Should I Choose Electrical or Civil Engineering Despite Job Market Trends?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the decision-making process for choosing between Electrical Engineering (EE) and Civil Engineering (CE), with considerations of job market trends, personal interests, and the nature of the fields. Participants explore the implications of their choices in the context of future employment and personal satisfaction.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a strong interest in EE but is concerned about job market trends, citing their professor's advice that CE has better employment prospects.
  • Another participant argues that pursuing one's interests is crucial for long-term job satisfaction, highlighting the broad applications of EE in fields like biomedical engineering.
  • A question is raised about the overlap of topics in EE and CE, specifically regarding control theory and its applications in both fields.
  • Participants discuss the types of jobs available in EE, CE, and Environmental Engineering, with one noting that graduates in any engineering field generally find employment within six months.
  • Concerns are mentioned about the evolving nature of EE, with a participant noting that modern EE may involve more mathematics than physics, which could differ from initial expectations.
  • Another participant shares a perspective that some find EE to be boring, reflecting a broader sentiment about the perception of engineering and science fields.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on which engineering field is superior. There are competing views regarding the importance of job market trends versus personal interest, and differing opinions on the nature of work in EE compared to CE.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty about job security in CE despite its projected demand, and there are unresolved questions about the specific nature of work in each engineering discipline. The discussion includes varying assumptions about the relevance of physics in EE and the evolving nature of engineering education.

Who May Find This Useful

Students considering a career in engineering, particularly those weighing their options between Electrical and Civil Engineering, as well as those interested in job market trends in STEM fields.

1kk
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I'm having a trouble deciding what engineering field should I go. I'm a student in a community college and studying physics right now. I'm fascinated anything that associate with electricity. Although I haven't learned the physics about the electricity yet(but I will learn it next quarter).

Anyway, my professor told me it's not a good idea to major in EE (Electrical Engineering). And he also told me the market for EE student isn't good as CE (Civil Engineering). He also mentioned that the employment growth. The biomedical, environmental, and civil have the biggest growth. And the employment of electrical engineers just grow 2%. Therefore, civil, biomedical, environmental has a very HUGE demand.

Also, I think the stuff that learn in EE change very fast, because technology change fast. Civil seems don't change that fast.

Right now, I would like to go to Electrical engineering, Environmental engineering and Civil engineering. But I like EE the most, follow by Environmental, and Civil. In fact, I don’t really like to build road, airport, and that kind of stuff. This is like a life time decision, what should I do? (Civil for job and money, electrical for interest and dreams) Also, I have to feed my parent after I graduate. Please tell me anything that come up in your mind. I need to make the decision within this month.
BTW, I‘m an international student. If there is any point that you don’t understand, please ask me.
 
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Do what your interested in doing. It's a lot better to have a job that you somewhat enjoy vs. working a job you hate for the next 40-60 years of your life...

Also electrical engineering is quite a broad field which covers a lot of topics. Signals, control theory, analog/digital circuits, solid state electronics, IC's, ASIC's, computer architecture, device fabrication, etc..

A lot of these topics are covered in other engineering fields as well. Most notably is biomedical engineering. There is a large demand for electrical engineers in the biomedical industry because (I would say almost 90%+) of the devices engineered are electrical in nature. There is a HUGE demand for low power consumption devices as well as signals experts for things like MRI devices
 
why are those topics are covered in other engineering?
Can i study those with Civil Engineering?
 
Well sort of.

Control theory does play an interesting part. In terms of electrical engineering control theory figures out how to control electrical signals to accomplish some set goal.

In civil engineering instead of trying to control electrical signals, civil engineerings would be thinking about how to control people/water/sewage among other things. If you want to plan a new road for instance you need to be sure that traffic won't be grid locked (completely stopped) at peak (rush) hours. Things like that.
 
What kind of job can I get, if i had a degree of EE? Also, compare to CE, and Environment Engineering, what kind of work are they really do?
 
Chances are you could still get hired with a degree in any engineering field. I literally don't know a single person that has graduated with an engineering degree and failed to find work after about 6 months after graduation. While electrical engineering jobs are not projected to grow by a lot they are still projected to grow.

I can't really speak a lot about the day of a typical electrical engineer as I'm still a student and most of my work experience is with OLED displays which was more of a physics/chemical perspective.
 
OK. Great Help, thanks. I think i will go EE. :D
 
Electricity/ electromagnetism is a *must* subject in EE, but that doesn't mean EE has strong connection with electricity. Nowadays many fields of EE have to do more with math than physics. So do think carefully about that. It may not look like what you think it is. EE has gone far away from the era of Maxwell and his electromagnetic field theory.

Anyway I still suggest that you should go for what you love to do. A huge demand in the future in CE doesn't guarantee jobs for every CE graduates. But do decide with care.
 
i read some posts in this forum that said EE actually is pretty boring
 
  • #10
Most people find any kind of engineering/science/math boring, and, for the most part, they're right.
 

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