A parent's question re: ChemE & CompSci 9

Well, our granddaughter just started school at my alma mater studying chemistry. I was hoping for something in engineering but she's interested to chemistry as it pertains to the medical fields, like pharmaceuticals, so she'd like to focus on organic chemistry. Due to all her AP credits, she started as a second semester sophomore and will technically be a junior next semester as she's already registering for 300 level classes. She has a 200 level organic chemistry class this semester and she loves it. Now speaking of a solid future, chemistry, as it relates to the medical fields, that might be something that he may be interested in.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

ChemEng degrees have always been in high demand, and one of the highest paid eng disciplines. Its also one of the harder eng undergraduate degrees.

Chemistry degrees seem more aimed at scientific research jobs; and many positions either in industry or academia require a PhD.

CompSci - a lot of these jobs seem to be more and more outsourced to “low cost countries”.

ACtrafficengr said:

But would you advise a teen to consider those fields?

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Yes! I’ve seen ChE’s work in production, process, R&D, logistics, supply chain, quality, sales, marketing, management, HR, and just about every function available in the chemical industry. One of my classmates is a realtor. One is a physician. A ChE degree does not preclude any job as far as I know. Supermodel Cindy Crawford and actor Dolph Lundgren were ChEs.

Good Luck,
Latexman

I apologize for answering the question by de-railing, but I wouldn't worry about which field is better, or the future availability of jobs in any kind of engineering career. Even in surveying, someone needs to write programs, operate and understand the equipment, post-process and interpret data, lead teams doing that stuff, etc. I bet that'll be the case for decades.

The decision should be 99% based on talent and interest. I'd bet on a very talented and interested engineer in an out-of-vogue specialty over the opposite any day.

CompSci - a lot of these jobs seem to be more and more outsourced to “low cost countries”.

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Help desk, general programming, website design, and quite a few others yes, but not computer science. CS won't offshore until AI takes over, at which point job availability is a minor worry.

Agreed with 271828, any of those choices will do well including surveying.

Programming jobs have long been outsourced already; the issue had been communications and packability of the work modules. India and eastern European countries with strong computer programming have all provided outsourcing in the past.

Currently, though, outsourcing is less attractive, since the countries that could outsource are all now competitors on the global marketplace. SMath Studio, which is mathematical calculation tool, is written by someone in Russia, while other tools like Calcpad are developed in Bulgaria. These compete directly with programs like Mathcad, which was developed in the US.

If your son is to succeed, then it needs to be something that they organically develop a desire and passion for. Unfortunately for parents, that's about as far as you can realistically hope for; there will be some people that NEVER figure out what they want to be when they grow up.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

From a parent's point of view "push" doesn't work. The "pull" has to come from the student. Encourage the youngster to succeed in whatever they choose, but their choice has to be motivated by their own desire. Often, parents mistake the idea of support for something else, such as limiting their kid's choices or budget to the parent's terms. Usually, nobody is happy when parents do that. On the part of the student, motivation is easier to sustain in a project that comes from their own goal, instead of a goal imposed on them. For all these reasons, helping your kid make the decision requires care and tact on your part. They look to you for guidance, but post-secondary education is different. For most, it's the first big objective they will take on where they have to be in charge to succeed.

Agree with Sparweb here.

It's a difficult subject to get right as how many of us really knew at 16 what it is we wanted to do?? I knew I wanted to be an Engineer - but what type? chose Mech Eng in the end, fell into pipelines as a sub branch and have never looked back. Wouldn't advise anyone though to get very specific in a degree choice at 16/18 myself, but one of my sons took a specialist type degree and is now happy working in that industry, but did say in the last year that there was a limited number of employers so that was a concern to him, but he's working now and seems content with his decision. And it was his decision, you can't make it for them.

You can only guide and advise, not "push". It's only my personal experience from 40 yrs ago, but I think quite a few of those 50% (seems a bit high to me - got a reference for that?) who regret their choice of degree might have been "pushed" into that area by probably well meaning parents as being a better long term career path. The number of people on my Mech Eng course who said "I always wanted to do xyz, but my dad /parents said I couldn't / was a bad idea", was significant. It amazed me as my parents attitude was always, "Just do your best and we will support you in whatever you choose to do", and I thought everyone else was the same....

The start point is always, what are you good at?
What do you enjoy doing?
What makes you feel good / happy doing?
Do you have a dream job / career (and no, that's not a You tube presenter....)

And work from there, even if you don't like the answers.
You can't guess the future and in college / university, there are now many chances to change or modify your course with different modules etc that the person finds more interesting themselves as they mature and grow themselves.
Even in the same subject, there are so many different courses that one Chem eng course could be very different from another one.

Good luck!

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

I can also relate. We had three sons and me being an engineer, I was hoping that at least one of them would 'follow in my footsteps'. However, we ended-up with one chef who's moved to the corporate ranks as a brand executive, one who after getting his BA in psychology attended culinary school and is a pastry chef who's worked both here and in Europe and is now the production manager at a specialty bakery in L.A. and the third is a computer nerd who specializes in hardware systems, networks and protecting systems from attack as well as recovery when there was a failure in protecting them.

However, as I stated before, at least one of our granddaughters is studying chemistry at my alam mater, so I'm sort of getting my wish after all.

BTW, despite my desire for another engineer in the family, we never questioned the decisions that our kids made and they're all very successful at what they chose to do, so we have no regrets.


