Engineering
Engineers solve problems: how to build the strongest possible bridge using
the materials available; how to set up layout and work processes of the
factory floor to maximize output and efficiency; how to create the most
efficient, bug-free software possible to instruct a computer to process
certain tasks; how to create an airplane that flies farther using less
fuel; and so on.
Engineers helped create the car you drive, as well as the processes and
machinery that extracted the petroleum that fuels it from far beneath the
Earth's surface. They helped create the highways and bridges on and
over which you drive that car on the way to work. They helped create the
building in which you work, the HVAC system that keeps that building warm
in the winter and cool in the summer, and the power grid that delivers
energy to that building. They helped create the innards of the computer on
your desk, and the network to which your computer is attached. And
engineers may well have helped create the processes your employer uses to
go about its business.
As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it, "Engineers apply the
theories and principles of science and mathematics to research and develop
economical solutions to technical problems." Typically, engineers
specialize in one particular area of engineering; engineering specialties
include aerospace, agricultural, architectural, biomedical, chemical,
civil, computer hardware, computer software, electrical, environmental,
geological, industrial, marine, materials, mechanical, nuclear, and
petroleum engineering.
There are about a million and a half engineers in the United States. Among
the largest engineering specialties, in terms of the number of engineers
practicing them, are computer software engineering, electrical and
electronics engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and
industrial engineering, including health and safety engineering.
What You'll Do
Engineers apply mathematic, scientific, technical, and design knowledge to
address problems and tasks faced by businesses and governments. Engineering
may involve developing new processes, such as environmentally sound methods
of waste disposal, or designing new products, such as a lighter, stronger,
and more flexible plastic.
A fundamental part of engineering is the practical application of
specialized scientific knowledge. For example, an engineer might apply his
or her understanding of how fluids react in high-pressure, low-gravity
environments to design a hydraulic system for an earth-orbiting satellite.
Whether the end result is a product or a process, engineers need to
consider safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. If something
they've created isn't safe, reliable, or cost-effective, their
product isn't going to fly in the marketplace.
Engineering is a career based on logical, systematic problem solving,
generally in high-tech, industrial, or scientific fields. Because there are
an infinite variety of problems to be solved in each of those fields,
engineers have developed a number of specialties. They may specialize in
electrical networks, machines or mechanical systems, chemical compounds,
airplanes or spacecraft, or software or computer systems. The rapid
expansion of computer and networking technologies has created vast new
opportunities for engineers in computer-related fields, who include
software engineers (also known as programmers), Web developers, and
specialists in information networks.
Engineers are often the crucial link between goals and reality. Once a
company or government agency decides that it needs a certain product or
process, the next step is for an engineer or team of engineers to create it
as efficiently as possible within a budget. Engineers can have a hand in
all phases of development, from idea conception, design and development,
implementation, testing, production, and maintenance to sales and customer
support.
Manufacturers employ engineers to design and develop products such as
consumer and industrial electronics, fabricated metals, machine tools,
chemical compounds, transportation equipment, aircraft, communication
equipment, and space vehicles. Engineers also develop the production
processes necessary to create those products, from designing the machinery
to designing the factories where the machinery is operated.
Besides manufacturing, some engineers test and inspect products and
structures to increase cost-effectiveness or safety. Such engineers
typically engage in more service-oriented careers, often working for firms
that contract their services to other businesses or government agencies.
For instance, engineers may be hired to test the stress limits of metal
used in automobiles, evaluate the structural integrity of buildings, or
develop a cheaper process for producing corrective lenses.
Who Does Well
Engineers need to be able to work in teams. In school, engineers learn to
attack a problem by breaking it down into small, independent parts,
sometimes called modules. Breaking problems down in this systematic way
helps divide the work among team members. An experienced engineer usually
serves as supervisor, ensuring that all team members coordinate their parts
and communicate effectively to keep the project running smoothly, while
less experienced engineers typically follow the supervisor's directions
as part of the team.
The most successful engineers have a balance of creative and scientific
skills and can master both established techniques and innovate new ones.
Discipline, patience, and perseverance are also important qualities in an
engineer—some problems may take years or even a whole career to solve. The
ability to communicate with others is also a key skill, as engineers need
to communicate effectively within their teams and with others who will
apply their work. Communication is also important in order to help
engineers understand the needs of those who will use the finished products
of their work—folks who usually aren't engineers.
