<p>Hi, I stumbled upon this site and its been helpful for me, so I decided to ask a question for my cousin (who didn't want to bother with registering himself, haha)</p>
<p>He's starting college next month (local state U, not well known) and wants to do something "employable", so he's looking at any of the engineering disciplines (but primarily at CE, EE, or CS) and also Accounting.</p>
<p>However, there is a big issue my cousin confronts when it comes to career. He had a horrific accident as a kid where he was involved in a small plane crash. He managed to survive with just minor burns, but others on that plane were killed. After that, he has absolutely been unable to get on a plane, despite trying drugs and therapy. He gets to the airport and just starts having a panic attack and gets frozen, it's really a sad situation.</p>
<p>So he definitely needs a job that would not require air travel, and he would prefer more of a sit-at-desk environment. He's wondering which engineering discipline (if any) OR accounting (to the extent you guys might be familiar with that field) would provide the best chance for a job with no air travel.</p>
<p>I’m assuming CE is Computer Engineering, not Civil Engineering.</p>
<p>In any case, any of those majors would work well. I would assume that EE could have more travel in in than CS/CE, but it’s definitely not a requirement.</p>
<p>In CS/CE, a lot of collaboration work can be done in the cloud/over the web/etc, which decreases the chance for air travel. </p>
<p>I know in accounting, there can be a lot of travel depending on what firm you are in/what position you hold. My financial accounting professor supervised a lot of corporate accounts, which required here to fly all over the country. On the other hand, and accounting firm in a mid-sized city is mostly going to handle firms located within that city or close geographic region.</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with any of the majors listed. I think he would only be limited in become say a president/CEO of a company. That is unless he can become the John Madden of CEO’s.</p>
<p>I have been doing some preliminary job searches recently, and nearly every listing I come across lists travel requirements at <10%. I would think that most companies would be willing to work around your cousin’s situation if he’s not required to travel very often.</p>
<p>I say CS is the safest. Most of the stuff are done locally or via telecommunication(which includes the Internet). </p>
<p>I want to point out something. I don’t know whether it is a good idea to tell the company explicitly about the situation during the interview. Just a side feeling that he should.</p>
<p>CS is probably a good option because of the demands, beside the fact that it does not require site observation like civil engineering or environmental engineering. Give a thought. All discipline, whether it’s engineering, or science, or liberal arts, our society is now heavily rely on computation technology. </p>
<p>You can really do a lot if you are creative enough.</p>
<p>However, choosing a discipline over interest (because the job outlook is prettier) may not be a good idea. Your cousin may not like it. Some people are born so “naturally” to something and I can’t really say nobody isn’t. </p>
<p>I don’t like accounting because I find it boring to sit in the office looking over all those financial papers. </p>
<p>Has he ever consider other careers such as attorney? I mean there are positions and careers that do not always require air-travel. They could be just local employment. In fact, your cousin will have to tell the company about his limitation. If the company hires him and the manager says his duty is 99% locally then he should accept the offer.</p>
<p>I feel the pain for your cousin, because fear of flight is definitely a huge deduction and limitation to choosing a career. But does he has any particular interest in something? Building a robot? Becoming a software engineers? </p>
<p>There might be technical conferences or expo that sometime employers demand the employees to attend. So no one can guarantee it. </p>
<p>Most companies will inform prospective employees of any special conditions, requirements, or situations that may arise during employment. If a position requires some amount of air travel, the company will likely list the air travel requirement early on. There may be positions that require the employee to air travel once in a blue moon but said requirement may not be listed in the position description.</p>
<p>In the case of the OP’s cousin, it may be advisable to disclose his psychological condition only if the employer discloses a very specific situation where the employee will be required to air travel (e.g. employee must travel to Somewhere, USA every 12 months). If the employer is vague or can not think of any specific situation, then the OP may not reveal his condition. In any case, the OP’s cousin must exercise prudence during these situations to determine what is and what is not beneficial; in some cases the employer may be willing to accommodate the employee up to a certain point while in other cases not revealing a condition that may negatively impact employment may be detrimental in some form to the employee.</p>