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

I should add son #1 started one course (Mech Eng), but decided to then do the final year Masters bit in "Embedded Systems" design (No me neither), which he has now used very much in his career to date and seems very happy. We were also happy to help him with the change which involved some financial help to do this, but that's what parents do if they can IMHO. Feed the Dream.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

It's a difficult subject to get right as how many of us really knew at 16 what it is we wanted to do??

Click to expand...

I knew I wanted to be EE since I was about 13 ;-) Although, I did switch to systems engineering when I was about 37. My younger brother wanted to follow in my footsteps, but luckily, he figured out his own desires senior year in high school, so never had to change majors in midstream. My two sons both set course on CompSci in high school as well, rather than engineering or medicine like their parents, and both graduated and work in CompSci with no issues.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

All of my ChemE friends have no trouble finding a job, but you might have to move to an industrial area for the job. It seems like Comp-Sci companies are hemorrhaging production jobs for more than a couple of reasons which are over my head.

You never can tell where CS will take you. My son wanted both Comp Sci and a well known school, so he went to Ga Tech for his BS. Then GA for his Masters. He got exposed to a lot of research which led to doing research software tools for scientist at a research organization. Then to Cambridge UK for a PhD. Now he is doing post-doc work at a university in Germany. He is still doing software, but it is heavily tied to modeling biological and neurological processes. And he is loving it.
Maybe you son can find a niche that encompasses both Chemistry and Computer Science.

My step son started college as chemistry major, but in his second year switched to philosophy. After that he got a masters and a doctorate in geology. No real push on my part. The switch to geology occurred in his junior or senior year when he was forced by the university to take a summer class in geology. Go figure.

My nephew took a couple of semesters of video game design. He dropped out. I am not sure what the problem was.

My mother and I agreed that it was a bad choice. Everything was too specialized. Some programming. Some 3D artwork. Some writing. Jack of all trades...

--
JHG

I agree with chem eng being the most robust option. Chemistry generally is a harder slope to climb, but the jobs do exist and have some stability. It may improve with AI being able to feed the R&D labs with better planned / more promising experiments. Comp Sci is a slippery slope unless you hitch yourself to a great new application or develop knowledge specific to another industry, it's hard to find staying power. General programming jobs are constantly being outsourced and the hiring is a hot mess of constantly searching for programmers with expert level knowledge of this year's shiny penny programming environment.

One thing worth mentioning is any job related to national security or IT security generally, tends to stay in-country. The demand in that sector can vary from year to year but overall it's not going away.

you could Robotics engineering
Which could be a good choice for a young student:

1. **High demand**: Robotics engineers are in high demand across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and defense. As automation continues to become more prevalent, the demand for skilled robotics engineers is only expected to increase.

2. **Innovation**: Robotics engineering is a field that is constantly evolving, with new technologies and applications emerging all the time. This means that there is always something new to learn and explore, making it an exciting and dynamic field to work in.

3. **Impact**: Robotics engineering has the potential to make a significant impact on the world, from improving healthcare to increasing efficiency in manufacturing. As a robotics engineer, you could be at the forefront of developing new technologies that have the potential to change people's lives for the better.

4. **Career growth**: Robotics engineering is a field that offers many opportunities for career growth and advancement. With experience and expertise, you could move into leadership roles or specialize in a particular area of robotics engineering.

5. **Salary**: Robotics engineers are well-compensated for their work, with a median salary of $99,040 per year in the United States. This can vary depending on factors such as location, experience, and industry, but overall, robotics engineering is a field that offers good earning potential.

Ultimately, it's really just a crap shoot, particularly if the student in question doesn't have a solid passion, so worrying about their major now is not productive; note that less than 50% of all graduates are NOT working in their majors, so coin flip at best.

Case in point, we hired a 4.0 GPA EE from UC Berkeley in 1981; 3 years later, he quit to work his father's restaurant, and he really had very little interest in EE and majored in it to please his father, IMO.

Therefore, don't get too invested in "steering" your son's major; he's got a year before he really needs to decide, and may change his mind in college one or more times. My best friend from high school changed majors 4 times, and oddly, graduated in the major he first picked, although he really didn't actually work in his major, since he wound up in field service, albeit for high-tech electronic/medical equipment. He had picked both veterinary science and photography as majors along the way.

Now is a good time for him to find possible internships, paid or unpaid, to see if something really sparks his interest beyond what he feels now.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

A more important conversation to have IMHO is about the realities of life vs his/yours/others expectations.
Do discuss the fact that he may fail to achieve his education/career goal, and need to pivot his life.
Do discuss the fact that his hometown may be a terrible place to settle.
Do discuss the fact that as he ages, there will be fewer opportunities to travel, move elsewhere, etc.
Do discuss the fact that after graduation he will rarely see high school friends, so shouldn't feel pressure to attend college or take the same path as them.
Do discuss the fact that there's no shame in not attending college.
Do discuss the fact that more than anything, he needs to take ownership of his own life.
Do discuss the fact that his parents may be wrong and that he will need to respectfully disagree with you at times.
Do discuss the fact that he should ignore any attempts including yours/spouse's to pull his heartstrings to live in a certain town, have a certain career, or otherwise do things your way.
Do discuss the fact that he needs to spend a significant amount of time/effort researching career fields, and participate in internships and shadowing opportunities.
Do discuss the fact that while you support him mentally/emotionally, your financial support will have limits.

And do have a conversation with yourself that what is best for him will not always be best for you/spouse, and that you will need to trust his judgment on what is best for himself.

The greatest compliment any parent can give, "I trust you to make the right decision."