<p>Lately, I’ve been feeling pressure as to what I want to do.</p>
<p>My overall goal (while bad) is to make money, but I want to make money while satisfying my interests, which mainly lay in maths and sciences.</p>
<p>There are a few industries that I have been looking into: engineering (mainly Petroleum), chemistry (alt. energies, batteries, etc.) and investment banking.</p>
<p>I am here to hear from the engineering side of things. What opportunities exist in terms of job growth? Do the engineers ever end up being some big shot in their respective companies?</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with making money. Money is nothing more than energy one can see, touch, smell, etc. You need money to buy food, shelter, clothes, transportation, and other essential things. As I just described it, money is a tool that helps you get what you really need to continue living.</p>
<p>What is wrong is making money for the sake of money itself, where the only purpose is to hoard it to accumulate more power and possibly deny others their natural rights.</p>
<p>Human beings can survive without money. And the goal cannot be just to survive. We can survive off instincts alone. The goal should be to thrive and the best way to do that is by setting another goal to help others to thrive, and repeatedly help others thrive until it becomes a habit. That is called virtue and character and all the money in the world won’t matter if you don’t have them.</p>
<p>That sounds very nice, but the world has not, does not, and will never work that way. Virtue and goodwill are scarce resources and must be used judiciously.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with making money. Modern humans can’t survive without money. The OP asked about growth opportunities in engineering. As far as I can tell, most engineers will not become “rich”, whatever the hell that is, but will likely be able to afford a decent lifestyle. A few engineers will strike gold and become fabulously wealthy, but that’s probably more a function of luck than a function of brilliance or hard work.</p>
<p>“What opportunities exist in terms of job growth? Do the engineers ever end up being some big shot in their respective companies?”</p>
<p>Only robots will replace engineers; modern society needs people who know how to design bridges, electrical systems, steam/gas turbines, software, antibiotics, etc. as long as people demand physics, chemistry, and biology, engineers will have jobs (in China and India! ;))</p>
<p>Many engineers have become big shots at their respective companies but that usually means they are no longer doing engineering work.</p>
<p>What gives? My guess is you are actually a parent scoping out info for you kid. I hope not, or I feel sorry for your child. Call me the crazy one, but I don’t think 8th graders should be worrying about their careers, nor should their parents be looking for and deciding ‘lucrative’ careers for their offspring.</p>
<p>The fact that they are rare is even more reason to focus on attaining them. A man with high character and goodwill will never hunger for satisfaction, but a rich man can certainly starve for the things that make life worth living. And from a selfish standpoint, having a healthy combination of moral and non-moral virtues will give you a HUGE leg-up on those who don’t and success is very likely to come to you.</p>
<p>You care about interests, and want a stable job with lots of money? </p>
<p>There’s no such thing as interesting, stable and makes money. It’s “pick 2”. How much money do you want? If you want to be someone like Bush who can get Cs and still be a millionaire, then i regret to say, you need to major in corruption and connections rather than engineering.</p>