I wanna be an engineer...
I graduated from high school finally and am ready to go to college. I just took a huge turn from the direction I was heading my whole life. Ever since I was a kid, I loved computers. I knew 500% that I was going to do something with computers my whole life till now. I just realized that I don’t want to make average, or decent, or good money. I want to be rich. With so much competition in the computer field I have seen so far, I don’t think I can be filthy rich unless I get extremely lucky. So I talked to somebody about this and they said that I should go into civil engineering. He said that there’s a huge demand for them in the whole world. I told him that I enjoy math and physics and he said that engineering is for me. But I’m still un-sure because I am a computer geek and my whole life I’ve been self studying computers from programming to web development to animation. Computers have been my life and now that I realize I want to make a lot of money, I’m confused and lost….
Also, I don’t know much about engineering or what type I want to be. I want suggestions and stuff.
I’m going to apply for some type of engineering major in college and see if I like it.
Like I said, my interests are science (mostly physis), math, computers and money ; )
I too was like you in that I wanted to be rich, but not everyone can be rich. A career in engineering will not make you rich but you will certainly be comfortable and better off than everyone else. You will be making six figure salaries eventually in your career, after you have put in the time and work.
But there is some hope out there for a career in engineering. Do some research on the internet and you will see that there is a trend of companies hiring CEOs that have an engineering background. Alan Mulally is the current CEO of the Ford Motor Company and former CEO of Beoing Commercial Airplanes. He was, and still is, an engineer that started out in designs and worked his way to being the top dog and saving TWO multi-billion companies. So it is possible to become rich as an engineer but as you stated in your post, you will need some luck on your side. But I am not gonna discourage you from pursuing your passion in computers and programming and will hope that you are successful in becoming the next Bill Gates. Just please don’t forget the little people when you make it the top. Good Luck
lol, I don’t want to be Bill Gates rich. Enough to have a big house and a nice car and be able to support my family easily. I compared the average salaries of a computer programmer and engineers earn a lot more. In other countries other than US, an engineer makes even more money which is great because I love traveling the world.
I’m still not sure what type of engineer I should pick to be. I wanted to know if there is anyway to experience what engineers do so I know if I would want to become one or not. Computers are easy to experience because I can use one right now. But I have a very small idea of what engineers do. I know they use science and math to design and build things and I know the different types. When I was a kid, I did like building things so that is another reason why I’m choosing engineering instead of anything else right now because I don’t know anything else.
If you want to know exactly what an engineer does then you can look online or through the yellow pages for any near by engineering firms. You can also do a search through your states Professional Engineering Licensing Board to locate local PEs that will definitely have plenty of experience as engineers and they will be able to give you better information. There is simply too much information to properly tell you what it will be like to be an engineer through this forum. You will have to do some leg work and contact people and talk with some engineers in person. Do not be scared to call these guys, most engineers love to be mentors and help out the younger generation; that’s one of the good things about engineering, it’s not as cut-throat as other professions. Find someone to talk to and they will almost certainly be willing to sit down with you and help you decide what to do.
You do have plenty of time to decide what you want to study in school. You have just graduated high school and your freshman year in college will be almost the same if you go into a technical major. If you decide to pursue an engineering degree and are still not sure it is for you or you don’t know what discipline you want to be, then the first-year engineering program will be a great place to start. Every college will offer a freshmen engineering seminar class that will help you learn what engineering is and what they do.
Don’t change your aim for money.
If you excelled in computer field you will definitely succeed.
So please choose computer engineering as it is your most interested.
