EE or Civil Eng: Which is Better for Job Prospects?

[RufusDawes]

Hey there's no civil forum so I just wanted to ask.

Whats better EE or civil eng. I'm interested in both pretty much. Only exposure I've really had has been with electrical glossing over a couple of friend notes (not understanding them at all but parts of it look interesting), and civil I get the run down on a few things from a few mates at work. I'm not a (complete) idiot so I know BASICALLY how electronics and electrical works.

I'm 24 already so I kind of want or rather need to get a job when/If I graduate so that's also a consideration. A big consideration. I've got to apply for one stream at TAFE (kind of like an associates degree I guess). I'm from Australia if that helps anyone.

Advantage of civil for me is things like geotech, hydrology and environmental look like fun spin offs.

Yeah I need to get a job if I graduate or I'm going to be pretty screwed so that's a consideration. I understand you can't tell me what will or will not get a job b.c a market has a mind of its own, but there's always insider information.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Well the only thing in common for a EE and Civil besides the early engineering courses, it's the circuits 101 for Civil, which are basic concepts about circuits and their basic design.

EE and Civil aren't very alike.

 

[Manchot]

It's really only something that you can decide. I might suggest going through a listing of courses in both areas and seeing what jumps out at you.

 

[edmondng]

do you want to take ee or civil just to find a job? like which degree has better job prospects?
what do you like, ee or civil? they're 2 entirely different major, 90 degrees out of phase

 

[RufusDawes]

I pretty much just wanted to know if either one has dismal or non existent job prospects.

I'll probably side with electrical. Electrical eng. jobs seem scarce tho, in Australia, I use search engines and don't see many jobs for electrical but many for civil. Just trying to get as much info as possible.

 

[edmondng]

its better if you get into something you like, not because there is more job in ee/civil or you make more money.

if you do it because you want a job or money, then you will find that you may be doing something you do not like, and be unproductive. Its no different than research or pursuing a further degree. People become good at what they do because they love doing it, and continue to learn,understand and be good at it.

And EE has lots of areas of concentration. antenna,wireless,dsp,embedded,fpga,controls,power system,computer network,
then there is the research part. This are just some areas. Are you interested in stuff like this? Job prospects are always there, depending location and field of expertise.

Hope this helps

 

[RufusDawes]

yeah it does thanks

 

[mgb_phys]

EEng - you are going to be working as a wage slave in a large company.

Civil - more likely to be working on boring highway projects than the stuff you see on discovery channel but reliable constant work, mostly for local government types.
Easier to setup your own one man business, lots of work for civils doing surveys, signing off on new construction etc as a consultant.
Especially in OZ where you need to be a certified engineer to change a light bulb.

In Oz mining engineer will make you a fortune right now. But the mining business is very cyclical, at the moment you can't hire enough people with record coal/oil/mineral prices but it can bust as well.

 

[rbj]

depends on if you like circuits or sewers. either can be pretty uckky.

 

[mgb_phys]

depends on if you like circuits or sewers. either can be pretty uckky.

Software engineer is worse - at least in sewers you get big rubber boots before having to wade through s**t.

 

[rbj]

Software engineer is worse - at least in sewers you get big rubber boots before having to wade through sh1t.

most EE's that i know of (that are worth their salt) have to do some software engineering (even if they be hardware engineers, even analog EEs) and get to wade through excrement. if they're crappy (or, as Steve Jobs would put it: "they have no taste") they will create more excrement as they wade through. if they're decent, they will reduce the quantity of excrement in the code.

 

[RufusDawes]

Are there opportunities to work overseas in either civil or electrical ?

 

[rbj]

Are there opportunities to work overseas in either civil or electrical ?

overseas from where? i would not assume this PF to be Amerocentric, so i don't know if "overseas" means "there" (from my POV) or "here" (from my POV).

it shouldn't matter though. what does matter is if the country you have in mind (wherever "overseas" it is) has a sufficient industrial base and a sufficient infrastructure. any decently modern urban place needs civil engineers to support the infrastructure. but that doesn't necessarily mean that there is a sufficient industrial base inside or surrounding these urban areas (with functioning roads, water, sewer, electric power) to create much of a demand for electrical engineers. some EEs are needed to support the electric power infrastructure, but it seems to me that the satistical bias would favor civil engineers which are needed in a reasonably modern city whether it has a closely associated industrial base or not. (but it's sort of hard to understand how a decently modern city can become such without a reasonably modern industrial base cranking out the widgets and bringing in the resources necessary to build the infrastructure of the decently modern city.)

 

[Pyrrhus]

Rufus, did you finish an undergrad already?? what is this about overseas? have you even started college yet? you are worrying too much...

 

[RufusDawes]

I don't want to go overseas but it gives me a good perspective about the relative demand of a profession. If the profession is dying there is not going to be much of interesting work to do is there ?

You're right I worry too much. I'll think about other things now.