Choosing an Engineering Field: Job Prospects After Graduation

[Theman88]

There are some people that doesn't get jobs in engineering in my country right after the education. So I was wondering in which engineering(mechanical, electrical, computer etc), is it ok to not have been in the field for a while?, I have heard that some will be outdated at once if they don't get jobs at once. So which kind of engineering doesn't change so mych over the years and which change so much that some years without work will never get you work?

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF, Theman88. I moved your thread to the Career Guidance forum from the General Engineering forum.

I think that the reason for not getting a job in engineering out of school would be an important determiner of whether it was okay or not. For example, if the person wanted to travel the world for a while before settling down in a regular engineering job, I see no harm in that. On the other hand, if they come out of school and are not qualified for entry-level engineering jobs in their field, then they should do something to work to improve their qualifications. They could take a job in a less technical field, but take extra classes or gain some side experience that makes them more qualified for the engineering positions, for example.

As long as one reads the applicable engineering journals and trade magazines, there is little danger of obsolescence in the short term. Computer software is probable the most obsolescence-safe of the fields, because you can program on your own pretty much anywhere and anytime. It's not like you need a multi-million dollar R&D lab setup to write programs.