Submitted by ImplementExtension58 t3_10lwsk9 in Futurology
As a 15-year-old, I am interested in exploring the field of engineering. I understand that many people may suggest pursuing software engineering, however, I feel that the market for it is becoming increasingly competitive and with the advancements in artificial intelligence, it may not be as necessary in the future.
I came here to say this. But electrical engineering is more than just circuitry. Cryptography and signal processing are fairly large sub fields as well.
Can one get an internship to start learning?
Your question is somewhat unclear. If you mean get an internship and not be in college, then go on to work as engineer, ive never heard of that. I know in the US pretty much every employer requires at least a bachelor's, usually in engineering, but sometimes math and physics and maybe CS are okay. You need to know vector calculus and differential equations at a minimum, and if you do cryptography, at least asymmetric-key cryptography, you need to have a good foundation in group theory. You also need probability theory for cryptography in general, if not for developing encryption schemes, then for proof of different notions of security.
Thanks for getting to my post, my question was about EE.
The baseline is a usually bachelor's degree, depending on what you want to do requirements may vary slightly. You can get an internship without a degree but usually you need to at least be a currently enrolled sophomore in college. I forgot to mention, though, it is possible to get into the field as an engineering technician but even that requires a 2-year degree still. Thats a much more hands-on position usually, so if you want to do engineering and work with yojr hands thats probably the best route.
Someone mentioned a high-school internship. Ive never really heard of that, but i cant imagine what that would entail exactly as most (almost all?) high-school students lack any sort of training in the necessary software to be successful in engineering.
You cannot officially approve engineered systems in the united states without a professional license. Many industries will reserve the title of engineer for only PEs
Requirements vary by state but generally include:
An education component. a 4 year degree in accredited engineering program.
Then pass two competency exams which are very difficult
then acquire 4 years of work experience.
Apply for PE license.
Continued education after receiving the license to keep it current.
That’s not true. You don’t need a license. Source: I’m a PhD in mechanical engineering.
Bad wording. I edited it for clarity
Thats not true. My Dad approves stuff and has worked as an engineer and his degree is in Physics. He's a pretty high up guy at Nasa now. I also have interned as civil engineer and my bachelors is Math.
Source: this guys dad 40 years ago
While your source is being a random asshole on reddit 🤣
At my company, anyway, there are high school interns, so it definitely exists.
I’m an EE and I support this message
I’m an EE and I support this message
I’m an ME and I support this message.
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This is true electrical will be big as we transition away from fossil fuels.
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Right. I’m an IC design engineering manager, I’m having trouble finding qualified people. Lots of people are retiring and the demand keeps increasing.
Where could one find training for this? Would be interested in learning more about the trade coming from an IT/ecommerce field.
Go to graduate school in electronics engineering. I went into management after 20 year’s experience as an individual contributor
The fact that you need graduate school now due to credential inflation to get into IC design is really big road block. The tuition cost and time in school are high.
Right now I’ll hire someone with a bachelor’s and pay their grad school tuition if they do well at an internship. A good IC designer takes a couple of years to grow no matter what degree or school they come from. I don’t want a simulation jockey, I need people who know the how’s and why’s of both the semiconductor devices and the end applications. I’m not going to spend $1M+ and 9 months of team time on a tapeout because someone didn’t question a result that looked to good to be true and didn’t know any better than to trust a buggy PDK. Semiconductor design is all about combining statistics, physics, communication theory, circuit design, system design, and pedantry. You practically have to be a lawyer to interpret a SiGe design guide.
Analog design as taught in undergraduate school is extremely incomplete. Most of it is aimed at embedded design or gluing together a series of opamps and making filters. Commercial discrete parts are really good nowadays, so most board level design doesn’t have to worry much about linearity, distortion, phase margin, transistor ft, resistor mismatch, or time delay. PCB design generally uses a few components with really good tolerances to build a circuit function. IC design uses a large quantity of crappy devices to build a stable circuit function. It’s an extra layer of methodology that isn’t there in undergrad, and it’s hard to learn on the job because the stakes are too high.
So it looks like to get into ic design, you need to be lucky to get an internship as a bachelor's to get a ic design job or get a master/PhD for it.
