Engineering Employment Prospects for Engineering?

[CAC1001]

So I would like to major in engineering, but what I am wondering about is, does anyone know what the employment prospects are for engineers right now? I've been doing some Googling, and the only views I keep seeing are that either the prospects are great, or that you have to be nuts to major in engineering today because they are so terrible. The engineering field I would like to study is computer engineering, and on this it's the same, some say the prospects are great, others say FORGET IT. I keep reading people saying things like, "I graduated from a top-10 university with a 3.8 GPA, but thousands of resumes sent out and still no interview..." and so forth. Anyone on here have personal experience with this subject?

 

[tygerdawg]

I've been telling this to younger folks for years:

Surviving an engineering curriculum is a transformative event that deconstructs whatever it was that you were, and turns you into a trained problem solver. Companies ALWAYS will need trained problem solvers. Will you become rich? Most likely NOT. Will your work experience have its ups & downs? Probably so. Will it provide sufficient emotonal & intellectual thrills, steady employment, and satisfaction? Yes and no, that stuff depends mostly on you.

After 30+ years of an engineering career, I cannot imagine doing much of anything else. If you want to gage the pulse of industry's demand of engineering, then I'd stay away from Google and research any of the other 100 online resources that will give you better insight. Mostly, though, the need for new engineering graduates fluctuates with the economy. After all, unless a company is growing, they usually don't have many of those PROBLEMS to solve.

 

[CAC1001]

Thankyou for the information. If you don't mind my asking, what kind of engineer were you? (electrical, mechanical, etc...?)

 

[lax1113]

Alot of what engineers do is reduce costs and increase production (which reduces costs) Although like tyger said, its not always easy in a down economy its much better off than most other disciplines, because when companies cut costs, engineers almost always have a hand in it, other than when it is just straight up lay offs.