Would You Encourage Your Kids to become Engineers? 4

[Christine74]

Suppose you had a child that was in the process of choosing which career path to pursue. Knowing what you know now about the engineering profession, would you encourage them to pursue that field of study, assuming that they had the necessary skills to succeed as an engineer?

I think most of us would agree that there are plenty of other careers out there that earn better pay, garner higher status, and get better benefits than engineers. And many of these degrees are much easier to obtain than an engineering degree.

What would you advise your children?

Thanks.


-Christine

 

[HgTX]

Most authors need day jobs to support their writing habits.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[521AB]

Sorry HgTX,
what do you mean with this?

"Most authors need day jobs to support their writing habits.
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies"

 

[IRstuff]

Just a basic fact of life that most artists are starving, unless they've got a day job.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[HgTX]

What IRstuff said. It was a response to an earlier poster whose small child's current plan is to be an author. If you become a J.K. Rowling or a John Grisham, great. If you get *one* book contract, great for a little while; maybe you'll get another.

Otherwise, I have a lot of friends who are writers. The only one I know who is currently making a living entirely by way of something resembling "authoring" gets a substantial chunk of her income by writing mild smut to pay the bills. (Tech writing is a different skill set entirely and is a pretty good day job, but it's definitely not being an "author".)

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[connect2]

good post, 'Why not be enginners, kids?'

Son #1 4th year Economics.
Son #2 2nd year Environmental Studies.

Brought this exact question up when they were both home last X-mas Hoildays. Son #1's reply, 'Dad we've watched you work and work and work and worry and worry and worry for the last 20 years, you're still doing the same thing today. Why the heck would we want to do that'.

Gave me cause to pour another Port after the meal was over and they had both left the table.

It's a life style.

A Sole Practitioner, Structural, 2008 AD. The blood is on the tracks.

 

[IRstuff]

Of course, it's unclear that someone going into Econ or Env. Studies won't wind up doing the same.

My only constraints on my kids are, it's got to be something that gets their juices going and they have to be able to earn a decent living at it. In the end, your kids will do what they think they want, not what you want.

For all the whining about how bad engineers have it, they seem to all have computers at work where they can surf the web and answer questions such as the OP and gripe about other people making more money or getting more respect.

There are truckloads of jobs where every keystroke is monitored and calculated to determine whether you're meeting your productivity goals. Even my wife, as a doctor, has a productivity goal of 4 patients per hour. Next time you gripe about how little time the doctor spent with you, you now know the reason why. When you turn 65 and go to her and wonder why she never got to item 23 on your list of problems, you'll know the reason why.

TTFN

FAQ731-376