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[quote]
...this country's universities graduate 50,000 engineers a year. Compare that to the nearly 500,000 graduates each year who inevitably become lawyers, accountants, and professionals of all other stripes that generally tend to avoid the world of science. There's certainly nothing wrong with graduating with a liberal arts degree (or at least I hope there isn't because that's exactly what I'm planning to do). But I do find it striking the numerical division that exists between liberal arts majors and engineers. Why exactly does this happen?
<p>What’s more rare than a 20-something engineer these days? A 30-something engineer. About 75% of engineering graduates leave engineering within 10 years - and the worst part is that the high performers are the more likely to leave the field. The issue is pretty simple: money. Engineering salaries cap out at just over $100,000 about 7-10 years after graduation. Rather than settling in, many people turn to alternate career paths to keep moving up the corporate ladder.</p>
<p>^ Not taking sides, but just as a general observation, I’m not sure that’s a good enough argument to defend yourself, sakky. If I posted literally the same new thread 35 times in a row, I think it would be entirely reasonable for people to complain; it seems I could use the same argument: if you don’t like the 34 duplicates, don’t read them.</p>
<p>I just wonder how many of your 13,000+ posts have been devoted simply to pointing out all the problems with engineering as it fits into society and how good engineers are defecting to other more profitable industries.</p>
<p>FWIW, sakky’s posts reflect the sentiment that has entered the (US) national discourse about STEM careers in general – they’re not necessarily what they’re cracked up to be, despite the continued urgent claims of a lack of engineers.</p>
<p>In the interests of having a balanced discussion, I’ll offer a more optimistic perspective on STEM careers – the CuriousCat engineering blog.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why there’s all this fuss about the difference in the amount of engineers. Not very many people can do what we do! It takes a special person to be an engineer! The few, the proud, the engineers!</p>
<p>Engineers are good problem solvers. Those skills work well in a general fashion in many fields, especially when paired with characteristics suitable to the field.</p>
<p>Gonna have to side with Starbright, Aegrisomnia, and Bonehead on this one…Sakky brings a lot to these forums, but he really should give it up. He has been posting about this same topic for years…</p>
<p>Years, really he has been posting about this for years? OMG give it up! Not that we have anything to replace it with. “What kind of engineer should I be?” “What kind makes the most money?” I personally can’t believe these articles come out that ignore relevent data and pounce on ignorant stuff get this much press in the general public let alone among people who are supposed to be able to tell when the data is being twisted.
Maybe I will just have to start posting my own articles about how great engineering is!</p>