We’ve all struggled with choosing a career path. We get it: it’s not an easy process and it takes time, research, and a lot of energy to decide what you want to do with your future. At 18 years old, you are making a decision that will affect the rest of your life.
But Immerse Education is here to help. We have worked with many students who have been in your position. We have learned about their fears, their drive, their passions, and their challenges. We have listened and guided them and today we can proudly say that most of them are enjoying the benefits of a successful career.
Reading someone else’s story can help you find a sense of connection and a path to success.
Take the story of Cloe. She came to us not knowing exactly what career she wanted to pursue. She enrolled in our Summer Engineering Program to learn more about the field, the challenges it presents, the technical skills she needed to develop, and the different areas of work. She wanted to understand if this was where her passion lay. A few weeks later, she decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at Northeastern University. She is currently working at a cell therapy company on the genome engineering team using CRISPR gene editing for stem cells.
Through these lines, we want to help you understand what engineering is all about. Why people choose this career, the challenges they face and the impact it has on the world we live in. Read on to learn more about this fascinating career option.
Why Choose Engineering: The Drive for Innovation
Talking to different engineers helped us understand that they all had different reasons for getting into the field. Some of them say they realized this was their passion early on in their teenage years. They were fascinated by their labs and activities in STEM classes. Others have always enjoyed finding solutions to complex, real-world problems and chose engineering as a way to satisfy that need and help society. And some have always been driven by curiosity to find answers to life’s big questions.
Whatever your reasons, please note that this is a field with:
- Great earning potential: While salary shouldn’t be the main reason for choosing a degree option, it’s always good to know that this is a lucrative career that comes with many job opportunities around the world. The average salary for an engineer in the United Kingdom is £38,502 per year or £19.74 per hour. As an entry-level professional, you can expect to earn an annual salary of £31,500, a figure that will continue to rise as you add more experience to your profile.
- Limitless career opportunities: We live in a time where technology is changing the way we do business, the way we communicate, and the way we live our daily lives. As we continue to develop new technologies and infrastructure, the need for engineers will continue to grow. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will be 140,000 new jobs for engineers between 2016 and 2026.
- High job satisfaction: When choosing a career, it’s important to go for one that helps you take pride in what you do. This will help you wake up every day with the best attitude to tackle the tasks and achieve the goals you have set. After all, you will spend at least 20 years in this field, working more than 8 hours a day, five days a week.
- Potential to help society: Engineering allows you to work on projects that have a positive impact on the world we live in. Projects that can help reduce pollution, create environmentally friendly solutions, find new sources of alternative energy, solve or reduce world hunger, or even create new prosthetic devices that make life easier for people in need.
Take a moment and soak it all in… Engineering is a field that has so much to give, but where passion, technical skills, and lifelong learning are the keys to success. There will be challenges along the way, but it’s also a path with many opportunities for success and the satisfaction of doing something that matters. Otherwise, it would not be the most common undergraduate degree among Fortune 500 CEOs.
Technical Skills that Will Come In Handy
As with any career, some technical skills will come in handy while you are studying, but especially when you start sending out your resume to potential employers and trying to land your first job in the field.
While books, classes, tutors, and training are important to help you gain the knowledge you need to succeed, it’s also well known that mastering certain technical skills is essential to stand out from the crowd and catch an employer’s attention. If you have a particular interest in areas such as technology, coding, project management, robotics, or even design, you may want to consider becoming an engineer. After all, this is a field that offers many different career paths to satisfy your need for innovation.
Today, hiring managers are looking to expand their staffs with people who have a complete understanding of engineering and technology. That said, here are a few technical skills you could expect to be putting to use regularly during a career in engineering.
Coding
At first, you might think that this skill would only be useful for a software engineer, but nothing could be further from the truth. Learning a programming language is valuable for anyone who wants to work as an engineer, no matter what field you’re in.
Being able to write and understand code will open the doors to better jobs and salaries because you’ll be able to make everyone’s job easier by
- Automating tasks.
- Analyzing data.
- Developing software solutions.
- Developing models and simulations.
- Performing numerical calculations.
Project Management
Adding project management skills, especially with widely recognized certifications, is essential for anyone looking to have a successful engineering career. But it is necessary for those of you who aspire to become an engineering manager and want to lead teams to success and achieve various business goals.
As you dive deeper into the world of project management, you will begin to have a better and more accurate understanding of concepts such as:
- Planning
- Budgeting and resource management
- Communications
- Leadership
- Risk management
- And more.