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Most companies require job applicants to have a bachelor's in an
engineering field from an institution accredited by the Accreditation Board
for Engineering and Technology (ABET), though sometimes graduates with
related degrees may qualify. A degree in math or physics—or better yet,
applied math, applied physics, or computer science—is sometimes sufficient
to get an entry-level position. Engineering programs vary from school to
school, but generally offer one year of core engineering courses, followed
by three years of classes in a specific major. Some students need five or
more years to complete all the requirements, which is not unusual.
If the engineer's work affects life, health, or property, or if he or
she contracts to serve the public, state laws require the engineer to
obtain a state license. The laws vary from state to state, but the process
typically requires an engineering degree from an ABET-accredited school,
and a certain number of years of experience (usually four). The engineer
also needs to pass two exams prepared by the National Council of Examiners
for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES): the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)
examination and the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE)
examination.
Quality assurance and quality testing engineers may be required to pass
specialized training and certification programs and become Certified
Quality Engineers or Certified Software Quality Engineers.
Beyond these requirements, aspiring engineers should be interested in math
and science, enjoy complex problem solving, and have good organizational
and communication skills, both oral and written. Engineering problems often
require a team effort, so a good engineer needs to be able to work within a
team—whether as a member or a leader.
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Engineering jobs in general are projected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics to increase at about the same rate as the growth in jobs overall
between 2004 and 2014. However, the projected growth rates for certain
engineering specialties during that time vary widely:
Computer software, biomedical, and environmental engineering job
opportunities are all projected to grow at a rate far in excess of the
growth of jobs overall.
Job opportunities in agricultural, chemical, civil, computer hardware,
electrical, electronics, health and safety, industrial, materials, and
mechanical engineering are all expected to grow at a rate faster than the
overall jobs growth rate.
Job opportunities in aerospace, marine, and nuclear engineering are
expected to grow at a slower rate than overall jobs growth.
Job opportunities in nuclear and petroleum engineering are expected to
decline.
Note that even in engineering specialties with low projected employment
growth rates, there should be ample opportunities for fledgling engineers
in coming years. Among other factors, retirements among baby boomers will
lead to opportunities in the larger engineering specialties.
One key for engineers is ongoing education. Materials and technologies are
changing so rapidly these days that only those who are up to speed on the
latest trends in their fields will be assured of strong job prospects.
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Professional societies recognize more than 25 engineering specialties, and
new ones continue to develop with advances in science and technology.
Engineers tend to refer to themselves by qualifying the type of engineering
work they do, such as "mechanical engineer" or "civil
engineer." You might think of these specialties as families, since
many of them break down into narrower subspecialties. Choosing one
specialty doesn't preclude you from working in another field; crossing
over is fairly common.
Following are descriptions of some of the most common engineering
specialties to give you an idea of specific career opportunities.
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering is the biggest engineering field, and includes such
areas as power systems and transmission, circuitry and communication, and
several subspecialties including industrial robots, telephone switching
systems, microprocessors, and digital broadcasting. Electrical engineers
might design computer chips, circuit boards for audio equipment, broadcast
systems for cellular phones and television, or power stations and citywide
electric-utility services.
Software, Web, and IT Engineering
Software engineers create programs for use on various computer platforms
such as Windows, Macintosh, or Unix. Web engineers are essentially
programmers who develop applications specifically for the Web. Specialists
in information technology (IT) focus on creating and maintaining networks
of information, often within companies or government agencies. IT engineers
make sure that networks stay secure and run smoothly, both within an office
(known as a local area network, or LAN) and between remote locations (known
as a wide area network, or WAN).
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineers create, develop, and run machines, manufacturing
systems, engines, energy systems, pipelines, robots, refrigeration
equipment, and other mechanical tools. Mechanical engineers apply their
knowledge of mechanical systems to create new machines and improve old
ones. They may, for instance, develop a machine that makes it easier to
harvest crops or manufacture semiconductors. Or they may create a new way
to design cars. In improving old machines and creating new ones, mechanical
engineers need to make sure the machines run safely and efficiently.
