What my neighbor told me....

<p>Or rather my friends dad down the street told me that if I want to go to college I should be an energy engineer. He said I would probably be a millionaire by 30 and he suggests not going into MechE or CivilE(he is a civilE). I dont think there is something called an energy engineer so what kind of job is that? Like ChemE or Nuclear? It does sound like an interesting profession and since im undecided I kind of want to research it but I dont know what to look up.</p>

<p>what the hell is an “energy engineer”? You sure your friend dad is actually an engineer?</p>

<p>Yea thats what I was saying. yea I am for sure he is a civil engineer. He worked on the construction of a new major highway outside of Chicago. I think he meant go into engineering and use your knowledge to solve the energy crisis. But I dont know what kind of engineer does that.</p>

<p>lol,do you think you can solve the engineering crisis?</p>

<p>uhh there’s something called “environmental engineering”…or perhaps he meant electrical engineering, but i have a relative in that field and doubt you can make it rich by 30.</p>

<p>An very old branch of electrical engineering is called electric power engineering,which is definitely energy related. But you won’t make tons of money by doing that.</p>

<p>Has he told you how the millions will be made? Is he suggesting you just sign on with a firm and will be paid this money? Or is his point that if you personally solve energy issues within the right structure you’ll hit big? That I’d agree with.</p>

<p>Guys how the hell am I suppose to know what he meant thats what Im trying to figure out. I doubt he really meant ill be a millionare but maybe he said it is a really needed job. I guess no one knows what he is talking about.</p>

<p>like i said, he probably meant environmental engineering. A lot of talk is going around about how that’s the next big industry considering the huge oil crisis, etc. If you became an environmental engineer, signed up with an up and coming innovative firm that somehow made emission free, efficient cars, and sold one to every household in america…i think you’d be pretty rich.</p>

<p>Lol ok thank you for not being so harsh on me this time.</p>

<p>I agree that he must be talking about enviromental. I’m a civil major and intend to focus on enviromental, it does seem to be the way of the new world. For better or worse. </p>

<p>If your friends dad really thinks that is what it takes to be a millionaire than why isn’t he doing it. I think it will have job security, and in this economy that is good. Millions are made by the self employed, not so much employees.</p>

<p>as a 3rd year Environmental Engineering student i’d like to say that energy engineering isn’t the same as environmental. I thought it did and thats why i signed up, whoopes. </p>

<p>I think energy engineering is part of chemical or mechanical, something like this</p>

<p>[FACULTY</a> OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING](<a href=“http://www.energy.engineering.utoronto.ca/sustainable_energy_minor.htm]FACULTY”>http://www.energy.engineering.utoronto.ca/sustainable_energy_minor.htm)</p>

<p>The disturbing thing is not the nonsense that your friends father told you but that you actually believed him.</p>

<p>He’s your neighbor, go ask! And in the future when someone makes a similar claim, ask them to lay out the plan to make it happen for you.</p>

<p>The “energy engineering” that was meant is probably related to solving the energy problem, NOT environmental engineering. I don’t know what environmental engineering has to do with this. </p>

<p>noob, you are so noob. You do not design emission free cars as an environmental engineer. You go and assess sites and develop clean-up strategies. You figure out prevention measures to be implemented. The ones designing those vehicles would be electrical engineers and perhaps mechanical engineers, given that electric cars are the closest thing to emission free.</p>

<p>Hydrogen power, electric power, algae fuel, microbial fuel cells… these are hot areas of energy solutions. Complete a degree in EE, ME, or ChE, join a startup, then MAYBE you can make a million by 30.</p>

<p>my best guess would be environmental engineering. also, one could interpret it as an engineer for solar, wind, water, and other renewable energies.</p>

<p>“noob, you are so noob. You do not design emission free cars as an environmental engineer. You go and assess sites and develop clean-up strategies. You figure out prevention measures to be implemented. The ones designing those vehicles would be electrical engineers and perhaps mechanical engineers, given that electric cars are the closest thing to emission free.”</p>

<p>I agree with steevee on this completely, however it is a common misconception about environmental engineering.</p>

<p>Environmental Engineering is a specialty subset of Civil Engineering.</p>

<p>Can someone clarify what engineering major is about working with renewable energy/developing green energy/technology? I fear I may have made a wrong decision about my major. I really want to do something I just said but you guys are saying environmental engineers don’t do any of that.</p>

<p>i think your best bet is mechanical or chemical engineering. Look into the upper year technical electives. Some schools will let you specialize in renewable energy. </p>

<p>There are some programs that just do renewable energy but i wouldn’t recommend that cuz you won’t have a backup. Its much better picking something like mech or chem eng as picking your electives so you get into renewable energy.</p>