The Specialist Engineers

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>As I'm sure all of you are aware, engineering has a few disciplines that are relatively broad: E(C)E, MechE, and ChemE. Each of these, to a pretty large extent, apply a set of fundamentals to a wide range of problems. A lot of fields need these kinds of engineers. This is not to say that there can't be oversaturation, but they aren't quite so dependent on market fluctuations and specific industries that they die with the collapse of their industry.</p>

<p>On the other hand, there's the specialist engineers. These are fields such as Petroleum, Materials, Aerospace, Bio(Medical), Nuclear, and maybe Environmental. Unlike the previous category, these really try to take scraps of various fields and use those to solve a specific set of problems. While they don't do as much as EC/M/ChemE's, I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume that in a rigorous program, they could do what they do better than the broader field engineers.</p>

<p>My question is, are people with degrees in these fields in serious risk of going down under? I suppose this is really two questions:
1. Is their field at risk of going down?
2. Do they have enough overlap to go into a different field?</p>

<p>Note that I'm not talking about salaries. Hyped fields will eventually stabilize, probably with an average engineering salary (bandwagoners won't be around for long). </p>

<p>I obviously don't know everything about every field, so I'd like some input. I'll give my own thoughts though, just because I want to see if I have my facts straight.</p>

<p>Petroleum Engineering
I really don't know what to think of this one. There's probably enough oil left in the world to last us at least another career. There will always be some important applications in plastics and the like, but that's not really the bulk of the industry. Energy is probably what makes or breaks PetE. And while oil is still probably going to be available for years to come, I think we're going to start to move towards alternative energy for quite a while, slowly making the skills of a PetE obsolete.
I'm going to say it's on the way down, but it's not going to die in the next 10 years.</p>

<p>Materials Engineering
I don't think this field is going up at all. I don't see why a good ChemE can't do everything a materials engineer can do and more. Overspecialization, in my eyes.</p>

<p>Aerospace Engineering
I'm thinking that this field is steadily dropping. In the short term, there just aren't really projects that need this kind of work. NASA is downsizing, the military won't be increasing operations, and there just isn't all that much work in other projects. Also, it seems like a ChemE and maybe a MechE can do most of what an AeroE does. And an engineer with broad skills along with the specialized skills is usually better for the job because they understand more than only a specific task.
Too much overlap and poor job prospects. I think this one will go down because the broader engineers will, together, be able to do these jobs (AeroE work is pretty large scale).</p>

<p>Biomedical Engineering
Probably promising in the near future. It's true that we'll always need medicine, and that the baby boomers are growing old. But in 30 years, the boomers will be dead. After that, I think we'll have the age-old problem of insufficient incentive for government funding.
It's not going to die, but it's going to plateau very soon.</p>

<p>Nuclear Engineering
An interesting field. It's really not one with too much overlap, surprisingly enough. I don't have too much to say on this one because I really just don't know.
Probably going up, eventually. No idea when.</p>

<p>Environmental Engineering
Fad.</p>

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<p>I think you should talk to people in the fields you are interested in .</p>

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<p>PetE people can transfer a lot of their skills to fields like natural gas and other technologies that require extraction of liquid/gas materials from the earth. It’s not only limited to oil.</p>

<p>Materials engineers take a lot of specific skills that chemical engineers aren’t necessarily trained for. Just saying they’re a subset of ChemE shows a bit of bias in your appraisal of what MSE people do. A MSE education generally combines elements of ChemE, MechE, EE, physics, and chemistry. This allows for the ability to go into metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, composites, semiconductors, device physics, and more.</p>

<p>I think Aero is a difficult one to characterize, though I wouldn’t say that NASA discontinuing the shuttle program is that big of a deal. They’re currently working of future shuttle-type projects (which is probably better for Aero people), plus private space flight is a growing field.</p>

<p>Biomedical is really a mismash of all sorts of other forms of engineering with the idea you’re trained with some extra knowledge of biological systems so you can understand them better. I can be from biomed with mechanical (designing prosthetics), to electrical (signal processing), materials (biocompatibility), and more.</p>

<p>I also have a hunch you don’t actually know what environmental engineers do if you think it’s a fad.</p>

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<p>^^Thanks for your post RacinReaver. DD was introduced to Materials Engineering at GT on her visit and really liked that it was a good combination of Chem, Mech an Physics - all of which interest her. </p>

<p>Sarah Johnson at GT (Mat’l Sci School Recruiter) did a great job explaining what the field is as what kinds of potential there is in it. OP might consider giving her a call.</p>

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<p>Personally, I find it to be a really cool field. Depending on your interests you can go after all sorts of problems. Friends from my undergrad class had all sorts of different types of jobs. Of the ones that went to industry (about half of us wound up going for PhDs) a few jobs I can mention were working on satellites for Lockheed Martin, increasing efficiency/decreasing waste for L’Oreal, engineering management training at Johnson & Johnson, one went to work at a specialty steel plant, testing labs at Intel, and a few others I don’t know.</p>

<p>I’m currently in grad school in materials working on developing materials which will hopefully be used in the next generation of spacecraft/satellites/rovers.</p>

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<p>Thanks for sharing. I will be passing your posts on to DD - it’s nice to hear from someone who has chosen to go into the field.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the input. Perspectives from people more interested than I in the other fields is rather helpful.</p>

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True. However, the value is mostly in energy. Energy is already shifting away from the fossil fuels, so I think that the field is due for a steady decline soon. I could be wrong though, since no one can really predict the market all that well.</p>

<p>

Fair enough, I’ll agree that I didn’t give MSE enough credit. However, I still think that a good ChemE(not a mediocre one) can do everything an MSE can do. Not exactly deadly, but it makes it easier to make a substitution for an MSE job.</p>

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NASA in general isn’t what it used to be (less funding). Aero will probably have a bit of a hard time for a while.</p>

<p>

Nope, not really. Got a good sales pitch?</p>

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<p>

Do you have a passion for compliance? Do PSD permit applications make your heart race? Have you ever been caught preparing extra emissions models just for fun? Environmental engineering might be for you!</p>

<p>:)</p>

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<p>Haha, nice description noimagination. ;)</p>

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<p>That’s the description from the BLS. Basically, whenever you do work anywhere you need to do an environmental impact analysis. If you live in Los Angeles you’ve heard plenty about it for the new football stadium that might be built.</p>

<p>If you aren’t aware of Superfund sites then I’d recommend you read up on a few of them and I imagine you’ll quickly see how environmental engineers can be valuable.</p>

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<p>Well, I knew that much.
Still, it doesn’t seem like too important of a field. Environmental concerns seem very much to be an implied responsibility of all engineers. A lot of universities would probably agree, seeing as environmental is often a subset (focus) of Civil.</p>

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<p>Environmental engineering consists of waste management, water treatment, landfill design, emissions controls, sewer systems, etc.</p>