"engineering is a real major"

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Don't get me wrong, engineering would be a lot easier if math were an exact science and all. But that doesn't mean other majors are pointless or too easy to be worth while.

Uhmm ... math is exact. It's engineering that is an approximation. In the words of Einstein "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

Anyway, non engineering & science majors are definitely not worthless, but at the same time, I think it's very disengenuous to claim they are anywhere near as hard. The liberal arts & humanities classes I took were a cakewalk, and I got beyond the intro courses. Engineers took liberal arts classes that the in major people considered hard just to pad out their schedules. I've known engineering/liberal arts double majors who said the same thing.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
engineering students are usually very arrogant

Especially towards the business majors, guys who they'll be begging raises from for the rest of their lives.

Exactly where would I find these business majors? I have never even seen one in my past internships.

That's what I'm wondering, too.

 

[DougK62]

We're all going to disagree on what degrees are hard, but I think we can all agree that the easiest is Elementary Education.

 

[SOONER]

I have worked for a Fortune 250 chemical company for the last 20 years. Trust me when I say there are no "business majors" that are supervising engineers. Most all of our executives, business managers etc have either a chemistry or engineering degree. Some have supplemented their technical degree with an MBA.
Those people I know from college with undergraduate business degrees are night managers at a Taco Bell somewhere.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

 

[eigen]

Originally posted by: Jehovah

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: Jehovah

Originally posted by: DAGTA
Anyone that thinks all majors are equal in difficulty has either never been to college or has taken an easy major. There is nothing wrong with having an easy major IF IT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IN LIFE, but it's foolish to think there aren't majors that are harder than others.

Agreed - but I still refuse to even consider to think that ALL liberal arts majors are easy. Art is easy. Hell, math is easy for me. Philosophy, however, is a nutbuster-of a major. I'd think Philosophy is one of the hardest classes to learn.

I dunno about you... but Art is pretty hard for me....

I guess it's up to the eye of the beholder, I suppose. Art is one of the easiest subjects for me. And as for math; you learn the equation, memorize when to use it, and you just plug in the numbers. How hard is that? I didn't have to take any math classes for my gen ed. because I scored ridiculously high on my ACT.

This is a perfect example, IMO - some people have problems in some subject areas, others in others - I just don't like it when people write their opinions, which are mere opinions and nothing more, as fact.

That is not how math really works..once you leave little kid land there are no more equations or number plugging.It is proof and theory. I havent seen a damn number in year. . Unless you consider n is a non-negative integer to be a number.I hear enginneers say things like this all the time..like they should get a math degree as well. I am like no dude.Your calc and de courses are going to be the easiest you take...wait unitl Modern algebra..

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

Um...... read the post above you.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

The engineers are going to be working at McDonald's?

 

[Darien]

Anyway, non engineering & science majors are definitely not worthless, but at the same time, I think it's very disengenuous to claim they are anywhere near as hard

physics > *

physics 1 - 3 or whatever one has to take as an engineer is no where near as difficult as upper division physics course.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Darien

Anyway, non engineering & science majors are definitely not worthless, but at the same time, I think it's very disengenuous to claim they are anywhere near as hard

physics > *

physics 1 - 3 or whatever one has to take as an engineer is no where near as difficult as upper division physics course.

True, but some types of engineers take upper division physics courses. Engineering and physics meet together at solid-state physics.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

Um...... read the post above you.

In my experience the post above mine is the exception and certainly NOT the rule.

15 years of reading the promotional and welcome hirings of anybody above "staff" level at 4 separate fortune 100 companies almost exclusively reads "hails from xyz with a BA in business or xyz with MBA in marketing"

so yes, more than likely you will be begging those guys for a raise/working for them.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Darien

Anyway, non engineering & science majors are definitely not worthless, but at the same time, I think it's very disengenuous to claim they are anywhere near as hard

physics > *

physics 1 - 3 or whatever one has to take as an engineer is no where near as difficult as upper division physics course.

Sounds awfully familiar.... when I took this one physics class that was for physics majors, they couldn't stop making fun of engineers.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Darien

Anyway, non engineering & science majors are definitely not worthless, but at the same time, I think it's very disengenuous to claim they are anywhere near as hard

physics > *

physics 1 - 3 or whatever one has to take as an engineer is no where near as difficult as upper division physics course.

Yup ... they're probably on par with upper division engineering courses

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

Um...... read the post above you.

In my experience the post above mine is the exception and certainly NOT the rule.

15 years of reading the promotional and welcome hirings of anybody above "staff" level at 4 separate fortune 100 companies almost exclusively reads "hails from xyz with a BA in business or xyz with MBA in marketing"

so yes, more than likely you will be begging those guys for a raise/working for them.

