6 Reasons Engineering is a Relevant Career in a Post-Pandemic World

Engineering uses the knowledge of science to find new solutions to everyday problems. It plays a vital role in everything we use, from smartphones to cars, building, transport, medicine, and communications. If you have an aptitude for math and science, you may have already considered a career in engineering. If you are still unsure whether it is the right choice for you, here are six reasons why engineering is a relevant career in a post pandemic world.

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Diversity

There are many different career paths to choose from in engineering. There is a lot more to it than simply building and fixing things, for example:

Aeronautical Engineering – This type of engineering is all about the design, development, research, construction, testing and technology of aircraft.

Chemical Engineering – This is the use of chemical and biological processes to produce materials or substances. You could work in areas such as plant design, or process engineering and design.

Civil Engineering – This is the design and development of infrastructure projects. This could be a huge scale project such as the design of a national transport system or small scale such as the design of an individual road. Civil engineering also incorporates things such as hydraulics and structural engineering.

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Computer Engineering – This field is concerned with the design and prototyping of hardware and software. This combines computer science and math.

Electrical/Electronic Engineering – This focuses on the application of electrical power. Electrical engineering is concerned with large scale projects, whereas electronics looks at smaller electronic circuits such as those found in computers.

Mechanical Engineering – This looks at the design, manufacture, and maintenance of mechanical systems. This is a very broad subject, and it is one of the oldest specialisms within engineering. It incorporates statistics, dynamics, thermodynamics, stress analysis, mechanical design, and technical drawing.

As you can see, there are many different fields of engineering and these often play to different strengths and interests. They are usually based in the areas of math, physics, science, and computing.

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Career Path

The career path isn’t as structured as you might want it to be. For example, the different fields of engineering often overlap each other, so just because you may have started off in one field, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get experience in any of the others at the same time. It may even mean that although you start off with one specialism, you may end up in a different one or vary these throughout the course of your career. This variety can stop you from getting bored and means that you can continue learning throughout your career as different qualifications become more important in your line of work.

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There is a hierarchical structure in engineering as with any other career path, and all engineers need managers. Once you have been working for the industry for a few years and had the chance to prove yourself, then liner advancement and promotion will open up to you. If this is something that interests you, it’s a good idea to first learn what to expect. Click here to learn the skills that managers are expected to have as well as how you can set yourself apart from the competition.

Studies have shown that engineering is the most common undergraduate degree among fortune 500 CEOs. This is followed by business administration and economics. Engineers make such brilliant CEOs because the discipline also calls for the ability to analyze and solve problems, work as a team, communicate effectively with others, and meet deadlines. These are as useful to both engineers and CEOs and this is what makes the overlap so effective. The sky really is the limit if you want to get your foot in the door of engineering.

Also read: Which MBA Program is Best for Future?

A Good Salary

Engineering comes out on top when it comes to the starting salary of graduates. The salary continues to grow as you advance in your career too and you can earn well into six figures and beyond if you work your way up to being a CEO. According to a recent study, engineers earn approximately 65% more than a scientist in some other disciplines.

Employability

Some people think that the great days of engineering are over, and the field is difficult to get a job in as heavy industry becomes a thing of the past in the UK. However, this is not true and as one door closes in engineering, another door will open.

Engineering is changing and evolving all the time as new technology is always needed. Engineers are renowned for inventing new ideas and ways of solving problems and they are always going to be needed at the initial stage of a project. Once a particular type of technology has been brought to market, engineers are needed to plan enhancements, fix any glitches in the technology, and make sure that it is always in full working order.

Think about how much computers have evolved over the last eighty years. The early computers took up a whole room and needed a lot of skilled technicians to keep them in working order. Today, a computer can fit into the palm of your hand, but engineers have had to work hard to get it there. Skilled engineers are still needed in the computer industry to keep them working and to invent new ideas and ways of using them.

The job has evolved, but this has meant that people have had the opportunity to learn new skills which has kept them ahead of the game. There will always be a need for good engineers, so you should never be out of work for long as long as you are happy to continue learning and evolving.

Travel

There is a need for engineers to work all over the globe. There are currently large-scale engineering projects that are being built or have recently been finished that have employed engineers in all capacities from across the world. For example:

The Large Hadron Collider – This is under the border between France and Switzerland. It took ten years to create and employed engineers from a hundred different countries.

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The Gotthard Tunnel – This is the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel. It links northern and southern Europe by high speed train. It took almost two decades to complete.

The Three Gorges Dam – This is located in China and it is the world’s largest hydropower project. It is over a mile wide and 600 feet tall. The 32 main turbines are capable of generating as much electricity as 18 nuclear power stations and withstanding an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0.

Andosol – This is the world’s largest power station, and it is located in southern Spain. It is spread across 126 acres of land and supplies about 450,000 people with environmentally friendly solar energy power.

The Marmaray Project – This is located in Turkey and is one of the largest transport projects in the world. This underwater railway tunnel is still under construction and will connect Europe and Asia once it is finished. It is set to be the deepest immersed structure in the world.

Masdar City – This Abu Dhabi city is still being built and will be the world’s first zero carbon city. It will highlight renewable energy technology and has involved building the biggest solar energy farm in the Middle East to power it. It will also use an innovative system of recycling water.

As you can see, there are a lot of interesting projects across the world that an engineer can get involved in. The great thing is that if you want to travel, you will earn good money from working on projects such as these and not be stuck doing shift work or similar to finance your globetrotting.

Making a Difference

From renewable energy resources to building rail and road networks to ensuring that technology is constantly evolving, the world of an engineer is never dull. They are helping to create the future and design projects that will still be used in centuries to come, such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge or the Eiffel Tower.

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Engineering is certainly not a mundane pen pushing job that will bore you to tears after a couple of years of service. It is not a wishy-washy job that nobody notices is being done around them. It is tangible and changeable and will allow you to evolve with it. There is no other career like it for changing the world we live in today for the better, and enhancing the way people are going to be able to live in the future.

The constant evolution of engineering will mean that you will always have the chance to grow and develop. You could find yourself helping to invent solutions to age old problems or changing the way something works for the better to make it easier and more efficient. There are many reasons why engineering is a relevant career in a post-pandemic world. Engineers will always be needed all over the globe so this is not a career that will be here today and gone tomorrow. It is something that will be around forever, although you may wish to retire from it in your old age.

Also check out: Advice about various fields and career options straight from professionals

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