A second reason for waiting has to do with the nature of engineering work. Because engineering is a broad profession, there are many different types of work, even within each engineering discipline. Several of the engineering disciplines-especially mechanical, industrial, and electrical engineering-provide entry into nearly every type of manufacturing business, government, research, or other types of organizations. If you are a mechanical engineer, for example, obviously you could work in a field like the automotive industry. But you could also find opportunities in electric utilities, in aerospace firms, in government laboratories, and in other industries.
A third point is that, even within one type of industry, there is great variation in job responsibilities. At factories you could work in design, production, quality control, maintenance, or plant management. At the corporate headquarters, you could work in sales or marketing, business management, administration, or research and development.
A fourth and final point is that over the course of a career, engineers can do many different things. There are engineers who spend their entire career happily in one department of one company, and others who move all around the corporate ladder. There are engineers who start their own companies or who work for themselves, as consultants, and never occupy a company office.
Employment Outlook
There are major differences in career prospects among engineering branches, and the purpose of this article is to point them out to you. At any given time, the job demand varies, depending on the conditions of the economy. Data from the latest forecast computed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, show the size of various engineering branches as of 2000 and the projected growth through the year 2010. (They do not include every type of engineering degree available, mostly because of technical differences between academic disciplines and job titles)
The most important point is to make a commitment to engineering now and choose the specific type of engineering career later. Even in looking at a projection for the year 2010, bear in mind that by that year, you may be five or so years into your career; that leaves another thirty-five years at least to your working life! The key, of course, is to be an engineer-some kind of engineer. The rest is up to you.
Women, Minorities, and Engineering
Special mention deserves to be given to the people who traditionally have been ignored or excluded from the ranks of engineering: women and minority groups. Today, engineering is wide open to minority groups. Many engineers of minority ethnic backgrounds are highly successful and have founded companies worth millions of dollars. Among persons of Asian-Pacific heritage, in fact, proportionately more are engineering students than their fraction in the United States population as a whole. The problem for other minority groups, however, is that there are not enough members in the educational system. The high requirements for a good high school education are an obstacle for some underprivileged inner-city children. The cost of a four-year college education adds to the difficulties.
There has been mixed progress in the entry of women and minority groups into the ranks of working engineers. Female representation across all engineering disciplines has risen slowly but steadily since the 1970s, and women currently represent about 18 percent of graduating engineers. Minority groups (excluding Asian-Pacific members) represent just over 10 percent of recent graduating classes. This proportion appears to be a plateau at the moment.
There are many outreach programs that help sustain minority students in engineering. These include scholarships and intensive training sponsored by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and internships and financial support from leading corporations. About fifty thousand non-Asian-Pacific minority engineers have won degrees since 1973. Many more will be needed in the future.
America needs more engineers, and in the face of a smaller number of college-age students of all races in the 1990s, America must get more engineering candidates from women and minority groups. Here is how the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, a Washington, D.C., public-interest group, assessed the situation in 1989:
In science and engineering particularly, [women and minorities] are needed because the nation faces a potential shortfall of considerable magnitude in some of these areas, and white males cannot continue to fill all of the national needs by themselves.
The report, entitled "American Minorities in Science and Engineering," examined the situation of engineers and scientists with Ph.D.s in particular detail. These college graduates will form the core of America's research efforts in the twenty-first century. Today nearly half of all graduate students (master s and Ph.D. levels) are foreign nationals-students from abroad who study here and often return to their homes after graduation.
Doors are opening wide for women and minority groups in engineering. Career prospects are outstanding. Think hard about yourself and your career aspirations before you pass over the opportunities that engineering represents.
