Reply to Engineering - what is life like after graduation?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is considering engineering and is starting to hear some horror stories not just the rigor, but the drop out rate and cutthroat environments at some schools.

I personally know a few women engineers who decided to switch to other professions due to the “bro culture” and said their work environment were toxic. I know it is a small sample.

Anyone on the inside care to shed some light on what it is like after graduation?

Currently DS thinks he can handle the rigor but not sure about the cut throat portion, and if that is what he would have to deal with in most jobs after said he does not think he would want that as his major.

DS is very social, but not a bro culture kind of kid.

[/quote]

The real problem is that most people have trouble keeping up at some point and have to go into management.

If they’ve gone through life thinking that English, history, psychology and poli sci are fluff, they’ll have a hard time succeeding in management. [/quote]

Lol no. They are useless compared to a solid foundation in engineering or the engineers you are leading eont respect you.[/quote]

I think PP is right.  Yes, you can't waltz in without a foundation in engineering--but managing people is not like managing machines.  And the higher up positions involve not just being lead engineer but integrating with other divisions.  There are many engineers who just don't fully see the kind of complexity that isn't technical complexity---so they may think it's fluff because the grading norms were easier in those classes and they couldn't discern the differences between excellent work and good enough work in "softer" fields (since both might still get As in many schools).  Working with humans and organizations has more complex variables that are often in flux and not easily observed.  It's not the same skill set.

I don't think though overall engineers tend to be cut-throat.  They tend on the whole to be helpful, nice people with a clear set of skills.  There are only a few who express overconfidence or disdain for areas outside of their expertise--and those actually tend to be the weaker engineers in my experience.  I think the issues in engineering post-graduation are a) some who like engineering as a field find their actual job boring, b) if you happen to not have a boring job, your skills get old if you're not really committed to continuous growth often moving to new technologies and approaches and learning from people younger than you, c) the way up out of b is through management which requires a non-overlapping set of skills.  None of these things are insurmountable though, and someone with technical skills AND good social skills/respect for and understanding of domains outside of their technical skills will go far in engineering.[/quote]

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