- #1
Best of the Worst
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Hi everyone,
I'm a first year engineering student, and basically I'm wondering if I'm in the right program or not. This post is kind of long (but for a good reason), so first I'll thank anyone who takes the time to read it all and give me their input.
I chose engineering because I'm a creative, analytical thinker, and I figured I'd like a job that let's me use those skills on a daily basis. Originally, I thought that I'd like to be an electrical engineer, since electronics/communications seemed to me like the most interesting kinds of things to design. However, I've recently learned more about both engineering education, and engineering as a profession, and I'm having my doubts.
To begin with, I looked at some of the material for some of the upper year courses I would be taking (I also looked at upper year courses related to civil and mechanical engineering, since I had also been considering them somewhat), and frankly they didn't look very interesting to me. This eventually led me to realize that I'm not particularly gung-ho about technology. I see it as a means to an end, not the end itself. This immediately set off an alarm in my mind, as not only would it be harder to do well in courses that I'm not interested in, but it also means that I probably wouldn't find working as an engineer as interesting as I originally imagined.
On that note, what I've learned about the engineering profession isn't very encouraging, either. My understanding is that once you're hired, you're trained in a very specific aspect of your discipline that's necessary to the company that employs you, and that's what you do. So in electrical engineering, for example, if the company hired you to develop microchips, then you'd learn about microchips in-depth and work on designing and improving them, and that's about it. The same applies for troubleshooting and maintenance, apparently. Considering I'm only mildly interested in technology itself, this sounds agonizing to me. Not to mention that it seems that budget and time constraints frequently limit how "far" you can design something, and the latter can lead to serious overtime.
So if I'm not interested enough in technology to want to have my career entirely centered around it, then the one remaining field of engineering that might be a good fit for me is industrial engineering (and I actually do think it would be a decent fit for me). However, another career that I've learned about that I think would be a good fit for me is actuary. Both jobs are analytical and require skilled use of math (which I like) and computers. Industrial engineering would require me to take some courses I'd probably hate in second and third year, and would earn me less money than being an actuary, but is also probably more creative. Actuaries make more money and have better job stability than industrial engineers, but the work would probably be more routine and possibly less interesting.
Having said all that, I have a few questions. First, is industrial engineering different enough from the other engineering fields that I'd probably enjoy it even if I'm not a technology enthusiast? Second, if not, would it be safe to say that I shouldn't be in engineering?
Third, what are the main similarities and differences between an actuary and an industrial engineer? I understand that an actuary is more like a statistician and an industrial engineer is more like an operations research analyst, but in terms of the kinds of tasks I'd be doing, and what work would be like on a day-to-day basis, how are actuaries and industrial engineers similar and different?
Thanks again,
~Sean
I'm a first year engineering student, and basically I'm wondering if I'm in the right program or not. This post is kind of long (but for a good reason), so first I'll thank anyone who takes the time to read it all and give me their input.
I chose engineering because I'm a creative, analytical thinker, and I figured I'd like a job that let's me use those skills on a daily basis. Originally, I thought that I'd like to be an electrical engineer, since electronics/communications seemed to me like the most interesting kinds of things to design. However, I've recently learned more about both engineering education, and engineering as a profession, and I'm having my doubts.
To begin with, I looked at some of the material for some of the upper year courses I would be taking (I also looked at upper year courses related to civil and mechanical engineering, since I had also been considering them somewhat), and frankly they didn't look very interesting to me. This eventually led me to realize that I'm not particularly gung-ho about technology. I see it as a means to an end, not the end itself. This immediately set off an alarm in my mind, as not only would it be harder to do well in courses that I'm not interested in, but it also means that I probably wouldn't find working as an engineer as interesting as I originally imagined.
On that note, what I've learned about the engineering profession isn't very encouraging, either. My understanding is that once you're hired, you're trained in a very specific aspect of your discipline that's necessary to the company that employs you, and that's what you do. So in electrical engineering, for example, if the company hired you to develop microchips, then you'd learn about microchips in-depth and work on designing and improving them, and that's about it. The same applies for troubleshooting and maintenance, apparently. Considering I'm only mildly interested in technology itself, this sounds agonizing to me. Not to mention that it seems that budget and time constraints frequently limit how "far" you can design something, and the latter can lead to serious overtime.
So if I'm not interested enough in technology to want to have my career entirely centered around it, then the one remaining field of engineering that might be a good fit for me is industrial engineering (and I actually do think it would be a decent fit for me). However, another career that I've learned about that I think would be a good fit for me is actuary. Both jobs are analytical and require skilled use of math (which I like) and computers. Industrial engineering would require me to take some courses I'd probably hate in second and third year, and would earn me less money than being an actuary, but is also probably more creative. Actuaries make more money and have better job stability than industrial engineers, but the work would probably be more routine and possibly less interesting.
Having said all that, I have a few questions. First, is industrial engineering different enough from the other engineering fields that I'd probably enjoy it even if I'm not a technology enthusiast? Second, if not, would it be safe to say that I shouldn't be in engineering?
Third, what are the main similarities and differences between an actuary and an industrial engineer? I understand that an actuary is more like a statistician and an industrial engineer is more like an operations research analyst, but in terms of the kinds of tasks I'd be doing, and what work would be like on a day-to-day basis, how are actuaries and industrial engineers similar and different?
Thanks again,
~Sean