Really there aren't any good other options to get the resources and knowledge to get into that field without breaking your wallet somehow.
I completely agree
Pays is shit compared to software, and all EE know programming so they make the change for better pay.
Civil Engineer, here. 👋
When people ask about demand for job titles, they actually mean both quantities needed and earning potential.
Are electrical engineers or civil engineers earning $200,000+ five years into their careers?
Electrical, maybe. Civil probably not.
OP asked about job security, not salary. I wouldn't recommend going to college to pursue a salary.
Point me to where exactly he asked about security in his original message.
> with the advancements in artificial intelligence, it may not be as necessary in the future.
Usually when things are not necessary, they are reduced or eliminated.
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Trouble is that EE is one of the hardest engineering degrees and pay isn't great compared to other fields. Hopefully the latter will change as time goes on.
Especially digital designers/fpga programmers who use verilog
Civil engineers all the way. As long as you’re not in land development and have a good work ethic, you have really good job security.
Computer Engineering has a lot of overlap with electrical
Goes heavy into the circuit stuff as well as coding
If you become a civil engineer please read or listen to the book Confessions of a Recovering Engineer.
But the money is crap outside of software engineering... Can't make enough margin if the work being done doesn't scale. Even building a chip requires multiple contacts and factors all over the world to line up but with software the costs to deploy for additional users is marginal and potential revenues compared to initial investments are like nothing I could have imagined in electrical engineering.
I'm an electrical engineer that slowly moved into exclusively software roles, though the signal processing background has helped in multiple roles as well.
As an electrical engineer with a long career in the semiconductor industry, i highly recommend you going into Photonics.
Optical Engineering or Physics with focus on optics or both.
Light is the new Silicon as it approaches its physical limits.
Great suggestion. Can confirm all optics-themed fairs are now about photonics. Thats where the monnies are, powered by rapid explosion of tech and tech demand.
Be careful though as optics has various fields. An optics engineer focused on lasers wont be employable for a IC photonics job, for example.
However, me wonders if this trend will be shortlived and the technology will become replaced quickly by another one in future. Not sure if light as new silicon will have a longevity of a whole generation.
Just saying, I have a masters degree in optics and photonics, and was unable to secure a job for so long, I became a math teacher.
That was about 5 years ago, so things may have changed since then, but the job market was actually dry as hell for optics.
I would definitely recommend doing optics as a specialization not the main field. While its growing, its a very nitch field and the employment pool is not as large as the main enginering fields (EE, ME, SW).
I'm a mechanical engineer with a specialization in optics. Having both fields has helped me do better design, but also when optical work is done, I can then move onto the mechanics of things. Helps with finding jobs as you can now target either or.
Check out Heliocon.com an initiative from the National Renewable Energy Lab to get more photonics and optics engineers to design advanced heliostats for concentrated solar power (reflects thousands of suns with heliostats - mirrors - to a central tower to generate solar heat at up to 1,500 C for solar thermochemistry)
Don't worry about AI. At most it will provide tools that will make Software Engineers more productive. It won't take their jobs.
Other than something Petroleum related, it's hard to go wrong with any Software or Engineering field in the future. What you go into should depend on your skills and passion.
That's true but I do think OP has a point that the market is becoming way more competitive since there's is quit a big stream of self-taught programmers taking up jobs.
That's true, but there will always be jobs for people with high levels of skill instead of people who watched a few YouTube tutorials.
As a software developer trying to hirer people, I’m not worried about having a job. This field goes deep and there is so much to learn. If you are half decent at your job, you will be snatched up.
Do you know how hard it is to find a person that is half decent?
It’s highly unlikely self taught programmers are taking any high paying jobs. The amount of discipline to get through school is huge, much less teaching yourself.
Controls Systems Engineers will be in very high demand.
Adding to the other reply Many universities offer electrical engineering with emphasis in control, that's a great option I'm currently on my last year at electrical engineering with emphasis in automation and control
Ok I’ll add it to my list
Thats what I do. Its cake after 20 years in the field of hvacr.
How does one go about getting started in that field?
Learn ladder logic. There's a great course on Udemy covering basic ladder logic in RSLogix.
Thank you
This field is split. You can also get into HVAC control systems. Smart Buildings academy has some good knowledge on it.
