Mechanical vs. Civil engineering

[nate104]

Hi everyone. I am a sophmore studying to get a bs in mechanical engineering. I am thinking about switching to civil engineering, and I need some suggestions about what degree to persue. First off, I do not care much about salaries because I know either way I will be making more than enough money. There are two major things that I do care about.
First, I want to be able to travel / live around the world working as an engineer. Would both degrees give me good opportunities to get international jobs?
Second, I care about having a job that is fun and that I enjoy. I am concerned that if I stay with mechanical engineering I will get stuck behind a desk all day doing mathematical analysis. I know I need to learn this stuff, and I dont mind it, but I would rather do something more interactive and creative. Also, by the way a lot of my teachers talk, it makes mechanical engineering seem like its mostly about power plants, refrigeration system, motors etc. Im not really into that stuff. I know there are lots of job opportunities, but will I be able to find a fun, active job if I stay with mechanical?

[kote]

Hi everyone. I am a sophmore studying to get a bs in mechanical engineering. I am thinking about switching to civil engineering, and I need some suggestions about what degree to persue. First off, I do not care much about salaries because I know either way I will be making more than enough money. There are two major things that I do care about.
First, I want to be able to travel / live around the world working as an engineer. Would both degrees give me good opportunities to get international jobs?
Second, I care about having a job that is fun and that I enjoy. I am concerned that if I stay with mechanical engineering I will get stuck behind a desk all day doing mathematical analysis. I know I need to learn this stuff, and I dont mind it, but I would rather do something more interactive and creative. Also, by the way a lot of my teachers talk, it makes mechanical engineering seem like its mostly about power plants, refrigeration system, motors etc. Im not really into that stuff. I know there are lots of job opportunities, but will I be able to find a fun, active job if I stay with mechanical?

There are plenty of jobs you can get with a mechanical engineering degree that do not involve CAD. Mechanical engineering can open doors in management, consulting, even finance, etc. With a civil engineering degree it is harder to get into one of these related fields (or to change fields later on). I recommend checking out http://www.ge.com/careers/students/omlp/index.html as one example of what you can do.

Notice the degree required though:

Degree in Engineering; Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Chemical Engineering degrees are preferred

Civil is not as well respected for more general business roles. You may enjoy civil - I can't speak much about the lifestyle of civil engineers. Civil does seem more limiting in business than mechanical engineering though.

Edit: I'll mention also that all of the people I know in GE's Commercial Leadership Program (sales) have mechanical engineering degrees as well.

[JD88]

The nice thing about mechanical engineering is that it is so broad. Sure you can work on power plants, refrigeration and motors but you can also work on aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, boats, various instruments, consulting, product design, alternative energy...the list goes on.

What are you interested in working on? Whatever job you end up getting it should probably not be just based on the travel opportunities.

[nate104]

The nice thing about mechanical engineering is that it is so broad. Sure you can work on power plants, refrigeration and motors but you can also work on aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, boats, various instruments, consulting, product design, alternative energy...the list goes on.

What are you interested in working on? Whatever job you end up getting it should probably not be just based on the travel opportunities.


I am interested in a lot of things like mountain bikes, cars, motorcycles. If I mechanical engineering I basically would want a job where I either come up with designs/improvements, do testing, or work hands on with something. I dont really care if it is something "high tech" or "prestigous" like spacecraft or anything. Having a job that I like is my first priority, and travel opportunities is second. I was thinkging there are both lots of american companys that do engineering work internationally, as well as companys that are strictly in a different country. Is this correct?

[physicsnoob93]

My father is working as a mechanical engineer for one of the supermajor oil companies.

If you're 40something and you're still doing mathematical analysis behind a desk, chances are that you haven't progressed a lot wherever you work. Usually you'll go up to manage people more than numbers.

Again, this depends on your own personal preferences and what you like to do.

Also, comparing travel opportunities at this stage is pretty useless. There are too many things to consider then. Which company you're working for, what project you're doing etc etc. A civil engineer could keep traveling to different places every few months while a mechanical engineer stays put or a civil engineer could never move while a mechanical engineer travels the world.

You should also understand that learning about power plants etc. etc. is not what you'll do in the real world. Such things are just for a preparation, but what you do when you get a job is very different.

[ddelaiarro]

nate - I'm 30 years old and began school as a civil engineering. I jumped over to mechanical engineering for a lot of reasons that aren't really relevant to your situation. I can tell you the following things:

- As a ME, I've been able to work on a lot of cool things (RF medical equipment, ion beam etch/deposition equipment, energy conservation implementation, ruggedized military communication equipment). Some was high tech, some wasn't. None of what I've worked on has been power plant or refrigeration system related. I have done work with motors (not designing them, but using them).

- I've built, with my own two hands, the prototypes of everything I've designed. It's the best part of my job.

