Whether you’re planning on taking on an engineering degree or if you’ve just graduated and are wondering where to go next, it’s always good to do some research and have a look at where you might be likely to end up. Of course, these are far from the only careers available to an engineering graduate – as a degree, it’s beyond versatile.
Industrial Engineers
An optimist will tell you that a glass is half full, a pessimist will tell you that a glass is half empty, and an industrial engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be. Industrial engineers work within an industry (unsurprisingly) and try to optimize and improve a given production process. This means working with a broad spectrum of problems and processes, within and outside the actual production process. As an industrial engineer, you could be working on improving the electrical efficiency of a factory or on perfecting a custom-built crane system on a cargo ship.
The wonderful thing about industrial engineering is the variety of problems – large, multinational companies keep full-time industrial engineers on hand so when they have a problem, they’ll have someone available who has the know-how and ingenuity to fix it. Employability, it’s fair to say, won’t be a problem.
Oil and Gas Engineers
Oil and gas engineers enjoy an enormous amount of responsibility as they work at the forefront of an immensely competitive and well-financed industry. Oil and gas engineers may be working towards developing new drilling or investigative methods, or they could be perfecting already existing processes, or they could work on-site making sure all of the machinery in a drilling rig or pipeline is working exactly how it’s meant to.
The main advantage of working as an oil or gas engineer is, without doubt, the salary. Because good engineers in this industry are snatched up so quickly, many companies make sure they’re paid well enough to not be tempted to join a competitor. And because of the huge amount of global public pressure this industry is under to make things as efficient and as green as possible, all of the big companies are in need of more engineers than ever before. It’s a good time to be working in this industry, and the pay cheque will, in general, reflect that.
There is, however, a potential downside to this specific profession. These engineers should not be afraid to get their hands dirty working with the raw materials of the job – this is big, heavy, and at times dangerous machinery, and these kind of jobs shouldn’t be taken on if you don’t feel like this will be within your comfort zone.
Chemical Engineers
Chemical engineers can make a huge difference in an industry where a new perspective is a highly valued thing. Essentially, a chemical engineer will be dealing with the engineering of chemicals, energy and the processes that can create and/or convert them. Although most chemical engineers will come from a chemical background, the ones that don’t often get to cherry-pick the best jobs in the business. When chemical companies look for engineers, they are looking for engineers – not another chemist who did a few extra modules at university. Having been trained to look critically and originally at a production process, engineers are well respected.
To get into this area of employment, however, an engineering graduate has to do a lot of extra work in securing a few extra qualifications in chemistry. This means a few more years of hard work and studying, but when it’s all over, a chemical engineer will very much rule the roost within their sector – there’s simply not enough chemical engineers available to every company, and they’re always looking for more.
Biomedical Engineers
To work in this industry a graduate has to have good working knowledge of biology, chemistry, medical science and of course engineering, and must be able to use all of this knowledge and experience in tandem to get results. Jobs in this sector are very well paid (simply because it’s so difficult and requires truly excellent minds) and rewarding – biomedical engineers develop technology that, ultimately, saves lives.
Work in developing things like advanced artificial limbs and organs, or into imaging processes that allows doctors to get a better insight into patients’ bodies, are just some of the opportunities available to people working within biomedical engineering. Yes, it’s immensely difficult, but it’s a truly great job to have, and will tend to be focused towards research and development more than any other on this list, meaning anyone working in this capacity will always have something exciting on their plate.