Thanks for this also, I’m currently in HVAC service but feel that I would like to advance into a more technical field within the industry. I’ll definitely be checking them out
Nice nice ! I went the college route and started in service controls with a large HVAC company and was able to move up pretty quick from there
As a degreed controls engineer. Absolutely yes.
Former uni administrator at a highly ranked engineering program here, now retired. Also a background in data science.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Engineering isn't easily automated, and the automation that does get done needs to be designed and implemented by engineers. Engineers are basically the economic apex predator.
Areas that are traditionally in short demand are materials engineering and environmental. I might be careful around Chemical mostly because it's dominated by the petrochemical industry and it's unclear what's going to happen there. Ideas offered below are good - photonics, EE in general.
But here's the suggestion I give everyone. Learn to code, learn data science. These are turning into such broadly applicable skills that having them concentrated in a single major like Data Science or CS isn't going to fly. The real value is in domain experts of any kind that have these skills. Even if Civil Engineering got automated out of existence, the last guy out the door will be a Civil Engineer training those systems, relying on programming and data science to do so. A job I had before working in engineering was doing programming in a humanities project - people that knew classics and can code are VERY few and far between, and that got me in the door.
Learn python. It's a very practical language - lots of applications. Dominant environment for data science right now, and likely the foreseeable future. Learn a lower level compiled language as well. I'd choose Rust for a variety of reasons related to learning good coding practices, plus it's interesting. Just put these in on your longer term to-do. Take some electives in college. Turn them into a hobby.
But pick the discipline that interests you. Keep in mind that the options are a combination of horizontal disciplines and vertical (industry) ones. The broad horizontal ones are Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical, Materials, Industrial. The vertical ones are Aerospace, Biomedical, Environmental, Petroleum, Software etc. Generally speaking the former are a little more marketable over a career because they build off of fundamentals. The latter may get you up the ladder faster at first, but are built a little more off of where industries are today, and may not prepare you quite as well for where industries are going later. Probably not a huge thing to worry about but a lot of aerospace engineers really hit rough times when the aero industry collapsed in the 90s and had to wait for it come back. The MEs or EEs that worked there could more easily jump to completely different industries.
I'll note that my son is an EE at a Bay Area company 2 years out of college. He does circuit design for high value/low volume hardware (engineer to engineer firm). Most of what made him marketable didn't come out of the classroom. He was interested in it before college and tinkered and learned on his own. He couldn't do the math or really explore the theory, but he showed up knowing the tools, was probably better at soldering than our techs were, was accustomed to reading spec sheets and so on. That confidence really paid off. His bosses love him because he's productive - he writes code to automate his tools. He does his own data science work, doing data collection and analysis. He can go in lot of different directions. He learned to program playing Minecraft. He got interested doing circuit design with redstone. You can learn a LOT outside of school. Go find your interest.
This is great advice, so I'll add on to it. Finding your interests includes what it is about the work that you like. You really like reading up about a topic, finding articles and learning on a topicand researching how stuff works? really like tinkering around with physical circuits to build complex ones and working with your hands? maybe it's organizing things and tracking your progress throughout your project? those things may influence the type of company and which team within the organization you target. Innovation teams and start-up companies will require more research and may be less organized or regimented. Whereas bigger organizations, and especially defense contractors, will provide more formality and allow you to concentrate your efforts more precisely.
I like to build new stuff and solve new problems, whereas I'll get bored working on an older product making incremental updates or fixes. So i stick with innovation. But some people don't appreciate the unknowns and the anxiety that comes with that, so they'd rather be confident in the context in which they're operating.
Some people like product support, and solve problems as they arise. Working closely with customers to build relationships and collaboratively solve problems. These guys are great at staying calm under pressure.
Others like to speak and be the face of the team in product marketing or sales engineering.
You don't have to choose any of those up front, but pay attention to the types of work you're drawn to, what you're good at, just as importantly what you tend to avoid or put off. How you operate and like to operate can mean a lot in how successful you are in a given role, and what to look for when changing roles.
"pay attention" is the operative directive. When you align with your interests, nothing is out of reach. Only you can "know" the right answer for yourself. Trust your gut... when you feel drawn to a career path - GO FOR IT!
Above all else, have fun. Making the journey fun will be a dynamo of personal power for you!