- I've travelled a lot - both domestically and internationally - doing installs, upgrades, and sales support. If I had wanted it, I would have been given the chance to travel more as a Field Support Engineer.

- I don't do CAD work or analysis all day long - but knowing these concepts helps me perform my job and make good decisions

- My buddies who stayed with Civil Engineering like their jobs - they work outside a lot - but are paid significantly less than me (I know you said pay wasn't an issue, but it might be later in life when a family and/or kids come into the picture). The don't travel as much as I do either.

- I've been able to move into a Program Mgmt role as an ME. My Civil Eng friends don't have a lot of movement as most of them work for municipalities or for smaller environmental-related companies.

To me, and this is just off the cuff, you might be well suited for an applications engineer position doing pre- and post-sale support work. It's engineering work, but you get away from the desk/computer a lot, you travel (how much depends on the company and product) and you're not a traditional engineer.

Personally, I'd say stay with ME, but, then again, I'm biased based upon my background ;)

Good luck!

[Major_Energy]

Hey Nate,

I have a B.S. CE but with more management emphasis. I worked mainly as a construction project manager (until the war and Ive been doing proj management for that for the last 10 years).

As Ddelaiarro has said and I agree ME is much more broad than CE.

I went the "Project Management" route more than say the 'Structural Route' Think of the structural engineers as folks who are more the number crunchers. Munincipal Civil Engineers (if the munincipality actually has that position - some contract it out nowadays) do both, they design things in-house and manage the project.

Being a project manager or a project engineer for civil projects you can travel quite a bit. For example just as an intern I was a project manager for building a number of truck and railroad scales in several different states for one contract. In industry I did infrastructure improvements like business parks, water and sanitary systems, and a water tower. The unique thing on the project manager route is you start doing some pretty big projects right from college, (I managed the water tower project 4 years after college).

On the extreme end, you could work for a large company and be in charge of say - project delivery of a professional football stadium after about 10-15 years after building up your project portfolio. You travel from big project to big project every few years. There is all sorts of stuff in between too. Project Manager (PM) for say oil platforms and travel the world, etc. Lots of niche markets.

What is fun? Only you can figure that out, and it may change over time. I thought travelling alot was fun too till my late 20's, now I don't like it as much, (I would travel ALOT tho, like home maybe 4-5 days per month).

The neat thing is that your projects are generally huge / landmarks, and knowing every little thing that went on from the first prelim idea to all the crazy things that went on while it was being built. Even if they are small it is very rewarding. I still see the truck scales I did back when I was an intern while driving, the water tower (its still standing!) etc.

One thing on creativity - maybe a hair less than ME, as for building construction generally an architect "designs" the thing and as the PM you have to figure out how to make all those good ideas stand without falling down.

Money is better being a PM too, but that is typical for management / managing people resources.

[kote]

Just an FYI - MEs also do field / project engineering and construction / project or operations management. It's certainly more of a standard path for CEs, and consulting type engineering firms will usually prefer CEs. I'm an ME in operations management now with friends in construction. There is also a clear path here for me if I want to get into project management on power plant construction.

Good post; the construction / manufacturing management side of things doesn't get enough attention :smile:.

[ddelaiarro]

I agree with everything Major Energy and kote said.

ME definitely hit the nail on the head w/regards to what CE can be. I think I missed out a lot of that because my school's CE program concentrated more on environmental engineering and not the structural end of things.

kote is right too - I have A LOT of college friends in the nuclear power plant world right now. Definitely much different than the route I took.

[stewartcs]

Hi everyone. I am a sophmore studying to get a bs in mechanical engineering. I am thinking about switching to civil engineering, and I need some suggestions about what degree to persue. First off, I do not care much about salaries because I know either way I will be making more than enough money. There are two major things that I do care about.
First, I want to be able to travel / live around the world working as an engineer. Would both degrees give me good opportunities to get international jobs?
Second, I care about having a job that is fun and that I enjoy. I am concerned that if I stay with mechanical engineering I will get stuck behind a desk all day doing mathematical analysis. I know I need to learn this stuff, and I dont mind it, but I would rather do something more interactive and creative. Also, by the way a lot of my teachers talk, it makes mechanical engineering seem like its mostly about power plants, refrigeration system, motors etc. Im not really into that stuff. I know there are lots of job opportunities, but will I be able to find a fun, active job if I stay with mechanical?

I'd say an ME is more versatile than a CE.

You can certainly work in areas outside of power plants and refrigeration...It just depends on your interests and willingness to do research.

Based on my personal work experience, I've found it more common that ME's travel abroad over a CE. Note: I've worked in the offshore oil and gas business most of my professional career and travel is basically mandatory at some point (and we prefer ME's over CE's).

Just my 2 cents...

CS