Deciding between Mechanical or Electrical engineering

[Robett]

Hello, I'm majoring in physics at the end of the year but I'm more interested in engineering now. The thing is that I could start taking Mechanical engineering classes now and obtaining the degree in two years from now (without obtaining the major in physics), or I could finish the physics major this year and later get a degree in Electrical engineering in three years from now.
My problem is that I don't know which one is the better choice since I like both, so I'd be glad if you could tell me about your current job as a Mechanical engineering or as an Electrical engineering. I'd like to know what do you exactly do on a regular day. I'm also interested in programming and my marks are pretty well for now if that helps. The job prospects after graduation are important for me too.

Thanks.

[Sylvestre]

Both are very employable fields, and it's not as much of a silo as you may think, e.g. our office has mech, elec and civil all doing the same work. It's more about what you want to do and what best suits you. See what type of jobs you enjoy and you'll quickly see which discipline is most employed in the career path.

[Robett]

But what would you do in my situation? Don't Electrical engineers find it difficult to find a job now?.
Also I'd like to hear aobut every Mechanical or Electrical engineering.

Thanks.

[Mark77]

Massive glut in Electrical / Computer Engineering right now (although less so in pure Electrical). So much so that many people in the field don't even receive the basics of professionalism from employers when they submit job applications, with scant new grad hiring.

You might get lucky though in a few years, if you can get an internship or two.

My personal experience in Electrical-Computer Engineering / Computer Science is that the past decade has been characterized by employers aiming quite low on the talent pool. Instead of hiring the top of the class (not only academically, but in terms of social skills, etc.), the employers have been most interested in hiring people whom they deem to be willing to work for cheap, and who will probably remain with an employer indefinitely. Bright guys with lots of ideas aren't in huge demand compared to drones who can churn lots of relatively routine stuff out.

Much of this attitude arose out of the severe problems encountered in the 1990s when firms' engineers were basically strip-mined by the exciting technology sector (that paid 2-3X as much). Also the work that's being done today in EE really doesn't require the highest end skills. Running power system simulations is a heck of a lot easier than doing computer chip design or embedded software development. Even the 'computer' related jobs are, in many ways, a lot easier. Embedded Linux that runs on cheap micros basically makes developing embedded systems that can communicate over networks trivially easy compared to previous methods.

[Mark77]

p.s. if you want some evidence of the job market, I would encourage you to take a look at this website:

http://apegga-resumereferral.org/

There are job postings from various Alberta engineering employers on there. One thing I noticed is that after a week or two, typically a job in Electrical/Mechanical/Civil will be viewed 70-120 times. However, when you look at Controls/Computer/Electronics Engineering-type jobs, one that I brought up had almost 400 views in just a week or two.

What does that tell me, anecdotally? There's a heck of a lot of unemployed or underemployed people in the Electrical/Computer/Controls area trying to find jobs, if they're viewing a single job posting in the Controls Engineering field 3-4X as much as they would view a typical MechE/Civil or even "Power" EE job.

[mork]

Assuming you are young, don't let the 1 extra year be a point in your decision. life is long and there's no rush.

I agree that one thing that is particularly true in engineering is that you are somewhat "mobile" - I've done both mechanical and electrical engineering tasks in my career as well and know many working outside the scope of their discipline. As for job prospects, I'd say mechanical engineering lends itself to more opportunity at this particular moment. My direct experience tells me that right now in the resource/oil/mining/etc industries, both are in high demand, but mechanical opportunities probably outstrip electrical 2-to-1 (note: this shouldn't matter to you if those are sectors you have no interest in ever joining.. it could be totally different in your preferred industry).

[Truemana]

Leave it to Mark77 to plant a seed in young minds early that their career is doomed to fail like his.

[EFSF Jaburo]

p.s. if you want some evidence of the job market, I would encourage you to take a look at this website:

http://apegga-resumereferral.org/

That is a great website for a new civil grad looking for jobs, thanks Mark!!

[DrXenon]

Electrical is a contrarian choice right now. Our HR department complains that new grad electricals are thin on the ground, mainly because the enrolment at the local university is about 30% of what it was in 1998. I do not think this has translated into higher salaries though because they seem to eventually get new grads for $50k, which rises to $70-80k after 4 years' experience.

Eventually, things have to improve for electricals, and who knows maybe that will be in 4 years when you graduate. Hard to predict.

My observation is that electricals know less about mechanical than mechanicals know about electrical. If I had the chance to start over, I would definitely consider mechanical.

[Mark77]

Leave it to Mark77 to plant a seed in young minds early that their career is doomed to fail like his.

Keep thinking you're a major success even though you're still earning less than a typical starting salary 12 years ago in the same field, in some dead-end job.

[Sylvestre]

But what would you do in my situation? Don't Electrical engineers find it difficult to find a job now?.
Also I'd like to hear aobut every Mechanical or Electrical engineering.

Thanks.

We interview both types of engineers and the deciding factor has never come down to what field of engineering. There may be some jobs you'll naturally gravitate towards based on your field, but getting a job is about who you are, your personality, your ambition & work ethic, and your skills. A degree doesn't guarantee anything, and no degree does not mean no job.

There's a real feeling by far too many people that "if you get some letters after your name - a job will come". That's never been true and isn't likely to become true now.

If you absolutely want to work in a single type of job, you may have a challenge getting it. But if you are willing to relocate, expand your horizons and trying different things, employment is easy.

[Truemana]

Keep thinking you're a major success even though you're still earning less than a typical starting salary 12 years ago in the same field, in some dead-end job.

Quantify the salary you apparently "know". Then we'll compare things that matter, like local cost of living, quality of work, quality of corporate culture, and future international employment prospects. In addition, I can assure you that I make more than your 0 and 10-15% above the provincial median electrical engineer salary.

Further, what salary statistics are you using anyway? By my measurement from the APEGBC Salary Compensation Surveys in 1998 and 2000, if you compare responsibility levels, you're still wrong. Once again, you're making up statistics from an era (that only you recall) in order to justify why you'd never settle for supposedly an "unethically" low salary offered today. It's not standard and never has been. I think you can't get over the fact that you were overpaid and that's why all the firms you worked for are now defunct.

http://www.apeg.bc.ca/services/emplo...mpsurvey98.pdf (page 6)
http://www.apeg.bc.ca/services/emplo...survey2000.pdf (page 1)