Robotics
Yes, you read that right. Having expertise in working with robotics will help you get more job opportunities, a higher pay grade, and make your life easier.
It doesn’t matter if you work in manufacturing or in industries such as food, construction, or transportation. At some point, it will come in handy to have the knowledge to rely on a robot to perform certain tasks and go places that humans can’t.
Data Modeling
In today’s world, we see a widening gap between those engineers who can effectively use data and those who can’t. It is the art of organizing and structuring data for:
- Efficient analysis
- Applications
- Data-driven decision making
- Increase data performance and scalability
- Creating reliable databases
- Communicate data needs
- Improve security and compliance
In fact, most authors would agree that data modeling is no longer a luxury, but a necessity that organizations must meet. So it’s up to you to acquire the skills and concepts you need to successfully demonstrate your ability to analyze data and draw logical conclusions to support decision-making.
Design
As a future engineer, you will most likely need to create or interpret engineering designs and blueprints for various projects. This is a key part of any manufacturing or construction process that requires the proper use of tools such as AutoCAD, AutoDesk SolidWorks, and others. It’s your job to start learning how to use them efficiently and maximize their reach.
Challenges and Triumphs in Engineering School
A career designed to mould students into problem solvers and innovators can’t be an easy road. It comes with a series of challenges that can be surmounted if you have the right mindset, grit, and motivation – and what’s more, the feeling of overcoming a significant obstacle can be exactly what keeps some ambitious engineers in the industry
It’s very common to see engineering students complaining and struggling with the workload, trying to figure out when and how to complete every assignment they get. A smart approach to this challenge is to simply create a study plan and set aside time for each assignment, prioritizing by deadline and importance.
Others struggle with complex math and science concepts. Some students have a hard time understanding them and applying them to real-life scenarios. One way to overcome this is to join study groups, seek additional help, contact tutors, and search online for tutorials or other materials that make it easier to understand the different concepts and theories.
And some experience stress and anxiety with each test and the extensive curriculum being evaluated. While this is something that needs to be handled with care, we suggest that you try different relaxation techniques, seek out tutoring or counselling services, and break down the test content to create a study plan that fits your schedule and eases your learning curve for each assessment.
Of course, not everything during your college years will be a challenge. This career is filled with opportunities for you to shine and triumph. While every student’s experience is different and may vary depending on the speciality you choose, we can say that most of you will experience success if you:
- Develop a meaningful relationship with your tutor or advisor.
- Teach one of your classmates something.
- Get your first job or internship.
- Complete extracurricular courses in areas such as design, coding, business, and communications.
- Earn your Bachelor of Engineering or Master of Engineering degree.
- Adding professional qualifications such as those offered by the Institution of Engineering and Technology or by the Institution of Civil Engineers.
There are many ways to prove to yourself that you are on the right path. But as we said, it takes responsibility, grit, passion, dedication, and long hours of study to succeed on this path. And please don’t let the challenges we’ve mentioned get in your way, remember that knowledge is power, and knowing this ahead of time will help you be prepared and have a road map to overcome obstacles and lead you to your ultimate goal: becoming an engineer.
Engineering Specialities: Something for Everyone
The world of engineering is a big one. There are many different paths and options that will lead you to a variety of roles in different industries, which can make the reasons engineers choose their career path difficult to pinpoint. While they all have certain things in common, such as some form of problem-solving, it’s not easy to narrow down your options.
At Immerse Education, we believe it’s important for you to understand what each discipline entails. This will help you make a more informed decision and choose one that’s in line with your interests and skills.
Below is a list of some of the more common branches of the engineering field. We encourage you to do in-depth research on the ones that appeal to you the most. In the end, it will be easier to stay motivated throughout the years of university if you are involved and find interesting the subjects that qualify you to earn your degree.
- Aerospace or Aeronautical Engineering: As a student in this field you will learn how to design, build, and test an aircraft, as well as the science and technology responsible for improving aircraft and their function. People tend to choose this field when they are passionate about new communication technologies, defense manufacturing, and flight technology.
- Biomedical Engineering: Individuals in this field typically create advances in the healthcare industry to help diagnose and better treat patients. They work in the development of medical devices, equipment, and software. Students who choose this field want to help improve human health through engineering principles and methods.
- Chemical Engineering: Students will spend time understanding how to apply chemical processes to create products, substances, and materials useful for a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, food production, and petrochemicals. It’s common to see students attracted to this field as a way to develop new products to fullfill everyday needs.