Civil Engineering
Civil engineers build or improve roads and bridges, dams and irrigation
systems, water treatment processes, erosion control techniques, and public
transportation systems. Civil engineers also test buildings to make sure
they are structurally sound, particularly large institutional ones. The
term "civil engineering" essentially indicates projects related
to public works; the work itself may involve principles of mechanical
engineering, electrical engineering, or other specialized fields. While
most civil engineering jobs are with government agencies, some are with
service firms that contract with governments and businesses.
Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineers design and evaluate industrial systems such as
assembly lines or automated factories to pinpoint areas for improvements in
cost, quality, or safety. Industrial engineers are like high-level
managers; they may coordinate and direct the efforts of a team of
mechanical and electrical engineers, for instance, and as a result often
end up in management positions within manufacturing industries.
Aerospace Engineering
As the name implies, aerospace engineers design and develop aircraft and
spacecraft, including airplanes, missile systems, earth-orbiting
satellites, and the components that make them work. Typical job
opportunities for aerospace engineers exist with aircraft manufacturers,
satellite communication companies and defense contractors.
Materials Engineering
Materials engineers develop new ceramics, metals, polymers, resins, glass,
and other materials, and study their flexibility, strength, heat
resistance, and density under various conditions. They specialize in
knowing the properties of various materials and how to create new ones to
meet various business and manufacturing needs. For instance, a materials
engineer might develop a stronger metal to use in highway barriers, or a
shatter-resistant glass to use in beer bottles.
Chemical Engineering
Generally speaking, chemical engineers are experts in substances and how
they react to one another or to various technical processes. Based on their
deep understanding of molecules and their interactions, chemical engineers
design manufacturing processes for products such as detergents, gasoline,
plastics, and synthetic materials.
Electronics Design Engineers
Electronics design engineers design the electrical circuits at the heart of
all electronics hardware. Such circuits range from the small circuits used
in automatic coffeemakers to the relatively large integrated circuits (or
chips) found in computers. Design engineers work on integrated circuits
(also called microelectronic devices) or traditional (or macroelectronic)
circuits, in which components are mounted on circuit boards. In addition,
some design engineers work primarily with digital circuits, while others
specialize in analog circuits. Among the many subspecialties further
differentiating the field is RF engineering, which involves circuitry that
transmits and receives radio frequencies.
Computer Hardware Process Engineers
Process engineers develop faster, smaller, and more powerful integrated
circuits in their never-ending quest to make components that will do more
while taking up less space. Unlike the components of a normal electrical
circuit, the electronic parts that make up an integrated circuit are so
small that they are not created individually and then interconnected.
Rather, the entire circuit and all necessary connections are created at
once. Process engineers implement all aspects of this process. Through the
use of chemicals and light-sensitive materials, many identical copies of
the circuits are etched onto a wafer (a disk usually made of silicon). The
wafer is then sliced up, and the individual circuits are packaged before
being inserted into a larger circuit such as the motherboard of a computer.
Quality Assurance and Test Engineers
Quality assurance engineers ensure that a company's manufacturing
facilities operate smoothly and that the number of defective parts is kept
to an acceptable level. They routinely design methods to monitor production
lines, and work closely with other engineers when products are not being
manufactured to specification. QA engineers also work closely with new
products to determine acceptable specifications.
Test engineers, like QA engineers, help set up test equipment that is used
to determine whether products are being manufactured correctly. When a
product is deemed faulty, either on the production floor or after it's
been returned by a customer, a test engineer may be called in to figure out
exactly why the equipment failed—a time-consuming process that can uncover
fundamental flaws in a company's production techniques. Test engineers
also help create prototype products to make sure a finished product will
meet design engineers' specifications.
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Some average salary ranges for engineering positions are:
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Aerospace engineer: $40,000 to $110,000
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Biomedical engineer: $35,000 to $100,000
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Chemical engineer: $45,000 to $110,000
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Civil engineer: $40,000 to $105,000
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Electrical engineer: $45,000 to $110,000
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Health and safety engineer: $45,000 to $120,000
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Environmental engineer: $55,000 to $100,000
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Industrial engineer: $45,000 to $110,000
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Manufacturing engineer: $45,000 to $110,000
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Materials engineer: $45,000 to $115,000
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Mechanical engineer: $45,000 to $105,000
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Nuclear engineer: $50,000 to $115,000
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Process engineer: $45,000 to $105,000
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Quality assurance engineer: $40,000 to $100,000
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Software engineer: $40,000 to $110,000
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Structural engineer: $40,000 to $105,000