<p>What type of engineering will be high in demand? I’m heading off to college next year, and I really don’t want to get out of college majoring in one type of engineering only to be unemployed because the demand isn’t high. Any suggestions or info?</p>
<p>I think the concensus will be that the traditional fields of civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical are pretty steadily employable. You can always take electives or get a MS in a smaller subspecialty.</p>
<p>Civil engineering is probably the safest; I believe it has the most jobs because not only do they exist in private practice, but a significant number of civil engineers work for the government on all levels (city, state, federal). What this means is that there will be jobs no matter where you’re located, which may not be true for some of the majors such as chemical engineering. The BLS (bureau of labor statistics) has information on the number of jobs in the US in each field. Might want to take a look at that.</p>
<p>Mechanical engineering also allows for many opportunities in very different fields. It’s probably the most versatile degree.</p>
<p>I think I might get screwed over with aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>lil killer,</p>
<p>I wonder that too sometimes…</p>
<p>drum, just some friendly gov school kid to gov school kid advice</p>
<p>what you should do is not major in aerospace for undergrad. I don’t care how much you think you love it, just stay away. wait for your masters or PhD to specialize in aero for 2 reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>if you don’t like it, your stuck with a highly specialized degree that you can’t do much else other than aero with. If you go MechE undergrad, you have plenty of other opportunities if you dont like aero</p></li>
<li><p>employers tend not to hire as many ASE’s. In general, a MechE can do almost anything an ASE can do, but ASE is too specialized to do anything a MechE can do.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I know plenty of ASE potential spots that have gone to MechE’s because they are so much more well rounded than ASE’s.</p>
<p>btw, do you have any idea when LaRSS decisions come out?</p>
<p>
Aren’t the baby boomers supposed to retire soon? My drafting teacher says there’s going to be jobs available.</p>
<p>Industrial engineering!</p>
<p>
They’re going to be jobs in 4-5 years?</p>
<p>ehiunno,</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I know what I should do, but something in me kind of still wants to go Aero. We’ll see. luckily I have another year to decide!</p>
<p>About LARSS, no clue. Tim seems to think April 1, last years application(for last summer) said “notified by April 15”… Im hoping Tim is right.</p>
<p>why does everybody say that aerospace is not a safe engineering field? I know mechancial is much broader but lets face what sounds more interesting & fascinating, Mechanical or Aerospace.</p>
<p>You guys worry too much. Just ride the storm.</p>
<p>drum,</p>
<p>Well I hope it’s April 1, that would be sweet, I can’t wait to find out! Don’t worry about it too much yet, you still do have another year. See what happens, you may discover something about yourself you never knew existed. Hopefully you’ll get LaRSS, then you may have a chance to talk it over with some experienced folks in your field</p>
<p>Gator is right. You will be fine no matter what field you choose.</p>
<p>There are many (including the government) who attempt to analyze and predict the future job markets in engineering (like 4 to 10 years from now). Their analysis always usually comes out the same and it is usually that there will be steady increases in most fields. Ultimately, all those analyses turn out to be wrong, or just plain luck makes them right, and you can’t really predict in what way they will be wrong (sometimes it turns out a lot better, sometimes worse). The reality is that what will be in high demand or low demand at the time you may graduate form college will depend on the state of the economy at the time (which thousands of economists try to predict and usually have as much accuracy as the weatherman). Aerospace might be booming then or it might be in a funk. That “safe” civil engineering may be just that or instead the construction industry, which retains a huge number of civil (and other) engineers, may be in an awful recession lowering the demand for civil engineers significantly. The US car industry may collapse, effecting many other industries, and hiring of new mechanical engieers may significantly decrease. The entire economy may take a steep dive lowering demand for all fields or it might boom making it easy to get a job in any fiield. Many were predicting the virtual end of nuclear engineering a number of years back becuase no one was building power plants but it is now demand is increasing again, including because of the medical applications. The best thing you can do is choose the field you like and don’t do so based on some prediction of the future.</p>