<p>Maybe the one that will be most profitable for you, personally- in terms of total utility, not merely money- might be the field you fit better in, and are better at. When I worked in investment banking, even while many were making huge amounts of money, others were being laid off and dismissed. This was the same when I worked in engineering, although nobody there was making huge amounts of money.</p>
<p>"If your idea of a valuable societal contribution is inventing unregulated credit default swaps or levergaed naked shorting, then iBanking may be for you. "</p>
<p>One might just as appropriately define engineering contribution by those who develop bombs and guns for the planet to blow itself up with.</p>
<p>Investment banks help companies get money. Without this money the companies cannot build projects. And if there are no projects there is nothing for engineers to do. So if engineers make a valuable contribution to society they only get to do that after investment bankers have first made their contribution.</p>
<p>I personally participated in a financing that was made financially feasible by investment banking creativity. It resulted in a large industrial plant being built that would not have otherwise been built; at that time anyway. The project employed many engineers in its construction, and a number on an ongoing basis to this day. It serves a worthwhile purpose, valuable to society.</p>
<p>One time at the water cooler, two of us ex-engineers (from the same school, actually) were talking about our respective career choices. The other fellow said he preferred working on huge issues that have major impact, and involve a wider range of one’s personality beyond analytical skills. He said that as an engineer he was responsible for designing, and implementing others’ designs for, certain sub-systems within a particular project. As a banker he was involved with the financial health of the companies that developed these projects in the first place, and the viability of these very projects as a whole. He preferred to work on bigger picture stuff.</p>
<p>While I didn’t disagree with him, my case was far simpler. I went to business school, because, after interest rates went to 20% and all my firm’s new projects were cancelled or indefinitely postponed, there was no meaningful work to do. Probably elsewhere engineers were being laid off. Though their jobs may be more stable than I-banking jobs, I don’t think engineers are immune from these phenomena. But I went to Bschool when I came to feel that engineering was the tail being wagged by the dog of the economy and the financial markets. Which led me to become interested in that field.</p>
<p>But if you’re better at, and have more of a passion for, designing the systems for projects, etc, then you should probably do that. It will be easier to find work there, anyway. Money does not always fully compensate for being unhappy at a job, if that would turn out to be the case. So I believe most people should follow the path where their true interests and capabilities take them.</p>