Hello all ,
So I have a BA in economics in my first bachelors and I graduated two years ago and have had trouble finding an actual professional full time job so have been working part time retail jobs while making up some courses to go for a masters in economics . However , while taking classes I have just found myself bored of economics and feel like I just don’t have a passion for it . I was looking into possibly going for a second bachelors in engineering and also getting a masters in it on the way . I am 26 years old about to be 27 .
So far I have taken only calc 1 and sciences only biology 1 . The reason why I am looking at engineering is because I was always intrigued in its hands on approach , designing , and innovation . I also feel like engineering can do a lot more to make an impact in the world than economics . I was wondering if any of you went through the same thing and is it worth it ? And what are the most diverse engineering degrees in terms of industry to work in ?
Personally, I don’t see a need to get a second bachelor’s degree. There are quite a few programs like the LEAP program at Boston U designed for people with non-engineering backgrounds to get a graduate engineering degree without going through an entire second bachelor’s.
Since you have a background in economics, graduate degrees in engineering management or financial engineering might be able able to leverage your current bachelor’s.
Diverse is a confusing word to describe engineering degrees. Do you mean the race/age/gender/… diversity of the people working in a particular industry? Or the variety of type of industries you can go into with a particular degree? So are you asking if a chemical engineering degree will open a broader range of industries than a mechanical engineering degree?
The question is, how useful will a leap degree be? Certainly it’s engineering, but it’s not equivalent to a true MS in something like ME. It doesn’t even really meet all the typical engineering requirements of a BS in ME. So, what will employment prospects be?
@hisllama yeah diversity as in the variety of industries
Since you haven’t taken much in the way of engineering foundation classes, you might try some community college Calc, Physics, and Chemistry classes and see how you do before committing to another several years of school.
@Oniz2617 I think you’re approaching this the wrong way then. I understand your intention of qualifying yourself for as many jobs as possible by trying to pick a degree that leads into a large variety of industries; but even if the variety is there, you might not be qualified for it. All engineering degrees will require you to specialize beyond mechanical/electrical/civil/whatever. So even if your degree says electrical engineering, you would have specialized in something within electrical engineering like analog devices or electromagnetism or computer hardware. So you could apply to a job where the requirement is an EE degree, but you may or may not have the knowledge to do it if it is out of your specialty.
And doing an engineering degree for the sake of having a degree with the word engineering in it is a horrible life choice in my opinion. There is a LOT of really boring basic stuff you have to get through before you get to the “innovation” and “design”. So I second Parentof2014grad’s suggestion. Take some of the basic stuff at a community college or online for free through EdX/Udacity/Khan Academy/similar. Or even youtube, a lot of big name colleges have their lectures online for free there. That way you’ll also get a chance to explore what each engineering field is like and what you’d be interested in.
" have had trouble finding an actual professional full time job " - Do you know why? Perhaps it’s a regional thing. In another area, you might have better luck.
Our Econ major daughter (who coincidentally started in Engineering) has found job opportunities via reseach of college job board as well as other websites… She has BS, so they are not the “economist” kind of jobs she’d have with a PhD. But they’ve been interesting analytical jobs advertised for “econ, finance, business or other 4 year degree.” She is terrific with Excel - I think that helps.