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>Learn to code, learn data science.
Big agree, i just started my first FT job in environmental/geotech and my programming skill is quickly making me a very valuable asset to the company.
Anything at all involving space anything, and AI knowledge. You habe the world ahead of you and lots of time to be an expert in a sheltered setting (ie: high school aged youth with hopefully no serious life responsibilities like working to cover bills).
Space, rockets, related tech to provide those rockets with stuff... it's going to blow up. Another wierd thing is space mining - no joke. There are asterpids that some companies with private capital investments looking at how to land on them, mine the minerals which don't exist on earth anywhere, and bring them home. This will be lucrative.
Also, anything associated to making living and development easier in a world with more demand on building resources. For example, there is a looming sand shortage. Sand? Yes, sand. It is used the world over in cement/concrete and glass. This will bump costs up and push others out.
I hope your brain is swimming in ideas. Engineering is an exciting field with limitless potential.
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If you're interested in software engineering, don't decide not to persue just because lots of others are doing the same. It's a broad field, and you can get more unique experience / training that will make you more valuable. There's a big difference between a guy adding buttons to a gui and a guy interfacing with robotics. Also, anything involving automation will be big.
There’s also the whole data side of engineering
is there any job in that field that doesn't require just sitting behind a computer all day? I'm doing comp sci but now realize i hate the idea of a desk job and programming all day.
I once saw a government data science job that required some field work to collect data and study reef and coral systems for conservation. But it's rare to see jobs like that on the job boards.
That was honestly one of my original reserves, but i later realized that you should just do what you're passionate about, cause anything else will suck in the long term. I get to work in a big lab as well as assembly line with all the tools, electronics and machinery that i need (industrial mfg), and for me i feel right at home. Sure most of my work is in front of my pc, but I get plenty enough movement from machine to machine to keep me happy. If being outdoors and getting awesome scenery is important to you, then you should seek it out.
Civil engineering can be very lucrative. Family member works for firm handling business acquisitions for major water and other infrastructure projects. He makes big bucks.
it does not sound like he works as a civil engineer. more like on business side, and happens also to hold civil eng degree ( could be any degree)
That is incorrect. Business is only part of his job. He is the director of engineering for the east coast division of his company. I’m pretty sure they are not calling just anyone with a degree director of engineering.
Director in any industry is likely big bucks.
What do you consider to be big bucks?
Dunno what he makes, but has a nice lake house, place at the beach, boat….probably making 300k+
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Optical engineering is a great field that will be in high demand in the future. Should definitely check it out
I don't think software engineering is the way to go unless you're interested in stuff near the metal like embedded or high-speed software. There is huge value in taking what already exists and making it faster, more robust, and more usable.
Other than that, networking and cyber security engineers aren't going away anytime soon. Electrical engineers are going to be more valuable as we move away from fossil fuels and everything goes electric.
That said, I think the value of engineering degrees is decreasing (relative to cost and usefulness of knowledge), and would encourage you to look at apprenticeships or doing small projects in your spare time. It's also important to work in a field that you really care about, don't go for something in preparation for some future that might never happen.
Actually there is also a different incentive for going into EE. Systems of today are highly predictable when it comes to 24/7 operational aspect. Not too much noise. Lots of centralised large power sources and predictable consumption. Once generation trough means of connecting renewables to the grid becomes major thing rather than minor, things will go from a predictable to predictable baseline + the renewables noise. Operational aspect becomes insanely more complex and load flow calculations everyone is doing today will become less reliable. More stress will be put into monitoring/operational aspect than is being put today simply because uncertainty of renewables.
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Mechanical engineers. The more automation evolves it will become more affordable allowing small businesses to turn a consistent and efficient product as well as eliminate labor costs. Machines combined with AI will need Designers that can adapt to a variety of products. With that shift mechanics will be high in demand for service and repairs. Man made products will be reduced to specialty works. People will become button pushers.
Packaging engineering. If I could only go back and major in this. Shipping single orders is increasing, single use plastics are being outlawed, etc. And I have fantasy visions of dropping packages off of three story buildings to test, but I know this prolly quite how it’s done.
I did some packaging testing while working with a packaging engineer. I decided I hated it but he totally loved it.
