What engineering major to choose?
Are you one of the thousands of parents and students struggling with this question?
Most of the time the decision is based on ranking of the college, which branch is trending, and which jobs are fetching the highest salaries. In this materialistic pursuit we often forget to ask the most important question, “What is the field of study that I will enjoy?”
Having interacted with multitude of people globally working as a Scientist and Chief Product architect I came across two broad groups of professionals:
Group 1: Derive joy and satisfaction out of their work and love what they do.
Group 2: Are in the profession to make a living.
Both choices are good and valid but usually people in Group 1 tend to be much happier, content, and successful. So, this is what I shared with these young minds in guiding their decision making. I asked them to make their decision based on some of the following questions:
1. How do you like to work, solving a challenging problem working alone, OR working in a team?
2. What gives you satisfaction?
a. Seeing an abstract concept come to life like a computer program?
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OR
b. Create something physical with your hands like an automobile or a robot or a mechanical part or a building and a bridge?
3. What will you enjoy more?
a. Making a direct impact on society by building and creating things?
OR
b. Making things which can help other’s make things and lead innovation?
The above 3 questions though not exhaustive but can provide a broad framework for choosing the stream of engineering like mechanical and civil or the modern age ones like AI and machine learning or somewhere in between like Electronics, communications etc. This line of thinking if carried forward can further help you refine your choices and narrow down to specific stream that you may enjoy.
Would love to hear comments and suggestions from all of you that can help thousands of students and parents make a better more informed decision, so please share your comments.