Hi, Im a second year engineering student looking to declare a major next year. Im currently deliberating between civil and mechanical engineering. My question is weather mechanical engineering is preferred in finance over civil? I was thinking civil might be easier but i have heard that mechanical is held in higher regards. Opinions please?
Thanks
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No one cares. Don't choose a major because of its supposed perception in a completely unrelated field. Choose whatever you like most.
Second what's said above but let me ask this, if you know you want to work in finance, why not change your major to finance? Engineering is tough and it only gets tougher as you go into your junior and senior year. No point really in suffering through another 2.5 years of something you don't seem to want to do after college UNLESS it's too late for you to switch majors without adding extra years (and money), in which case I'd recommend you take some business/finance courses (maybe add a business minor if your school offers something like that)
Even in first year i knew i wanted investment banking but since there was no prerequisite degree i chose to do engineering. Even all my internship in first year was in VC. To me studying engineering is quite enjoyable but i wouldn't really want to work as an engineer. I also figured that the analytical and quantitative skills from engineering would be valuable. Would you say in finance, civil and mechanical would be seen equally (i.e. just engineering degrees)? I was hoping to get an analyst job straight out of undergrad but if not id do a Masters in Finance since a good MBA would require some full time work experience first.
Thanks
I'm a Civil undergrad now, so in my opinion CE is the easiest but if you're not interested in it it will def be hard to get passed the rest of undergrad.
So yea would't recommend it; I always knew I wanted to study CE, just that now I'd prefer to learn about financing infrastructure rather than designing infrastructure.
If it's too late just do CE since its def easier than ME, just make sure your story is straight when it comes to recruiting.
To me the civil modules seem easier for me to score in (i.e. no programming haha). But would you say CE is regarded as 'softer' or 'easier' by recruiters than ME? I was hoping to point back to my first and second year finance internships to show i was always interested in doing IB but chose engineering since there was no prerequisite degree and thought the skills from the degree would be relevant.
Unless the recruiters come form STEM fields they're not going to know the curriculum for CE or ME, all recruiters understand the difficulty of engineering, so you're good either or.
What I would say is go on LinkedIn and check if you have more alumni in CE or ME, because thats what matters; makes networking a lot easier.
I would do ME, I think it does have a better tone to it. It also is the most universal in an engineering sense. With respect to majoring in finance like someone mentioned before, I wouldn't do that because if you break into IB, you will be up to speed and know everything a business major knows in two months. With an engineering degree, you have a grounded understanding of major engineering corporation's products as well as complex problem solving ability. CE is also a great major as well and would still impress recruiters given you have a high GPA.
You're telling him to choose a major because it will lead to better networking opportunities? You're joking, right?
This all may come off as harsh, but I just don't like it when people are giving poor or outright wrong advice to people on a topic that's fairly important.
No I am not telling him to chose a major "because it will lead to better networking opportunities", I am specifically saying if he is dead set on either CE or ME to choose the one that will make it easier for him to transition to IB. In this case since he didn't provide info on his institution it will be the one with most presence on the street.
Maybe you couldn't comprehend my comment, but I don't see how thats wrong advice, and I'm actually coming from an engineering background so at least I know what both curriculums entail - or maybe you didn't see my earlier comment when I had specifically said it will be difficult to pursue a major you're not interested in.
My fundamental point is that he shouldn't be choosing a major for any IB-related reasons. It should solely be based off whether he enjoys the subject or not. Suggesting that he should choose one over the other because he has more alumni that majored in that field is not good advice.
Having complex problem skills plays a part in everything you do, even after IB, for example PE. Nobody wants to hire a robot.
ME does have a better tone to it and does have harder classes. Obviously you don't know engineering.
Yes, you will have a better understanding of engineering companies, and in an industrials group, that could help.
When i was going through the recruitment process, people were impressed with engineers.
This may come off as harsh, but I don't like when people who don't know what engineering is try and talk about it.
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