Also, there's a heck of a lot more to shipping than most people think.
We're probably going to need some Emergency Nanobot Deactivator Technicians.
Too late! The nanobots got to them already!
Since I feel this is the perfect thread to ask, I'm 16 and going for Mechatronics Engineering, is that a good idea?
I would major in one of the “core” engineering fields (Mechanical/Electrical) in undergrad and then do a 1-2 year MS program in mechatronics if you want to go this route. Build a solid foundation in one of the “evergreen” engineerings and it will help your employability and knowledge base a lot.
mechatronics are cool! If that interests you, yes, that's a good idea. Engineering degree is hard, you can probably make it easier if you like what you study at least.
awesome! When I was 15 years old I wasn't really thinking about my future so props to you for thinking that far!
Anyway, as other have said, I feel like electrical engineers should be pretty in high demand. There's also "sub branch" that involve other discipline: electronics, computer engineering, robotics, mechatronics, biomedical engineering, avionics, etc, which I think won't go anywhere anytime soon, at least within our lifetime.
If you're really interested in AI, I think robotics will be a really cool focus of study.
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Biology- medcical stuff will always and forever be in demand
Bio-med engineering is ranked the single biggest growth sector by most of the P/E firms for the next 15 years. Get hired by the right startup and you won’t be an engineer very long as your stock package will make you rich enough to retire by your 30’s.
Most any field of engineering is a pretty good gig, but if you are asking for what's the next big thing then it's biochemical engineering. Stupid high barrier to entry though, you can't just gobble something together and "trust me, I'm an engineer". In that field, you actually have to know what you are doing. It's more genuine scientific research than engineering as it is right now.
If you want a low barrier of entry, then industrial controls engineer. On the low end it barely counts as engineering, read the manual and push the buttons to configure ready made industrial hardware. And there is a lot of demand for it.
Other than Petroleum Engineering I can't think of any engineering fields that will be decreasing in demand in the foreseeable future.
We're still a long way from "AI" being more than just a useful tool for any engineering field, and once it really exists I don't think anyone can predict what impacts it will have.
Mechatronics is about building robots and that could be pretty useful. For example gardening robots could supply 20% of the worlds food in 50 years time.
Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics and Automation Tech (Actually what I'm majoring in), Civil Engineering.
Are you in the US? Most state universities that have engineering schools have an engineering week where you can visit and look at all the tech and the projects the students are working on. I went in junior high and it was incredible.
Any of the 300+ different kind of engineering jobs having to do with constructing space stations. They will be made by privately owned companies as well as from space programs of countries. High demand jobs.
Millwright, assembly-line mechanic. 24V relays, pneumatics, programmable logic chips PLC's
Robot arms on an assembly line are sometimes electro-hydraulic, or electro-pneumatic, or full electrical with synchros and servo motors. Stepper motors. If you want to impress people, build your own bomb defusing robot with a camera and robot arm. 6WD. Use RC components. Opto-couplers as a switch activator. Hall sensors, reed switches. Normally open, normally closed NO/NC...
Also basic 120V/240V motors and drives. 3-phase, single-phase...
If you can do one, you can do the other.
From my experience, most any type of engineering will have demand. Just find some companies you think have some cool projects and make that your goal to be a part of. Engineering is all about teams of people with different backgrounds working together to make a system so that should be your goal in school. Working on projects, learning how to bring something to the table and bringing together ideas for robustness. As you work on projects and companies, you'll become more specialized in something you enjoy and money will eventually come to you. You just have to enjoy it (that's the most important thing).
There's also what i call "fundamental" engineering fields like mechanical, electrical, computer, software, chemical, civil, and maybe bioengineering. And then "specialized" fields like optics, aerospace, semiconductors, manufacturing, robotics, etc. If you're super passionate about the field you want to be in, feel free to be specialized. But if you are still not sure where exactly you want to end up, you can get a more "fundamental" degree and have a bit more wiggle room to try different things and specialize as you get to explore a bit more.
I have a B.S in mechanical and a M.S in electrical, working in manufacturing of biomedical devices. Everyone wants to move towards automation so I do a lot of concept designs and work with other engineers to push out systems for production. I may not know the final solution but I often can get ideas started and learn from specialists to have a final, robust process.
