Engineering as a career

Smartphones, planes, cars, TVs, laptops, tablets, switches, routers, scanners, drones, 3-d printers, robots, manufacturing equipment, someone needs to design these things. Someone needs to build these machines. Someone needs to figure out the circuitry, the storage, the wiring, the plastic, the glass, the packaging, the portability and how the data gets in and how the data gets out. This is what engineers do. They build hardware. They build every single device we use, from remote controls to bullet trains.

And what runs all of these devices? Software. Things are no longer inanimate. They have life. They think. They move. They detect. They respond to our requests and do our bidding. They go higher into the sky and dive deeper into the ocean. They talk to each other. They avoid other things. They learn. Every bit of hardware needs software to tell it what to do. Engineers write this software.

With the advancement in technology and the hectic lifestyle of the working population there will be no one left to take care of the aged. They will need care. They will need pharmaceuticals. They will need new body parts. They will need machines to help their hearts beat and their lungs to breathe. They will need aids to help them walk and eat. Engineers make these things.

Today the world’s population is 7.1 billion people. In the next 30 years the population is expected to increase to 9.6 billion. The population of India alone will rise to 1.6 billion in 2050, from 1.2 billion in 2014. More people will require more roads, more bridges, more tunnels, better transportation systems, higher buildings, comfortable homes, safer cars, faster planes and better infrastructure. Engineers will also make these things.

Worldwide deaths from battle have plunged from 300 per 100,000 people during World War II to less than one in the 21st century. Most countries have realized the benefit of peace. So they’re investing in education. They’re building better products. And they are searching for smart people, like engineers, to help them to do this. They are trying to over power each other through the use of advanced technology and space research. They need engineers to create machines that will assist them in doing the same.

Being an engineer means you’re technical. But if you’ve got other skills, like analytical, marketing, communications, sales, and finance or legal you can build off your engineering background to run companies, motivate teams, educate groups and lead the effort to innovate and make the world a better place. Look around at the CEO’s of our most exciting new startups, the investors in our greatest companies, the partners of our smartest law firms, the business owners who make up the backbone of our country’s economy and you’ll find engineers who have the ability to manage other technical people because they are technical themselves.