Is Studying Engineering Really Worth It?

is engineering really worth it is a question I've seen come up a decent amount most people are probably referring to the amount of work it requires versus the quality of life salary and so on the short answer is pretty much yes it's worth it and is the answer you'll see if you look under lay any form where people pose this question and the longer answer is it depends because everyone is different I can't answer for every person whether it'll be worth it for you but it will give you some positive and negative aspects of engineering and let you make the decision for yourself so let's get into it one of the positive aspects about engineering is that it provides a very defined career path if you graduate an electrical chemical industrial engineering and so on you can get jobs as an electrical chemical and industrial engineer respectively you can forever put that degree on your resume and be able to more confidently apply to those positions seeking out that person specifically if you're a physics major for example and you just get a bachelor's it will be actually difficult to get a job as an actual physicist often those people end up in careers such as software developer engineer data analyst teacher and so on well yes they can get a PhD and become a physicist so often they get into physics and then get into a wide range of careers and it's not so defined if you go for an engineering job you might be competing against a lot of engineers with direct experience in that actual field then when it comes to salary the majority of what I've seen shows it's definitely worth it especially in the long term but you might see this differently so let's look at some numbers I did a full video on my salary but here's some important numbers for us to look at and my first job out of college as an engineer I was making seventy six thousand five hundred sixty dollars per year which by the way is a lot and surprised me but I was living in Los Angeles which is an expensive city my savings were about six hundred dollars per month after buying a car plus I was putting about five hundred ten dollars away into my retirement account per month with interest I have to pay about fifty six thousand dollars back in student loans which means it would take a little over four years for me just to save that back up assuming no raises in the job and that's including the fact that I was paying the loans off anyway now some people will look at that and say oh yeah that's definitely worth it and others will say no way that's a ripoff some might say I could have taken an online course or worked my way up in some other job for four years and could be making 50k 60km he care whatever per year with no debt and remember those four years in college I really wasn't making anything so again this is something for you to decide for yourself and on the topic of salary some people will be making much less than that to begin in some countries have had people tell me that engineer start at less than 20k per year plenty of countries also have free or very cheap education while in the u.s. it's a very different story or some people come from a very wealthy family which might make the decision of going to college easier for you but if you really wanna do engineering them the money shouldn't matter to a certain degree I mean yes you got to pay your bills but this doesn't seem to be an issue for most engineers I hear from then one of the big negative aspects of engineering is the fact that it's a lot of work especially in college now it's a lot of work for sure by just want to say if you get all your information from the internet you'll probably hear a lot of stories about constant all-nighters from engineers you'll see plenty of memes about engineers and so on these definitely have validity but I knew engineers who partied every week engineers and frats and sororities engineers in relationships and so on and I also knew people who were locked in their room all the time studying and rarely had a real social life I don't want to make it seem like it's easy being an engineer in college but I also think that some people assume you'll never have time for anything which is isn't always the case either and remember it's four years or maybe a bit more of that hard work then you get to put engineer on your resume for the rest of your life but when it comes down to it for some people it just might not be worth it based on your views and life maybe you spend four years and $30,000 to get a degree in engineering then six months after graduating you start a business that has nothing to do with what you learned in engineering and after two years of provides you with a salary of a hundred fifty thousand per year then you might say wow why did I spend four years in college when I could have spent that time starting this or maybe on the contrary in your first engineering job you met the person who you would go on to start that business with and that business did relate to what you learned in school maybe you say some of the things I learned in engineering school are what made this business possible had I never gone in this business might never have become a thing or maybe you work for ten years in an engineering job then quit because you find something else you truly love but the engineering job or jobs you had you lots of connections friends and experience plus you saved up a lot of money although some people may find a job they love after school when others just can't find one they enjoy in my video on how to find a career you'll love I say how very often people don't start out loving their job so they don't have the skills yet that bring joy to what you do the formula isn't find your passion then get a career you enjoy it's find something you have an interest in get a job develop your skills and the passion follows it's hard to love something that you really struggle with especially when it comes to a career some people might just not have the patience to develop that skill though so they give up and say it wasn't worth it in the end but if you have an interest in engineering you can develop a passion for the job over time even if it's not a parent to begin then you would say it was definitely worth it one thing to consider is where your time and money could also be spent if you go to college that will take at least four years and some X amount of money depending on your situation if you have an end goal in mind think about whether that for years and money is the right step to get you there or whether there's something else that we get you there more efficiently if that goal is to be as rich as possible for example those four years should be spent doing something else in my opinion if that calls to be a programmer are there online courses or boot camps that can give you the skills and or certification needed to land that job that would be cheaper or require less time plenty of careers out there really don't need even a college degree but when it comes to engineering a lot of them do so if that's what you want sometimes there are ways around it and other times not so much honestly for me I wanted to be an engineer and had no desire to start a business or anything like that College was just the right step for me financially Community College would have been a better first step but for what I wanted I really needed an engineering degree I didn't have the self-discipline to learn things on my own back then especially one thing I can say is if you're in high school or early college or whatever and your mindset is I don't know what I want to do but I want to make a decent living and you decide to do engineering because your parents do it or you saw high starting salary it might not be worth it because it's easier to give up that way plus you may just not enjoy it you'll likely have a friend making more than you doing something else that'll make you say man I wish I did that because you didn't really care about your field you chose anyway if you actually want to be an engineer to help design the latest technology build bridges and so on then yes it will be worth it those four years are going to pass anyway so you should spend them trying to get to whatever your long-term goal is just make sure you're aware of all the things out there that you may enjoy and try to pick what will get you there in the most efficient way possible and I'm going to end that video here if you liked it don't forget to comment like and subscribe and I'll see you all next time

Channel: Zach Star

Views: 316,864

Keywords: majorprep, major prep, is engineering worth it, is engineering really worth it, engineering in college, engineering, engineer, career in engineering, engineering career, college, university, student, engineering student, should i go into engineering, should i pursue engineering, career, job, who should go into engineering, who should pursue engineering, how much do engineers make

Id: OYiVCIxsiMc

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2018