- Civil Engineering: Professionals in this field focus on the design, construction, and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, buildings, and more. Their duties include researching the viability of a project and its impact on the surrounding area, and they are usually attracted to the field because it allows them to support society through new infrastructure.
- Computer Engineering: As a student in this field, you will learn to design, test, and refine computers (software and hardware). Note that there are subspecializations that focus on key areas such as computer architecture, security, and network engineering, allowing you to become a true expert in a cutting edge field.
- Electrical or Electronic Engineering: Professionals in these fields focus on the application of electrical energy to both large-scale projects (such as power supplies) and smaller electronic circuits (computers, networks, etc.). They tend to be people passionate about improving the devices and systems we use on a daily basis.
- Engineering Management: A field that has grown in popularity in recent years as the demand for management-oriented engineers has increased. It combines industrial engineering skills with business expertise, allowing you to oversee the development, manufacture, marketing, and distribution of products for various types of industries.
- Environmental Engineering: Students passionate about ecological issues in this area learn how to use engineering concepts to solve various environmental problems (air, water, land).
- Manufacturing Engineering: Individuals in this field are dedicated to developing and improving manufacturing processes, systems, and machinery. Their goal is to find ways to improve product design, assembly line processes, and quality control activities.
- Mechanical Engineering: As a student in this area, you will learn to design, build, and maintain mechanical systems and equipment. And you have the opportunity to specialize in developing technologies that help various industries improve their performance.
- Systems Engineering: Lastly systems engineering is all about putting in place scientific, technological, and mechanical concepts to design systems and carry out different tasks.
As you can see the field of engineering is quite extensive. There are many different branches for you to choose from. So take your time before you make a final decision, do some research, talk to professionals, and find your passion.
How Technology is Shaping the World of Engineering
There is a long relationship between technology and engineering. Most of the advances we’ve seen in systems, software, and devices have been driven by engineers and their need to solve complex problems and create innovative solutions. At the same time, technology has allowed engineers to build structures and machines that were once thought impossible.
Think back to The Jetsons… Years ago, this cartoon showed us videoconferencing, robots, flying cars, virtual assistants, and more. Back then, we thought they were crazy to have all this technology surrounding their daily lives. Now look at yourself. You’re probably wearing a smartwatch, you’ve got your smartphone next to you on your desk, and you’ve asked Alexa to play some music in the background.
Technology is here to stay, and if this excites you, a career in engineering could allow you to embrace it to maximize the capabilities of any system, software, or device.
Engineering Done Right: Projects with a Positive Social Impact
We couldn’t end this blog post without sharing stories of engineers who have made a positive impact on our world. The goal is to help you understand that no matter where you work, you can make a difference. Our goal is to help educate students who make us proud with various projects, but especially those who leave a positive mark.
When we take a look back we see that Ellen Swallow Richards was not only the first woman to attend and graduate from MIT, but she is best known for her pioneering work in the field of sanitation. Throughout her life, she made important contributions to the understanding of environmental systems and is credited with developing the first water quality standards in the United States.
Deb Niemeir is an American transportation engineer dedicated to measuring vehicle emissions and their impact on neighborhood air quality and the effect of carbon dioxide on climate change.
In Bali we find that Mia Krisna Pratiwi “developed a computer application to improve the collection, processing, and recycling of municipal waste on the island,” her efforts leading her to be listed as one of the BBC’s 100 Women.
Becoming an engineer allows you to do something that has a positive impact on the world. Recently, we read all over the news that the famous influencer Mr. Beast built 100 wells in Africa to provide clean drinking water to up to 500,000 people in 5 countries. Despite all the drama surrounding this, the fact is that it wouldn’t have been possible without the knowledge, skills, and know-how of a group of engineers.
Final Thoughts
Deciding how to spend your next 3 or 4 years is not easy. You are making a decision that will have a direct impact on what you will do, hopefully for the rest of your professional life. Our suggestion, after helping many teens through this process, is to take it seriously, invest the time and resources to make a more informed decision and plan out what you want to do with your next few years.
If engineering is the answer, congratulations. You are entering a field that is not only highly competitive but also allows you to make a lot of money and have a positive impact on the world.
And remember, most Fortune 500 CEOs began their success by studying one of the many branches of engineering.
Enhance your engineering knowledge by enrolling in an engineering summer school today.
