I’m in the middle of my 3rd year of engineering, and I’m on the debate of what kind of job I’d want to look for after college. I was wondering for all my engineering graduates, elders, and more-experienced peeps out there, what kind of jobs outside of the obvious being an engineer have you seen your fellow classmates go into after graduating college?
I’ve realized from the classes I’ve taken so far that I’ve always been the person who loves to work with people, manage, play with CAD, draft, and get creative, but deep-down inside, I’m not sure I can see myself as someone who sits in a cubicle all day and do raw mathematical calculations. I was good at math in high school, but feel that long-term down the road, calculating beam equations won’t feel as fulfilling and I’ll need to open up my career prospects. I haven’t done an internship anywhere yet but I have shadowed and stopped by construction and engineering companies and I will say I loved spending time in the outdoors on construction sites. Any career advice for what I should be looking into doing?
Yeah I forgot to specify though it can probably be assumed, I’m in a civil engineering program, I’m really just looking at my options right now because I enjoy construction and doing creative work like CAD, but don’t feel completely set on the cubicle calculation lifestyle of a traditional engineer. I did take an accounting class once and hated it, I enjoyed marketing though.
If you think you could sell, manufacturing companies LOVE to hire individuals that have engineering degrees that can sell. But you really need to get an intern or Co-op this summer or next semester. Most people with engineering degrees have several co-OP’s or internships.
I assume you know there are positions in construction that are primarily based in the field (construction sites) and not in cubicles doing calculations.
If you’re at an, ugh, “elite school,” recruiters from financial firms will be on you like candy, relatively speaking. I would speculate that all STEM schools of high reputation, the banks and consultants will be there looking for prospects.
Step 1: Do an internship. Classwork and Workwork are not the same.
Step 2: Continue to study.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!!!
Kidding aside, step 1 will help answer your questions. I’ve been at this engineering thing 20+ish years (Mechanical). The first 10 I did not do desk work 100% of the time. Spent a lot of time in manufacturing shops, field service. Had a lot of fun designing and building equipment for those applications. Did a fair amount of travel supporting the same. Engineering is not 100% sit behind your desk and do math. Think about your professors - they have cool labs to work in and figure stuff out. Sure they do their share of math, but do they really sit behind a desk all day?
So talk to professors/career center/classmates - there are more answers to your question than an internet forum can provide.
Just as an observation, a lot of jobs that benefit from an engineering degree also benefit from engineering experience - program management, for example, usually expects a few years working as an engineer before they let you supervise any projects! And if you take a non-engineering job right out of school (sales, for example) you will have a much harder time getting back into engineering should you change your mind.
Law, relating to issues that engineers need to know.
We know someone who had a engineering undergrad who went into patent law. The engineer side of him understands what the machine that the person patented does and can search to see if others have similar patents.
I majored in EE and am now working as a Systems Engineer…I talk with clients about their needs for systems, develop requirements that the coders code to, then work with testers and clients to test the system, and then help them get it working in their environment.
And because Patent Law is such a specialized field, competition for jobs is much less than at general commercial/corporate practice law firms. Patent and intellectual property lawyers are rarely unemployed these days. Even librarians at commercial practice law firms make a pretty good living. A law librarian with an engineering background should certainly be in demand. I know a firm where their law/intellectual property librarian was “stolen” by another firm; she was lured by a very generou$ offer.