So you want to be an Engineer

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The word Engineer is derived from Engine which meant at that time anyone who worked on engines or machines. Till today anyone working on creating engines or a similar item is named “engineer“.

So when a student comes to me and says that he wants to study engineering I ask what type? And that’s when we get entangled with a multitude of questions that can take us to the deepest discussions.

Engineering is one of the multidimensional field where students can do many things at the same time. So an electrical engineer can study electricity or electrical products or the energy itself or even the alternative energy that will produce electricity. It doesn’t end there as electrical and electronic can also be interwoven so electrical/electronic engineer is also a field. Also electronic engineer can do mechanics and that is mechatronics and the possibilities are endless.

The main fields can be electrical, mechanical, electronic, civil, chemical, bioengineering, structural engineering, and so on

The field of engineering is the one that gives the counselor the most headache as it has no end and sometimes no beginning! Many colleges around the world do a year or two of general engineering studies and then the students choose their major. Sometimes the bachelor degree can be five years as the fifth year means a specialization year and/or a registration year so the person is a registered engineer and can safely work in the field.

Every day a new straem of engineering is discovered, thus one cannot safely say that I had completed my studies as new things had been added and need to be taught to the engineers out there. New materials and new prototypes or new fields, that is why, and like the medical field, there is no stop in learning.

I can safely say that there are over a 100 fields of engineering so next time you, the student, say the word think a 100 times before you choose as you don’t want to fall in the trap and study a field that can be boring for you.

Here are a list of the engineering fields to feast your eyes on:

  • Architectural
  • Civil
  • Chemical
  • Computer Engineering
  • Industrial Engineering
  • Materials Engineering
  • Bioengineering
  • Electrical
  • Mechanical
  • Environmental
  • Nuclear
  • Ceramic
  • Construction
  • Engineering Management
  • Engineering Mechanics
  • Engineering Physics & Engineering Science
  • Forest & Paper
  • Geological 
  • Metallurgical 
  • Microelectronic 
  • Mining
  • Naval Architecture & Marine
  • Ocean
  • Petroleum 
  • Software and hardware Engineering 
  • Surveying & Geomatics


Reference :     http://typesofengineeringdegrees.org/

                           http://tryengineering.org/become-an-engineer