It will definitely be necessary ALWAYS. The question will be if what you studied was as up to date as you need or if it's been changed up. We are nowhere close to AI. At best there's a new google that's better than before in chatgpt. And who is going to make the next ones that work better? Not that program!
But that field is pretty flooded as well because it's one of the cheapest - you can do it on a rather cheap computer watching youtube vids honestly! (Though MIT absolutely has versions of it too)
Things like Mechanical Electrical or Chemical engineering are pretty good general areas.
The real problem is that EVERYTHING is becoming competitive - and the things that aren't are really tiny, so tiny people would not have heard the name of it.
The most important thing is to not fall for grand statements by companies that pretend they are schools that care about you. They are there to make money off you. So you have to take a wild swing and hope you get something that can get you to other places and that those places will be where the world wants to be five or ten years from now!
And the disheartening thing for many, when people look up to people like Musk? He and his followers think he's a visionary, but many like that are lucky. There are hundreds or thousands like Musk at each stage - they just had a different vision that went a different way than the world did. So don't beat yourself up if you get it wrong!
As a funny example, I decided not to go into Aerospace engineering in the early 2000s because you had to be an old person to get a good job and most of the stuff short of space had already been figured out. Lol, I was pretty wrong on that! I sure missed everything about drones going on!
So try to find some intersection of what interests you and what you are good at along with what might support you. The one thing you have picked up that's also important is to watch out for something that is getting a flood of people into - or maybe doesn't even require that expensive degree for all the people paying for it! Software engineers are one that are a bit flooded because big companies are abusing visa programs to bring in cheaper foreign people to do the work. They also have schools taking advantage of a lie that they shouldn't get away with - Some very rare kids can get a Google $200k salary out of school, but most of the kids in software are going to get closer to $60k.
Anyway, good luck, it's not easy!
Robot design and maintenance? Even the mainstream media are reporting on the increasing rise of automation using robots. This can only equate to increasing installation and ongoing maintenance. As more business pivot to robots so more sectors will switch. It will just grow and grow.
It is irrelevant what field of engineering you chose to focus on as long as you enjoy doing that.
Do not select something only because you think it will be in demand in the future.
AI will soon be able to replace any sort of jobs and I'm looking forward to that.
Soon aka 30 years away.
more like 3 to 5 years. You need to think exponential :) It is already happening just look by how much Google, Microsoft and Amazon reduced the workforce in the past few weeks.
Even there if AI had no influence or did not existed my point about doing what you enjoy instead of what you think will pay more in the future is still a valid point.
I did Mechanical but am in logistics engineering, pays well and I get recruiters messaging me at least twice a month on linkedin.
Do you like working outside? Light work, good money? Look 👀 into corrosion engineer / cathodic protection.
Thank me later
I'd say almost all engineering will be in demand - except petroleum engineering. What I'd focus on is what tools you think will be important 10 years down the line. With that said I'd suggest 2 things. Firstly I would learn tangential skills related to your discipline. ex. welding & machining if you're a M.E., construction technology if a C.E., etc. Secondly you need to earn to program and not just the shitty 1 semester "Intro to Java" class for the degree requirement. Basic comp sci skills is going to be the new calculus for engineering going forward.
Oh and don't ignore your soft skills. Proper report and memo writing along with public speaking will get you further then you can imagine.
I just wanted to throw my 2 bits in.
Engineering is cool, but those are some very tough programs. It's not for everyone, it wasn't for me.
I dropped out of my sophomore year of mechanical engineering. Switched over to an associates degree for CAD drafting at the local tech college.
Since then, I've spent 16 years doing architectural design work, 4 years as a floor inspector at machine shop (aerospace) and bow 3 years doing industrial/agricultural design.
You never really know what direction your life is going to go, just be ready for the opportunities that come your way.
I'm sitting comfy as a mechanical engineer surrounded by EE, software, controls, and soforth doing just fine. I think what is in great demand is good experienced engineers. Really people with a documented track record. The trick is picking one you like and getting good at it. The only thing I'd think twice about is manufacturing or production engineering. Many companies are going light on that and putting the burden on design/development departments for the sake of economy.
Materials science/engineering will be important in the future, but programming will still be key 10-15 years from now.
