Jobs as Engineers

HPuck35
Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:05:36 +0000

IMHO, I definitely would not go straight thru to a PhD in engineering. It isn’t required to get a good job in engineering. A BS is sufficient but an MS better. A PhD locks you into a specific nitch (at least if you want to benefit from the the PhD). You should have some work experience in that nitch to make sure you really like it before committing to the PhD program. Besides, most companies will pay (or at least partialy pay) for your PhD if you want to go that far.

The focus of an engineer is to develope a product and not just do research. Therefore, most engineers do work in groups, so people interaction is there. In fact, people skills are, again IMHO, very important in the workplace.

You may be forced to make a decision however with your schooling. To get the necessary coursework in engineering you may be required to take some very tough courses that are not required for med school. These classes may drop your GPA which would hurt your chances at med school.

Salaries are pretty good in engineering. Salaries above 100K (even well above) are common, although that is with some number of years of experience and having demonstrated a very good skill level. The Cal Poly ME grads from this past June had a mean starting salary in the mid-50K range for a BS.