What does an engineer even do?

[mchlmpls]

What does an engineer even do?

So I have a problem that I know has to walk through this forum consistently. Basically, I really enjoy my math and physics classes (current experience: calc1-calc3, classical physics 1 and 2). I also really like designing and building things (go FIRST Robotics!). I chose to major in ME, with the intent to double major with EE and become a designer and builder of intelligent machinery or electro mechanical things in the world around us.

Then my principal talked to me about my love for math and physics and got me convinced that majoring in physics was a good idea, so I changed my major on one of my applications to physics.

So I am now majoring in ME on 2 of my applications, math on 1 application, and physics on the final one. The plan is to double major in ME + EE or math + physics. Problem is, I've since became aware that physics and math majors apparently have bleak career outlooks in terms of both rewarding work (as in, physics and math purely for the sake of physics and math) and apparently it isn't quite as easy to go from physics to engineering as I was told because you don't gain any design ability as a physics student.

I enjoy physics class and math class a LOT (more math than physics) and I am damn good at both (again, more math than physics). I actually started college two years early (not to brag, just to demonstrate my ability). But as I move on to my next college experience as an official undergrad, I feel like I made a really bad decision with my major changes. So tell me, what is the truth to these statements I am reporting? Will I be, as my principal told me, "not actually designing and building, but instead just repeatedly testing the same thing over and over again, leading a boring and monotonous life"? By the same token, if I go physics am I destined to be a low paid professor or an even lower paid physics guy trying to pass for an engineer or, worst yet, a high school teacher?

I am a first generation college student with no one to ask for help accept my apparently incredibly biased teachers and principals. Please help.

 

[sweetpotato]

While there are engineers that primarily test products (Test Engineers) there are engineers that design new products as well (Design Engineers). There are engineers that primarily deal with management issues, engineers that rarely leave their cubicle, and engineers that work outside most of the day. There is a very wide variety of tasks that you can do as an engineer.

That said, no one can decide for you what is fascinating and exciting. Some people love being engineers while others would find it boring.

When I was a freshman, many of my fellow engineering students (including myself) didn't fully understand what engineering was and what engineers do. My suggestion to you would be to look at a sample course of study/class descriptions for an engineering major and figure out if the classes sound interesting to you. If there is a class title that you don't understand (ex. Thermodynamics) then look it up on the internet or in a book and try to figure out what the course is all about.

Here's something to get you started: http://ece.umass.edu/sites/default/files/ece/ee_2013_v02.pdf

This links to a 4-year class schedule for EE majors at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (I chose this one simply because I am from the area).

 

[MATLABdude]

Welcome to PhysicsForums!

I'll begin with a riddle (not to be cheeky, but to be illustrative). When is an engineer not an engineer? When they're an engineer...

My experience (and your mileage may vary) is that there are folks with engineering degrees that do technical work, and those that do less technical work. Those that work for big companies, and those that work for smaller outfits (very few usually start off on their own and freelance as consultants right off the bat). An engineering degree is usually hard work, and after passing the gauntlet, you get to call yourself an engineer (in Canada, you also get an Iron Ring--note that in Canada, you basically need to have an engineering degree to call yourself an engineer--more on this later).

For those that do technical work, there's quite a gamut. For instance: research, design, testing, improvement, troubleshooting, etc. For less technical work, there're jobs in, for instance, project management, sales, documentation, and customer support.

For smaller outfits, you have to wear more hats, and you're usually doing more of a smaller-scale project. For larger outfits, you're usually doing less (in the sense of being more focused, not in terms of the workload) of a bigger project. That's a bit of a generalization, and not always true (smaller firms contract to bigger ones all the time), but again, your mileage will vary.

So given that all these various flavours of engineers get more or less the same background, why do freshly-graduated and newly-hired friends Joe end up in sales, while Amit ends up doing control systems design, and Sue ends up in planning (their friend Jane decided to go to grad school)? In a word, inclination. Okay, and supply and demand: we can't all be designers or project managers, nor are they always in demand--hopefully, the demographics shake out properly and people end up where their talents and inclinations lie, though that's not always the case.

Ultimately, as I seem to more-or-less repeat these days, your experiences, talents, and education are as useful and applicable as you want them to be. Or not. As a corollary, you can use them for what you want to use them for, or not. You may discover that your schmoozing abilities lead to marketing / sales / politics, or that your creativity leads you to R&D (or grad school), or that you actually want to be a Materials Engineer, or that you actually want to be a mathematician or a junior high teacher, or enter the clergy. I have friends from my admission year that decided on those latter three.

You're young (and by the sounds of things, younger than most). Few of us know exactly what we want to be at that point--outside of those singularly-driven individuals, most of us had vague notions, or "knew a little bit", or just thought, "Heck, why not?"--a friend of mine shotgunned admissions to universities across all of Canada, and applied to, variously, commerce, engineering, math, physics, biology and probably a few more I missed. Don't sweat it, and try to steer towards where your passions lie. My dad has a saying, "If you're good at *something* and you're willing to work hard, you'll probably do pretty well for yourself."

That's somewhat of a platitude since there are probably more engineers doing engineer-type-stuff (for whatever it means to those people in question) than physics or math major doing their thing. Nevertheless, they can lead into one another, and if you truly cannot stand one field, you may or may not be able to transfer and leverage your credits into one of the others (again, YMMV--check with your school).


Now a follow-up riddle... When is an engineer an engineer? When they're not an engineer!

Okay, more like when they don't have an engineering degree. In the US, you can do engineering type stuff without having an engineering degree (as you may see in other threads in this forum, particularly of the physicists and to a lesser extent, mathematicians and CS folks). Well, you can do engineering type things in Canada also, as long as you don't call yourself an engineer (irrelevant tangent: there are no MicroSoft Certified "Engineers" in Canada, just unelaborated MCSEs). A few folks here have Physics degrees (of various flavours) and do electronics design or finance. One fellow here has *no* degree (IIRC, but most of a Classics degree), and does ChemE type work in pulp and paper!


So long story short, pick up as much experience as you can, and try to figure out where your strengths are. While you may be first-generation, your high school's guidance councilors may be of assistance in assessing what these are (or your University's career centre--assuming you have one). If you approach your profs and TAs, you can figure out where their friends (with the same undergrad or even Ph.D. or Master's, if you're so inclined) went and at least pick up some more anecdotal evidence as to what your degree may lead into (or not).

Good luck, and hopefully, some more people weigh in with more geographically / sociologically relevant information!