How did you choose your engineering discipline?

[dangish]

Hello everyone,

I am a third year University student in Canada. I have ventured into the field of Engineering at my university, and time to pick a discipline is getting near. My university offers the following disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Process and Ocean & Naval.

Can anyone (preferably an Engineer) offer some advice as to how you went about picking a certain discpline? Maybe list some things you thought would interest you in a specific field when you were picking your disciplin, and if they still interest you.

 

[Shaun_W]

I am not an engineer, although I am an engineering student (mechanical).

I go picked mechanical because ... well, it was a bit random. After having been exposed to both mechanical and electrical material I knew that I'd much prefer mechanical. I have no chemistry background whatsoever so chemical or process engineering was out of the question. Civil didn't appeal to me because there's a high chance that I'd have a very boring job maintaining roads when I graduate. My university doesn't do aeronautical/aerospace, but if it did, I still wouldn't have chosen it since because I'm not that interested in aerodynamics.

The kind of jobs that mechanical engineers do around here greatly interested me. Things such as drilling, rig design, pipeline design, wellhead design, etc.

 

[AlephZero]

Civil Mechanical and Electrical are big, generalist disciplines. With a solid qualification in one of those you (especially Mech or Elec) you can work in pretty much any specialized field of engineering. Every engineering project has some mechanical content, and most big projects have some electrical content as well.

The others that you list are more specialized. If one of those is an area that you know you want to work in, then go ahead with that course. Otherwise, I would recommend you keep your options more open.