At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It’s a noble profession – Queen Elizabeth II.
If you are at a crossroads, trying to decide whether to go for engineering or medical or arts and which field will suit you best, we will suggest you find your interest. However, if you are genuinely interested in engineering as your career, then this article will help you understand the best and not so best features of engineering life.
Someone once said that “to the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.” An engineer is a designer who understands math and can optimize everything associated with the design. Engineering has always been a respected field. All the tangible progress in the world is a marvel of engineering.
A scientist and engineer are different because an engineer translates a lab work at the practical/ commercial scale while scientist tries to unravel hidden mysteries in their labs. An engineer is a bridge from lab to the practical world.
So, if you want to weigh out your options before choosing a specific career in engineering, this article will help you understand what to expect in different engineering fields.
Engineering has evolved a lot since the formal inception of the subject. Currently, there are multiple engineering disciplines. Here is the list of popular engineering courses that a student can adopt.
- Civil Engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Mechatronics Engineering
- Electronics Engineering
- Software Engineering
- Petroleum Engineering
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Civil Engineering
Civil Engineering is one of the most widely known branches of engineering. Most people will consider you a civil engineer if you do not specify the engineering branch you are associated with. Civil engineering span back to the early days of human civilization. It concerns with designing, planning and constructing buildings as well as other infrastructure. Civil engineers never get out of fashion as new research topics, innovations and artificial intelligence-based designing abilities keeps evolving with time.
There are several civil engineering branches like transportation engineering, dam engineering, urban planning and engineering etc. Civil engineering involves a lot of planning, designing, mathematics and site work. If you are interested in exciting an on-site life of building something, then opting civil engineering is not a wrong career choice.
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Mechanical Engineering
It is one of the most diverse and versatile fields of engineering. Mechanical engineers develop technologies to assist humans in their tasks. As a mechanical engineer, you will be responsible for designing, manufacturing, operating and testing machines.
According to Wikipedia, “Mechanical engineering is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems.”
It is an exciting field as a career choice as you will get a chance to work with the latest technology. Automobile engineering, Aeronautical engineering, Mechanics, and Biomechanics are notable sub-disciplines of mechanical engineering.
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Electrical Engineering
As the name indicates this branch of engineering is all about electricity. Electrical engineers are concerned with the study, design and application of electricity-producing equipment and electricity distribution systems. Electrical engineering is a highly sophisticated field with tremendous scope.
Electrical engineers can opt for various sub-disciplines as they grow in power engineering, design engineering, systems engineering and telecommunications etc. Computer engineering has also emerged as a sub-branch of electrical engineering.
If you have a keen interest in how electricity works, then go for electrical engineering. There are multiple research areas where you can substantially impact supercomputers, radiofrequency, and signal processing.
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Chemical Engineering
This subject is an amalgam of engineering principles, practices and chemistry. Chemical engineers are multitalented engineers who design and deploy plans to convert raw materials to useful products in a commercially viable manner. Chemical engineering is a relatively young branch compared to the other three traditional branches of engineering, but it has a significant impact on global GDP.
Chemical manufacturing is an exciting prospect, and translating the lab-scale projects to gigantic commercial projects is a chemical engineer’s trade.
As a chemical engineer, you will be combining mathematics, engineering and chemistry to design new chemical manufacturing facilities. Several sub-disciplines like biochemical engineering, gas engineering, polymer engineering, and petrochemical engineering can specialize.
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Electronics Engineering
Electronics can be termed as a subbranch of electrical engineering, but leading global universities offer it as a separate course due to the extensive syllabus of the subject.
Electronics engineers design and develop communication systems and electronic equipment like routers, mobile phones, processor chips and a lot more other microelectronics devices.
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Software Engineering
Software engineering is related to computing discipline. As we can see by the name, you can learn about the development, design, and maintenance of software in software engineering.
If you are eager to learn computer programming and coding, then software engineering is the one for you. You will get to study the basics to pro of the computing, learning different languages and coding. You can develop games, app and sites.
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Mechatronics Engineering
According to Wikipedia:
”Mechatronics engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the engineering of electronic, electrical and mechanical engineering systems. It also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, computer, telecommunications, systems, control, and product engineering.”
Mechatronics deals with all the engineering branches as the technology are advancing day by day, and more and more businesses are continuing towards robotics and intelligence systems. Field of mechatronics is comparably challenging than the other engineerings due to all the subfields.
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Petroleum Engineering
Petroleum engineering is concerned with the design and developments of extracting oil and gas. Petroleum engineering is a highly specialized job. Petroleum engineers extract hydrocarbons from oil shale.
Pros and Cons
Pros
You can get highly paid engineering jobs.
Engineers get to work with the latest technologies.
Engineering provides you with a wide range of job opportunities in other fields too.
Engineers enjoy a good social status in society. They are considered builders, innovators and developers who enhance the lifestyles of community around them.
Cons
These discussed below can’t be considered cons but are some hardships that every student has to go through during their life as an engineer.
Engineering requires a lot of hard work as the subjects are tough. Engineers need to study a lot.
As an engineer, your learning phase will continue throughout your life, as you will have to stay updated with the latest technology, which will require significant effort.
Engineering sites are often located away from the cities and mostly in off-grid areas, so, be prepared for that.
Engineers need to work a lot if their job demands them.