Fully automated farm. Robots, sensors, programming.
My suggestion is , do mechanical major with aerospace minor and get into aerospace.
Computer engineering, which is a mix of software and electrical engineering is going to be heavily in demand for a long time. Hardware design and the constraints it puts on software are processes for which the set of design tools are very poor. The traditional engineering disciplines are all the same, EE, ME, CE, etc. and to be honest I don’t use anything from my ME degree in my job. If I had to do it again I would go computer engineering.
No one has mentioned mining engineering. With increasing demands for different metals for all of our gadgets, and increasing environmental protection, mining engineering will be pretty critical. Plus it’s fun. Big trucks, big machines, and big explosions, all for tiny veins of ore. It’s pretty incredible actually.
Migrate. Integrate. Ideate. 3 reasons why AI won't be taking software jobs anytime soon
Software engineering will be increasingly outsourced because it's easier to do remote. Hard to be remote if it's a hands on like mechanical, electrical or manufacturing engineering
Electrical engineer here, there is so many different areas of focus where you can work. Demand seems to be only going up.
Civil Engineering. We are always going to need infrastructure designed and built.
Civil engineer here, specifically working in pavement. There is always constant work coming in due to road repairs, highway expansions, airports being built (specifically runways) and more. Don't see work ever going away in the industry as long as we need to use the ground.
Yeah agree electrical or computer hardware engineering. Also materials will be in demand.
software engineering cum automation , electronic . Pcb will last last long.
Anything that deals with manufacturing processes, like industrial engineering, will be in great demand. Currently, the job market is looking really good, but as China becomes ever less reliable in manufacturing their goods (both for reasons political and demographic) Europe and the USA are looking to reshoring manufacturing back home. This process has already started and will only accelerate.
I’ve heard there’s a demand for prosthetic engineers.
Does “blade-runner” count? No, I suppose that would be “reverse-engineering”
Have you considered the food industry? There are lots of opportunities in all kinds of technologies (plant based meat! Plant based dairy!) and people will continue to eat food they don’t grow themselves.
Repairability and recyclability. The current status-quo is just piling on the e-waste, and is that a good thing?
Bioinformatics is my field. we will be in higher and higher demand as time passes and we unlock more possibilities to use biology for things we'd normally use other tech for... like terraforming, for example.
semi conductor engineering, manufacturing & scaling.
The lack of representation that material engineering gets anywhere I go on Reddit always baffles me. It's everywhere and yet no one seems to notice it.
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The market for most entry-level engineering jobs is pretty competitive.
The beauty of software engineering is that there are so many open jobs that even people without formal education can easily get them.
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For job security go with civil engineering. For big bucks go with chemical engineering. Most importantly pick something you have an interest in and stick with it.
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Materials Engineering
It touches every industry in a meaningful way. With 3D printing and new computing, the limits and challenges are almost all material related in one form or another.
The future is electrification of everything. Invest in copper mining stocks and be an industrial electrician. You will work with a variety of industries such as agriculture and infrastructure. Look at companies such as Honeywell who employ such electrician's
Anything geothermal and data analytics engineering related
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If you can automate software engineering, you can automate anything. Software engineering will be the last job to be lost to AI.
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I think having a sustainable farm will be a very useful thing in our future
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Look for Mechatronic engineering, Automation or Artificial intelligence. All engineering will be forever required but these will see exponential growth in the upcoming century.
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Civil engineering a lot of major cities will need to be restructured with this exponential growth and growing inflation
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I studied in Sweden to become a Civil Engineer, with a focus on Energy Systems. I feel this is a good choice for the decades to come.
It depends on where you want to live. Demand is different in different parts of the world.
There are also a lot of misconceptions about engineering. In automotive, for example, you would be surprised by how much of the math and engineering is actually done by designers, unless you have a PHD and you are near the top of R&D. Designers and CMM operators often have a stronger knowledge of industry standards like GD&T than most Bachelor's students out of university.
