<p>I am an undergrad in civil. I've heard the current job prospect for civil engineering isn't looking very good, especially in the structural side. So I am tempting to switch out. I am equally interested in mechanical and civil, however, my gpa wasn't good enough to get into mechanical. So instead I am considering transfer into General Engineering with a secondary field in Automotive Engineering or Robotics. Which one has better job prospect (civil or general engineering)?
Like I said, I am interested in both of these engineering disciplines, I am looking to compare which one has better job prospect. </p>
<p>Is here another field of engineering that is similar to MechE, that I can look into? </p>
<p>Another question: If I choose to stay in civil, which primary field has better job prospect (structural, geotech, environmental, construction management..etc) ? </p>
<p>By the way, I attend the University of Illinois.</p>
<p>Environmental has the best prospects at the moment. Structural’s been hit hard, but it will recover eventually. Something like 50% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have yet to be built. Then there’s the always failing infrastructure. Short term, the job prospects aren’t great, especially if you have the type of GPA that’s too low to get into mechanical, but long term they’re fine.</p>
<p>Has anybody head of general engineering? We have a general engineering department with secondary fields ranging from Automotive Engineering to Robotics. How does the job prospect for general engineering look?</p>
<p>Yo, I go to U of I also and in CEE.
You can pick Environmental, and its increasing greatly but overall # jobs is still low compared to Construction Management. The beautiful thing about CM, there’s tons of diverse options for you to choose from, different types of positions that you are suited to within a company. You hear that not all engineers go into engineering positions - well that’s most true for CM.</p>
<p>When I was at UIUC, the general consensus was that General Engineering as Illinois perceives it is sort of a made up major and doesn’t have very analogous programs in the country. For the most part, most of my friends who graduated General Engineering ended up in systems engineering roles (which can be filled by just about any type of engineering) or were there trying to do something more on the business side of engineering.</p>
<p>What year are you in school? If you have another year or two to go until you graduate, then I would say stick with Civil if that is what you are really interested in, as the economy is already on the rebound. Generally, the construction industry lags behind the economy as a whole, and last I heard is it will probably be another year or so before it really rebounds, but if you aren’t going to graduate for a couple years, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.</p>
<p>If you really would rather do mechanical instead of civil, then I would say don’t settle for general. Work on raising that GPA and try to get into the MechSE department. I don’t know exactly what the requirements are for transferring departments, as I was in MechSE my whole time at UIUC, but I can’t imagine that they are too extreme. Then again, it is one of the most popular departments, so I could imagine them being a little choosy.</p>
<p>Greater number of jobs but also a greater pool of applicants. People in CM come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Off the top of my head, I know colleagues who majored in civil engineering, architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, architectural engineering, engineering management, construction management, or just rose up from the trades with no relevant educational background.</p>
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It was similar at my school as well. People majored in it either to take more classes relevant to biomedical engineering (we didn’t have that major) or take easy classes in order to get into med/law schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input guys/girls. What about the job prospect of different primary fields in civil? I have my eyes on structure, construction management, environmental, and geotech…</p>
<p>If you have a couple years to go still, I wouldn’t worry too much since the construction industry (to which a lot of CivE jobs are tied) will be back on its feet by then.</p>
<p>You should be fine. Assuming that the construction industry recovers in another year like most experts predict, you will be fine. Even if it takes another couple months to a year after that you should probably be ok.</p>