Best Engineering Field?

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

Industrial Engineers do make lots of money, and i dont doubt they make the most. They specialize optimizing a process whether it with machinary or human. They are highly sought after because they have the ability to be good managers.

As for the question, pretty much all engineering make alot. It just so happens that CompE is very valuable right now, but that may change in the future. Dont make money a factor. If you cannot be enthusiastic about the engineeringyou are in, you will not be able to captilize on thevalue of the degree because no one will hire you. Really, if you want a job where you are sure to makes lots of money, become an actuary or an accountant.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

heh ... the industrial engineering dept. at Virginia Tech was called IEOR ... Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Or as the rest of the college derisively called it: Imaginary Engineering and Outdoor Recreation

 

[Howard]

I'm looking to go into mechanical engineering, but this thread doesn't make me happy at all...

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Stealth1024

Originally posted by: silverpig
I've always been interested in aeronautical engineering... </RANDOM thought>

now there's a good paying field that is usually in high demand, unless NASA suddenly goes under or something...

Sometimes it's bad to go into such a narrow field like aerospace.. The aerospace field was pretty bad in the 90s... I know a lot of aerospace engineers that went through tough times there that eventually (and luckily) were able to transition into other fields like oil, but some weren't as fortunate

Aerospace tends to be very cyclical, although having a clearance can help level out the rough spots. And "Aerospace engineering" tends to be an exceptionally broad field with very diverse specializations. From high temperature combustion aerodynamics in designing jet engines to structures, control systems, and leaving the atmosphere entirely, astrodynamics, satellite design, etc. All of that tends to fall under the umbrella of aerospace.

But in general, as others in this thread have suggested, what kind of engineering you pursue has alot more to do with what interests/excites you then what you think will be a good paying job. Getting an engineering degree is trough enough in something you love ... I couldn't see myself getting through it in something I wasn't interested in.

That actually sounds more narrow than the more 'basic' engineering fields. However, it's still a great choice!

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

Don't go to waterloo though. They call systems engineers "Sissies". At UofT we calll them Indy(s).

Anyway, Indy is indeed a nice program. I thought about switching over last year (can you switch to any program before 2nd year) and going in the information engineering option, but decided to stick with CompE

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: Stealth1024

Originally posted by: silverpig
I've always been interested in aeronautical engineering... </RANDOM thought>

now there's a good paying field that is usually in high demand, unless NASA suddenly goes under or something...

I'm doing astrophysics so I've also had an interest in aeronautics. I might end up working for NASA some day anyways

my dad used to work in aeronautics. he said it was horrible. a team of engineers will build a button, and another team will check over those plans. then a team will build a failsafe to that button. and just incase the failsafe breaks, there is another override failsafe. that kinda thing.

Yeah, my brother who's in civil (done some mech too) said that aeronautical guys don't design planes or anything... they design part of a wing and that's it. Ah well.

 

[TeflonMan1]

I'm a Junior M.E major at Texas A&M right now and would definitely say if you think you would be interested in Mechanical then go for it. Its a very diverse field and you can go work in about almost any field. Just off the top of my head you could work in automotive engineering (pretty much any aspect of the car), turbomachinery (power plants, etc.), robotics, nanotechnology, maintenance engineering (analyzing breakdowns, failures, etc.) , materials related stuff (failure analysis, composite designs, materials testing) , and alot more fields. Its a very very stable market if job security is a big deal for you. I initially was electrical but the 2 dimensional stuff kind of drove me crazy since I was more of a spacial thinker. Our starting salaries might not be as high as chemical but its definitely one of the higher salaries. Overall nuclear power plants employ more mechanica engineers than nuclear and Lockheed employess more mechanincal engineers than aerospace, so you can work in about any field that you wanted. This summer I am COOPing at Lubrizol in Houston working in their maintenance department. Im going to be doing preventative maintenance and help design new pumps and control systems.

Hope this information helped. Send me a PM if you have any more questions.

 

[Crappopotamus]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

heh ... the industrial engineering dept. at Virginia Tech was called IEOR ... Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Or as the rest of the college derisively called it: Imaginary Engineering and Outdoor Recreation

haha. thats fine by me, i dont like to work that hard. why is it called that anyways?

Originally posted by: MartyTheManiak
Don't go to waterloo though. They call systems engineers "Sissies". At UofT we calll them Indy(s).

Anyway, Indy is indeed a nice program. I thought about switching over last year (can you switch to any program before 2nd year) and going in the information engineering option, but decided to stick with CompE

haha, why are they called sissies/indys?

waterloo > ut all the way. im trying for waterloo, but if i dont make it, it would be a tossup between queens and ut. ive heard a lot of bad stuff bout ut...

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

heh ... the industrial engineering dept. at Virginia Tech was called IEOR ... Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Or as the rest of the college derisively called it: Imaginary Engineering and Outdoor Recreation

haha.. I was an IEOR comming out of Cal... its a great major. I'm sure the other VT engineers won't be laughing when they are working for an ieor.

in any case, ieor is good if you want the opportunity to do something NOT in engineering when you graduate. For the life of me, I can't imagine ever designing or building something (with my luck, it would probably collapse). With an ie/or degree, though, I had no problem getting a job in finance on wall st. right after I graduated.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: Howard
I'm looking to go into mechanical engineering, but this thread doesn't make me happy at all...

Why, just because no one has mentioned it? Lemme tell you, ME is going to be the most stable degree out of all of these. You can do pretty much anything you want with it, because it's probably the broadest of all the engineering degrees. Design (of basically anything), computer modeling, control systems, HVAC/thermo/heat transfer, engines, and water are the "traditional" ME career paths. But believe me, it isn't a far stretch to extend to circuits, programming, aero, civil, environmental, managing... You could be an ME and get a job designing computers, if you just picked your courses correctly.