You based your conclusion on promotional papers? *cough cough* Well.. how about this. As an engineer, I've mostly working for engineers and getting raises from them, so there's no business major in my past experience.

So to support your point, you need to find a business major who manages/supervises engineers.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

Um...... read the post above you.

In my experience the post above mine is the exception and certainly NOT the rule.

15 years of reading the promotional and welcome hirings of anybody above "staff" level at 4 separate fortune 100 companies almost exclusively reads "hails from xyz with a BA in business or xyz with MBA in marketing"

so yes, more than likely you will be begging those guys for a raise/working for them.

One of the problem with your argument is that you're taking the top people of some of these majors and comparing them to the average of other majors.

I don't think anyone 'ridicules' an MBA graduate.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
Yeah, any non-technical disclipine are easy as hell. By non-technical i mean easy majors like liberal arts, business, sociology, etc. It's dumb to hear students from easy majors b!tch about their curriculum.

I don't know if its already been brought up or not, but as an engineer you will spend the rest of your career working for people with business, sociology and liberal arts degres

have fun!

-edit- oh, and also begging for raises from them.

Um...... read the post above you.

In my experience the post above mine is the exception and certainly NOT the rule.

15 years of reading the promotional and welcome hirings of anybody above "staff" level at 4 separate fortune 100 companies almost exclusively reads "hails from xyz with a BA in business or xyz with MBA in marketing"

so yes, more than likely you will be begging those guys for a raise/working for them.

I'd have to agree. Many of the execs of State Farm Corporate here have some kind of business degree to my understanding.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Jehovah

I'd have to agree. Many of the execs of State Farm Corporate here have some kind of business degree to my understanding.

engineers work for State Farm?

 

[pmoa]

i think that it depends on the person...if you are good with digital logic and suck at painting, then art would be hard as well. I think that each major has its own workload. I know my architecture buddies were in lab waaaaaaay longer than me. I kinda think that comp eng is quite easy. As you can see its all relative.

the end now go have a :beer:

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Jehovah

I'd have to agree. Many of the execs of State Farm Corporate here have some kind of business degree to my understanding.

engineers work for State Farm?

Yeup. I'm talking about the national corporate HQ, not some dinky agency branch.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

You based your conclusion on promotional papers? *cough cough* Well.. how about this. As an engineer, I've mostly working for engineers and getting raises from them, so there's no business major in my past experience.

So to support your point, you need to find a business major who manages/supervises engineers.

You are lying. A fresh from college archaeology graduate can direct an engineer in what tasks to do since they are intimately involved with engineering.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Jehovah

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Jehovah

I'd have to agree. Many of the execs of State Farm Corporate here have some kind of business degree to my understanding.

engineers work for State Farm?

Yeup. I'm talking about the national corporate HQ, not some dinky agency branch.

Interesting. What types of engineers do they have? It's hardly a bastion of engineering. What engineering field do they work in?

I hope you don't think of network "engineers" as real engineers.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: TuxDave

You based your conclusion on promotional papers? *cough cough* Well.. how about this. As an engineer, I've mostly working for engineers and getting raises from them, so there's no business major in my past experience.

So to support your point, you need to find a business major who manages/supervises engineers.

You are lying. A fresh from college archaeology graduate can direct an engineer in what tasks to do since they are intimately involved with engineering.

 

[spidey07]

All I'm really saying is engineers typically don't move into management.

They simply don't have the skills, training or education to do so.

Sure it happens. But again in my experience in fortune 100 companies it is rare.

managers don't engineer. They manage.

Directors don't engineer, they direct.

And all of your classes will never teach you how to manage or how to direct.

Why do you think "dilbert" seems to be so dead on? Pointy haired boss isn't an engineer, he has a BA and as such learned budgeting, managing people and performance, etc.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: spidey07
All I'm really saying is engineers typically don't move into management.

Actually, it's VERY common. Engineering focused companies would be in a big mess if it didn't happen.

The engineer's boss is going to be an engineer. The boss's boss is going to be an engineer. The boss's boss's boss is going to be an engineer and so on until you MAY reach a position in which someone may or may not have an engineering degree. It's going to be pretty high up and it's certainly not a commonly available position.

Even most of the lawyers that work with engineers are engineers

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: spidey07
All I'm really saying is engineers typically don't move into management.

They simply don't have the skills, training or education to do so.

Sure it happens. But again in my experience in fortune 100 companies it is rare.

managers don't engineer. They manage.

Directors don't engineer, they direct.

And all of your classes will never teach you how to manage or how to direct.

Why do you think "dilbert" seems to be so dead on? Pointy haired boss isn't an engineer, he has a BA and as such learned budgeting, managing people and performance, etc.

I think people are saying that in an engineering department/company, the engineers are the managers. Nobody is saying that an engineer is going to commonly slip into management at a non-technical company.