I apologize Rufus, I didn't mean to have the 'just get into finance' attitude. I mentioned finance as an example of other non-engineering professions that could possibly benefit from the skills of engineers.
You made a good comment by saying:
RufusDawes said:
My friends who have graduated from mechanical engineering walk into jobs that either cannot be filled, or walk into a position where there are only 20 applicants.
I believe this is an exception. A major issue in engineering is that, typically, the percentage of fresh graduates (ie. 20-24) is less than 5% of the overall workforce. This tells us that engineering is based on experience more than education. Infact, technicians (ie 2 years college) with a sufficient number of years could occupy engineering positions.
As a side note (since this is not the main point of my post), the skills of engineers do matter when it comes to finance, accounting, management or other related fields. I would summarize my argument in the following short list:
Vikram Pandit - CEO of Citigroup
BS Electrical Engineering, Columbia University (1976)
MS Electrical Engineering, Columbia University (1977)
PhD Finance, Columbia Business School (1986)
John Thain - CEO of Merrill Lynch
BS Electrical Engineering, MIT (1977)
MBA, Harvard Business School (1979)
Ralph Shrader - CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton
BS Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
MS Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois
PhD Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois