Engineering or Economics?
Hey everybody, I've asked a similar question about a month ago. After re-evaluating my interests and collecting as much data/research on the options, careers, and outcomes I am just jammed at a impasse here. And not the good kind of jam either. Anyway the two major interests I've always had were economics (for the fact that I memorize and recall financial/general history like a hobo on crack and also I find it damn awesome to be able to predict and explain why everything is happening in the world for whatever reason) and engineering (leaning towards electronic and for the reason that engineers have a lot of options to diversify. I love to invent and create and obtain/recall knowledge that people normally cant even imagine doing. Also the fact that engineering as a degree is worth its weight with the immense amount of science and math. I find calculus and physics to be pretty easy to understand compared to the basic accounting class yeah i know go figure. But its not that accounting class is hard its just so boring and dry and I feel like shooting myself after every lesson).
So with all of that jibber jabber the real reason I'm kind of lost here is that a lot of people will say "Economics is a waste of a degree, business school is useless go for what you love and use it in concentration to business, and also economic majors are not what businesses look for" and that for engineering I know three engineers that are underemployed at a trader joes (I'm working there as I school) and a lot of people have said "Well engineering doesn't pay as much, engineers are unemployed often"
Any advice? Schools? Career suggestions? Chances? I'm in my first year of college at kean U (I want to get out idk why I went here) I have a 3.5 gpa at Kean and a 3.86 gpa from JP stevens high school.
Have you ever thought about double majoring? Or could you major in Engineering and minor in Econ?
I took BSc in Economics and then continue with MSF. Now in ER. My passion is in economics, but I realised I need something more to pay my lifestyle and decided to switch to finance.
I was or perhaps still am in a similar position. I did engineering b/c of its versatility and had no idea what I really wanted to do but always had an interest in finance. I had an internship in engineering and realized that I didn't really want to do it. I found pay scales were heavily linear so they didn't really promote based on merit. I liked numbers but engineering was as much drawings than just numbers. And engineering didn't really have transferable skills. I always wanted to go into the business side and figured might as well do it now than wait and do something I didn't really like for several years and hope I could switch over to the business side.
I kind of wish I did economics because that always interests me and econ is always evolving. This feeling is made easier since I know I don't want to do engineering now but had it been the other way around (had I done econ and hated it), it would have been much tougher to switch from econ to engineering. For that alone, I'd suggest go with engineering for the time being. If you want to switch, as I said it is much easier to switch out of engineering and you can usually use some of the classes for the general requirements for an econ degree especially early on where they are just calculus and other basic classes like physics or chem.
The biggest thing I can impart is to get an internship. I waited too long to get an internship in the field so by the time I knew, it was too late, so now I'm going back for an MSF. I'd probably say get the electrical engineering internship and see if you like it. If not, get good grades and then go for a Summer Analyst job or whatever finance job during your junior year. You could transfer majors but you might need an extra semester or two to finish and some finance jobs don't require a finance/econ degree like IB but that depends what you'd want to do after that.
It's funny because I'm kind of the opposite. I did econ, but in some ways I wish I would have done engineering or computer science haha. Honestly, engineering and econ can both be great majors (for different reasons).
Great insight everybody :) The fact of the matter is I really thought about double majoring, but at Rutgers I'm not so sure how accessible that would be. They have both majors its just the time in a day is the essence haha. Anyway I'm definitely going on to engineering its just choosing a specialty and what not. If anything I am definitely going to minor if not double into econ. I had some advice from a co-worker and she had taken a minor in econ which ended up that she only needed four extra classes at the end of her 4th year to count as a double major.
Also as for internships.... where do I look? I mean most internships need like a 3rd or 4th year not 2nd year.. I've seen the CIA and FBI have positions but idk what the chances are.
Well don't do Civil Engineering. It isn't as versatile as the others like Mechanical. Mechanical guys usually work for manufacturing type companies and often switch into the business side with the manufacturing background makes them invaluable.
As far as internships, what are you looking for? You want to major in engineering, are on a finance website and looking for an internship with a criminal justice organization. I did the same and interviewed with the FBI but it is very competitive.
Probably not the best guy for internships but they are out there since most guys on here have multiple summer internships so they started early and often. I would just focus on one industry (like finance or engineering) and get a job instead of looking for the perfect internship. Not that you shouldn't apply to them but knowing what you don't want to do is just as important as knowing what you want to do. And while you may not have a ton of qualifications for engineering internships since the first year or two are very generic, just getting into any type of internship even as a copy boy will show you what they do on a daily basis.
Good point, that's kind of the way how the guy who created Big Bang Theory and the other multitude of shows. And well, you have a point I kind of am in the wrong place now, its just a matter of "I have no idea where to look and I've been looking" and when I saw this site I thought it would be a good place to start asking questions from people who already have experience in business. Its been very useful and I've asked professors, friends, co-workers, and family. With all the advice and talks I've had this year I went from "I'm interested in business and stuff idk... to I'd really like engineering and maybe a little econ". To narrow my interests in engineering I've started researching and reading on mechanical, materials, electronic, and bio medical engineering.
O and as for internships I'm trying to focus on engineering and then maybe later on when I have experience I'll venture into business. But, yea I don't care how low or stupid the position is haha, Its just when I look up internships they end up being like "Must be junior year in blahblahblah" "Must have extensive knowledge in blahblahblah".
If you already have 3.5 in general ed stuff at Kean, you will not maintain a high engineering GPA there or at Rutgers. On the flip side, Econ major at Kean is probably a tough sell. You should reassess how good you really are cause EE is about as hard as it gets.
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