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I get a lot of impressions of engineering being a crap load of work for mediocre pay. And all I keep seeing is people posting about others who ended up very successful and happy after majoring in engineering. But even though it's true that engineering jobs have higher incomes in the beginning, those don't require a lot of brain but do require a lot of work (story is slightly different when it comes to design in engineering). The way I see it, in engineering, you learn how to work the equipments, assess the data, etc. and you start doing the same thing for the rest of your career. In 'non-engineering,' the area of study is so much broader and it's no wonder the pay increase progressively. So if you want to be rich, don't go into engineering, right?
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<p>The major objection that I had with that other thread is not that I think engineering is perfect, because it clearly isn't, but because other career choices also have plenty of problems, and that means that the logic that you should necessarily pursue another major is flawed. </p>
<p>To wit, allow me to enumerate some of the points made in the other thread, as well as my counterpoints:</p>
<p>*Engineers always have to worry about being laid off. </p>
<p>Sure, but so do non-engineers. For example, right now as we speak, the economy is undergoing a housing and banking crisis and that's affecting engineers to only a minor degree (i.e. perhaps some civil/construction engineers have been laid, but there are so many other civil engineering jobs available in the public sector that I don't think they're hurting). Instead, the people being laid off are, unsurprisingly, the mortgage brokers (think Countrywide and IndyMac), real estate agents, loan officers, accountants, investment bankers (think Bear Stearns), employees at the home-building firms like Toll Brothers and Pulte, employees at home improvement retailers like Home Depot, and so forth. Similarly, the high price of oil is gravely damaging the airline and auto industries, but, again, that has only a moderate effect on engineering employment and is almost certainly compensated for by the boom in engineering employment in the oil industry. For example, practically no engineers actually work for the airline industry, but instead work for the aircraft manufacturers like Boeing who, if anything, are hiring like mad because the airlines now need to replace their old inefficient aircraft with new, efficient fuel-sipping models. The domestic auto industry is laying off some engineers - notably those involved in truck/SUV design/production - but I suspect that that is compensated for by the hiring of engineers to build new hybrid and electric models. Furthermore, the high price of oil has spurred a tremendous boost in interest in developing alternative energy systems, which is a massive engineering job. </p>
<p>The point is, I don't see that engineers are any more vulnerable to layoffs than almost any other career. The average engineer is clearly better off than the average American in that respect. Be honest - what exactly is a laid off IndyMac loan officer going to do now? </p>
<p>*Engineers have to worry about outsourcing.</p>
<p>Sure, but consonant with the point made above, so do plenty of other people. For example, companies nowadays can and do outsource thousands of accounting/book-keeping jobs. Medical tourism & outsourcing means that many doctors' jobs are now vulnerable. </p>
<p>Besides, I think most of the discourse on outsourcing ignores the key local agglomeration and clustering effects. For example, why exactly do so many high-tech firms run engineering operations in Silicon Valley, which is one of the most expensive locations on Earth? Why don't they just all move to, say, rural Mississippi where things are dirt cheap? We're not just talking about American high-tech firms in Silicon Valley: plenty of foreign high-tech firms also have engineering centers in the Valley. For example, Nokia, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sony: they're all in the Valley. Heck, even Chinese firms such as Huawei and Indian firms like Infosys and Wipro have large operations in Silicon Valley. Why do that? Why not just move those jobs back to China and India? I think it's fairly clear that there are strong local economic network effects at play that increases the Valley's technological innovativeness. Whatever money they might say by moving away would be lost by the drop in innovativeness. A parallel example would be the investment banks insisting in being in New York City, despite it being one of the most expensive cities in the world, and not just relocating to, say, rural Mississippi. </p>
<p>*Engineering salary tracks don't grow much over time, and so other careers will overtake them.</p>
<p>The first part, I agree with. But the second part? Really? Let's be honest. Most jobs don't exactly make a lot of money, even after a lot of experience. The median American adult, of all experience levels, only makes something like $40k a year. That's less than an engineer makes to start. One only has to peruse sites like the BLS and other career data to convince oneself that there are a lot of low paying careers out there. </p>
<p>Hence, you can look at the situation this way. With an engineering bachelor's degree, you - at age 21/22 - are already making more money than many Americans will ever make. Plenty of Americans can only dream of making $50-60k a year. </p>
<p>*"So if you want to be rich, don't go into engineering [as a major], right?"</p>
<p>But then that simply begs the question of what else are you going to major in? If you are thinking about the more lucrative careers such as medicine or law, well, you first have to major in something. Are those other choices of major really any better? </p>
<p>As a case in point, let's say that you're thinking of med school. Well, over half of all applicants to med school get rejected to every med school they apply to. And that's just talking about those who actually apply: many don't even apply because they know they won't get in anywhere. Hence, if you majored in engineering, then at least if you don't get into med school, you can still get a decent job as an engineer. If you majored in biology and you don't get in, what are you going to do now? </p>
<p>The same can be said for other highly lucrative careers like investment banking, management consulting, and so forth: not everybody who wants those jobs will get it. Engineering is therefore a risk-averse choice. </p>
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engineering being a crap load of work for mediocre pay
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<p>Well, hey, at least it's better than a crapload of work for terrible pay, which is, frankly, what many other careers entail. For example, I know a bunch of people who earned liberal arts degrees and ended up in the publishing industry where they're easily working 60 hours a week for probably no more than $35k a year.</p>