Controls Engineers and Chemical engineers are pretty ubiquitous. Controls engineering is a nice field because you can start with an Associates as a technician and work your way towards a Bachelors. Unlike a lot of other disciplines, a Bachelors in controls is still in demand. You don't need your Masters. Controls Engineering at this point is also an economic foundation discipline. If a company does R&D, or makes things at scale, they will need a Controls engineer to automate equipment at some point. It is a rare recession-resistant career. You might make half as much as a Chemical engineer, but Controls engineers are contracted by just about every industry, including critical infrastructure.
engineering will always be in demand, and specifically going forward robotics will be the top field.
Civil engineers for water infrastructure, water will be a hot commodity as our clean water resources are getting smaller.
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I would say anything infrastructure related. Everybody is hard charging on the internet, the Cloud, AI, whatever… but if our basic infrastructure isn’t maintained to deliver the connectivity for those services good luck. We will always need civil engineers, etc.
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Dude it really doesnt matter that much, all stem stuff is relevant to the tech revolutions constantly happening. Just study what you find interesting since that's the thing you'll br more inclined to spend time doing and get good at. It's more about putting the time into something, anything, until you become one of the 'experts' in that field. That being said, there are certain fields with morr expansion in the future rather than contraction: would you rather learn engineering of coal mining or asteroid mining? Conventional flight tech or plasma thrusters for flying cars? Up to you bruzher
Instrumentation and Controls Engineering. There are really not enough to go around, and it is becoming increasingly complex. Everyone wants to join a tech company, so if you stick with Industrial you will be popular.
Depending on what you are into, it is great fun to develop molecules, either from scratch with plain chemistry or adapting cool mechanisms from nature and using a cell to make it for you.
Biomolecular Engineering is actually a thing, and the possibilities are endless, it's wide open, and the tools are getting better. It's kind of like what software was in 1990 or so.
It's also not going to go out of style; you'll work at a higher level (using alphafold and other tools like that).
It's also not going out of style; you'll work at a higher level (using alphafold and other tools like that). cular machines that are awesome. That includes drugs but also better things that people use every day. There are many examples of cool machines in biology those can be adapted elsewhere.
Here's a ted talk that shows you what thoughts you may have if you pursue this field. Also, the world works differently here; for example, friction does not exist in a traditional sense because the machines are atomically precise. There are plenty of atoms and energy, so unsolvable problems become solvable.
For inspiration, maybe read Diamond Age, Rainbow's end, Engines of Creation, Unbounding the Future, or Radical Abundance. It was kind of far out for a while, but it is all feasible now.
You'll also need to know how to code a little, but software alone is not going to be as awesome in the next 20 years as it was in the last 20 year.
All the best to you!
Study what you are interested in and passionate about. Engineers won't be automated out because we create automation algorithms from knowledge from all subfields! If you're really concerned, find opportunities to learn to code in any major you enjoy.
Make sure your school is accredited for all the programs you have interest. An accredited degree is required for most jobs, and this protects you for major changes. ABET is the US accreditation board.
The core disciplines (electrical, mechanical, chemical, civil) will have more job postings available, especially for internships when you are getting started. You can change focus based on work experience once you get into the work force. For starting pay out of college, internships are the most important experience on your resume. For graduate school admissions, it is research or teaching assistantships and stellar grades.
Gaining experiences that bridge the gaps between disciplines makes someone marketable. An EE that understands the mechanics of the system they are working with is valuable. A ME that can program is valuable. Find out what makes your experience unique and leverage how you are different or what you are good at to boost your career.
Generally, a growing field is an awesome opportunity to make more money and build a strong early career. My Masters is electrical engineering with a focus in electric transportation. Right now, that space is low in talent, and being trained as well as passionate has catapulted my career beyond expectations. It is currently a field with opportunity and a lot of fun work to do!
What the future will look like 20 years from now though, is totally a mystery, so it is also important to be able to pivot and adapt to something new throughout your career. The world will look different by the time you graduate. Engineering and sciences are endless learning. Looking forward to having you in the field. Good luck!
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Dude get into Biomechanical engineering it is going to be amazing ..
I thought this said engineered wood.. and I was going to reply vinyl is better as it's waterproof lmao
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PasswordisP4ssword t1_j5zg6t8 wrote
Believe it or not, there's a shortage of electrical engineers. Lots of people who can program, not enough know how to actually build and test circuits. With the increased demand for electrification and the infrastructure investments needed to bring that about, EEs will be in high demand.
There's also a growing demand for civil engineers.