Engineering Firms: Becoming An Engineer

So you have just graduated from high school and are wondering what the next step is for you. Are you going to follow in your parent’s footsteps and head to work in large engineering firms or are you thinking you would like to work more with people in social work? It is important when looking into universities that you ask if it is necessary to declare a major upon entering.

Often time’s students get into school leaning towards a course of study only to learn after the first semester that really working for an engineering firm no longer sounds of interest. If you have already declared a major and the courses that you have taken are specific for that particular degree than you have wasted a semester. It is important to find out ahead of time with the university if this is something that could potentially happen to you.

If possible try to wait to declare a major until you have been in school for a year. In that time take moments to explore career options that exist and focus your course studies on some basic classes that are not major specific. In a recent study that was done on college graduates it was found that fifty percent of them had changed their major course of studies at least once. I did it, I went in for teaching and two years later realized I was far more interested in marketing.

Finding a college that offers the flexibility to change majors is important especially if you are one of the many high school senior graduating with no idea of where you see yourself in the future. Even though many students think it is ideal to follow in the footstep s of older siblings or parents it is important to remember that your career choice will have to make you happy. If in the long run you don’t see yourself working in an office involved in science, technology and math than that engineering firm mom and dad work for is not going to be a perfect for you.

Another thing to contemplate is that many adults graduate with a degree that in actuality is not seeing growth in the career world. What do you do then? It is important that even though you graduate with a degree it does not necessarily limit what you will do in the future. I know many people who have degrees that their current jobs do not even relate to. Employers are looking for a commitment when they hire and train a new employee. The degree you have studied so d for, no matter what it is shows them that commitment.

One way to really find out if something is going to appeal to you is to look in the books that surround that field of study. A good place to do this is at the campus book store. Then take a class that is relevant to the material that sparked your interest. That should give you a look into the field and a taste of careers within it. Talk with professors; they are a wide source of knowledge on career opportunities that follow all different routes of study.

One thing I ask you not to do when looking into a field of study at college is to look at the pay scale for it. It would be awful sad for you to discover even that the three figured salary you are bringing in does not bring you happiness with it because what you are doing is not in your heart. Your career is a large part of your life. It is essentially your first child. You will nurture it, grow it and live with it so you want to make sure that it brings you happiness and fulfillment. You will find that if those qualities lay within you the money won’t be anything but a number.