowing that i have no previous computer knowledge, do you think i would be find with majoring in cs/ce or would it be a LOT harder for me. please answer honestly. </p>
<p>I majored in CS without any prior experience… I don’t know you, can’t tell you if you can do it. One thing I will tell you is that if you go that route, don’t be discouraged by Bs, they’ll be common, and you don’t need straight As to get a job. </p>
<p>One of my sons graduated last year in IE. He’s working and doing research for a scientific research and consulting business. He had to get a top security clearance for that position.However, he also interviewed with a major bank, UPS, and a manufacturing company, etc. when he was looking at internships. So, as others have said, there are many types of different opportunities with an IE degree.</p>
<p>@chucktow
@vladen
@bschoolwiz
Do you think a double major in Industrial Engineering and Supply Chain Management would make me a more marketable candidate? </p>
<p>This is only my personal opinion but I think double majoring in IE and Supply Chain Management would be a waste of time. </p>
<p>All you need is an IE degree + few SCM courses and you will be better off than most people with a SCM degree. Get involved with APICS, your local SCM club(if there is one) and you will be more competitive than 80% of the students majoring in SCM.</p>
<p>A SCM degree is essentially a Business Administration degree + a minor in SCM. APICS offers several certifications if you want to specialize in certain areas of SCM but a degree in IE is much more valuable in my opinion.</p>
<p>@bschoolwiz I’m interested in doing IE but my University doesn’t offer it (Florida International University). Would i be able to get an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and still get an entry level IE job? How would I fare against competition who have an IE degree? </p>