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: Crappopotamus
im gonna be doing systems design engineering next year hopefully (at waterloo). also known as industrial engineering at uoftoronto. from what i understand, its the arts/sci/business part of engineering. you work a lot with people, and a lot of systems eng people become project managers and such.

i went to the industrial eng presentation at ut last year, and starting salary, they make the most out of any engineer. plus highest girl %. i personally like it because it seems very dynamic.

heh ... the industrial engineering dept. at Virginia Tech was called IEOR ... Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Or as the rest of the college derisively called it: Imaginary Engineering and Outdoor Recreation

haha.. I was an IEOR comming out of Cal... its a great major. I'm sure the other VT engineers won't be laughing when they are working for an ieor.

in any case, ieor is good if you want the opportunity to do something NOT in engineering when you graduate. For the life of me, I can't imagine ever designing or building something (with my luck, it would probably collapse). With an ie/or degree, though, I had no problem getting a job in finance on wall st. right after I graduated.

Hahaha, and that's why you're not a "real" engineer!

 

[Kenny1234]

nuclear

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: Hector13
haha.. I was an IEOR comming out of Cal... its a great major. I'm sure the other VT engineers won't be laughing when they are working for an ieor.

in any case, ieor is good if you want the opportunity to do something NOT in engineering when you graduate. For the life of me, I can't imagine ever designing or building something (with my luck, it would probably collapse). With an ie/or degree, though, I had no problem getting a job in finance on wall st. right after I graduated.

Hahaha, and that's why you're not a "real" engineer!

And, thankfully, I am not being paid like one either :evil:

 

[Stealth1024]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: Hector13 haha.. I was an IEOR comming out of Cal... its a great major. I'm sure the other VT engineers won't be laughing when they are working for an ieor. in any case, ieor is good if you want the opportunity to do something NOT in engineering when you graduate. For the life of me, I can't imagine ever designing or building something (with my luck, it would probably collapse). With an ie/or degree, though, I had no problem getting a job in finance on wall st. right after I graduated.

Hahaha, and that's why you're not a "real" engineer!

And, thankfully, I am not being paid like one either :evil:

so what was your starting salary? hehe. You know starting is one thing I'd like to see what happens on average to the salaries of people in different fields as time passes. For example maybe one major starts out high, but over time another surpases it and keeps going there while the other barely moves

 

[Crappopotamus]

bump...

 

[CrazyDe1]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
According to CNN.com, CompE makes the most straight out of college.

That and it's easy to find a job. I know people in ChemE and civil engineering that can't find jobs for the life of them...or even internships..all the internships are for CE, EE and CS...and the CE guy can do the EE and the CS jobs

 

[BigPoppa]

The difference between EE and CompE at Georgia Tech is about 2 electives.

 

[Stealth1024]

Originally posted by: BigPoppa
The difference between EE and CompE at Georgia Tech is about 2 electives.

How heavy in CS and software engineering is CE there?

 

[civad]

I am a civil engineer and work in a design firm.

My work involves anything and everything related to water. I 've done everything involved in a construction project, right from surveying, coist estimation, preparing designs, etc, etc...

It's fun. Most importantly, the very idea that what we design actually works (mostly!) is very gratifying.
The pay sux. The only way to get a raise is by passing the EIT and PE exams and continuing education. And also experience.

The work conditions often involve standing in icy cold waters for surveying (my favourite) or stepping into sewer manholes (it's not as bad as it sounds..hehe). And you got to be tough (mentally , emotionally and physically) to survive, esp. if you have to deal with contractors..

At the end of the day, its your choice. You can survive in this field only if you love it.

And in case you thought I am an old fa*t telling you tales of yore, I am into my second year of job straight out of grad school

Good Luck in choosing your major in engg. school.

 

[WhiteKnight]

ME+EE+CS=Robotics. Biomedical Engineering is big too.

 

[upsciLLion]

Jewish (financial) engineering is a good field to get into.

 

[Growltiger]

Originally posted by: WhiteKnight
Biomedical Engineering is big too.

It's about time someone mentioned BME Of course, if you're going into BME, you might as well plan on getting a degree higher than a B.S.

<---getting PhD in BME

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Stealth1024

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: Hector13 haha.. I was an IEOR comming out of Cal... its a great major. I'm sure the other VT engineers won't be laughing when they are working for an ieor. in any case, ieor is good if you want the opportunity to do something NOT in engineering when you graduate. For the life of me, I can't imagine ever designing or building something (with my luck, it would probably collapse). With an ie/or degree, though, I had no problem getting a job in finance on wall st. right after I graduated.

Hahaha, and that's why you're not a "real" engineer!

And, thankfully, I am not being paid like one either :evil:

so what was your starting salary? hehe. You know starting is one thing I'd like to see what happens on average to the salaries of people in different fields as time passes. For example maybe one major starts out high, but over time another surpases it and keeps going there while the other barely moves

the sallary is very good.. suffice it to say that you will make 6 figures within 2-3 years. Ofcourse this is assuming you work in NYC in which case cost of living is obviously higher than many other places.

Also, you will be working probably 60-80 hours a week depending on what you do, so as others have said, you need to "love the work".

 

[cmdavid]

mechanical engineering leaves the most doors open it seems from what i've observed...

 

[GreenGhost]

Civil Engineering has a tough market. I went all the way to NJ for an interview, they said I was the no. 1 candidate, and they offered me $36000 (had a MSc). No, thanks. And that was a very well known co. and the job was advertised on the ASCE mag.

 

[civad]

..they offered me $36000 ..

Thats a good starting amount, dude: you should have made clear that you wanted a salary review after 3 months (probation period?) and then onwards, every 6 months. I have had 2 increments in the past 15 months (major ones at that) and I aint complaining!