My younger sister has just finished school this year, she has done computer engineering and now has to decide what she wants to do in university. She got good marks in her finals and was the only girl amoung the class of boys. She wants to join the technical university and well I think is leaning towards civil engineering.
But is not so sure and wants to know the scope of this field. Its 6 semester bachalor and 4 semester masters programm.
She wants to know if its a very difficult field or would someone who has been good in school will be able to cope.
And what is the scope internationaly?
I have my reservations that its a man dominated field but she says it can be of benefit to be a female in male dominated profession!
I was thinking, maybe it will be too much of work and responsibility and she should think long term (family oriented), which she will. She doesnt want the easy way but wants to use this time and do something good that will help her in future career!!
So here I am out of advice for her as its not my field or nor do I have any knowlege. If there are civil engineers here and can tell a bit about their profession and study.
Civil Engineers are the lowest paid group of engineers out of all the disciplines
Where are you from? I suppose thats the first question
In the UK and in most other countries chemical engineers are the highest paid, I'm a chemical engineer myself and if she does become a chemical engineer she should try to get into the oil and gas field. Chemical engineering also contains the highest proportion of women when compared to the other engineering disciplines.
It is a good time to be an engineer but choose carefully
Hey Rizwan thanks for the reply. I really apperciate it
We are in Vienna/Austria. Well I also told her to do something in oil or gas field, for that she has to go to another city & university and I dont think that my parents will be so happy of her living somewhere else all by herself. So thats kind of out of question.
Well I'll let her know that civil engineers are not well paid. But what about responsibility and job chances?
Do they have to work on the location and with workers?
What other hot fields are there other than chemical and civil?
let her do what she want's to do, this is what i think, You can get/earn a lot if you are master of someting and specially if you have some interested in.
you are right am@islamabad but thats the problem, she cant really decide what she wants to do at the moment.
She is looking around and asking her professors and friends.
Austria must be nice, I have to visit it someday...
If your sister wants to do civil engineering, think, do you have civil engineering opportunities in Austria?
Likewise if she decided to do chemical engineering do you have a good oil and gas structure there? Do you have oil and gas consultancies there? I'm not saure what the industry is like in Austria
The thing with chemical engineering is you can go into a wide range of industries when you have finished. If you did something like civil engineering then you can basically go into one type of industry.
Example of industries where chemical engineers work are food, chemical, oil and gas, manufacturing etc
It is really up to her, i dont want to influence her in anyway only to find out she does not enjoy her job
The main exports of Austria are Machinery, metals, paper, textiles and food. Do something where she will be employed. Maybe Engineering is not such a good idea in a country like Austria.
If in the future you want to move out of Austria to another country then again you need the experience first so its no point in doing chemical engineering or civil engineering with the plan on moving out when you cant get the experience in Austria in the first place. Get it?
Anyway What subjects does she really enjoy? What does she enjoy doing?
Anyway What subjects does she really enjoy? What does she enjoy doing?
Rizwan ..... she has said "she cant really decide what she wants to do at the moment". So i guess there's no clear option for her right now.
Saadia .... why doesn't she continue on 'Computers'? At least, you'd find it everywhere even if u move out of Austria. I know there's lots of competition in this field but as you said she's good at studies then definitely she can make it in the job market as well. If she'd go for Computer Science, then most of the jobs are not field-work at all. You can even sometimes work from home.
I’ll leave it to the civil engineers on the forum (ghalib and hmcq) to comment on the scope and opportunities in that field globally.
However, if she’s considering “computers”, then she can explore one of Computer Science OR Information Systems (often referred to as Informatics in European Institutions) OR Information Technology. It all boils down to what her aptitude is in…
If she enjoys mathematical challenges and would thrive in studying and composing algorithms and data structures, then go for Computer Science.
If she wants to specialize in business applications of technologies and mainly concentrate on strategic implementation and management of technologies, then an Information Systems / Informatics program may be best.
Lastly, if she wants to work at an administration level with technologies, i.e. learn a cross-section of skills in programming (without the details of algorithms and mathematics), networks, and databases, then an Information Technology program would be good.
According to statistics published by CIO magazine, there’s going to be a shortage of IT workers again in another 5 years because of a dearth in enrolment over the past years (since the e-Commerce bubble burst)… so there are great prospects in any of the above mentioned fields.
Last but not the least, if she’s considering engineering disciplines, then I’d certainly recommend that she look into Industrial Engineering. I dunno about Europe, but here in North America, there are ample opportunities for people who have a good combination of engineering and management skills, and Industrial Engineering is the most holistic program for learning these.
Thanks Curious and Umar, I asked her to register here and comment herself, hope she will make an appearence, she was a bit concered about her english though and her first time posting.
Engineering
Austrian engineers are trained in mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, civil engineering, chemistry and biology, and agrarian engineering. Mechanical engineering is an important sector of the Austrian engineering industry, and the Austrian government heavily supports mechanical engineering initiatives. Because some of the
leading car producers operate out of Austria, the primary emphasis is on engine production. There is a growing need for skilled and experienced engineers, leading to an increased demand for foreign experts. Most of the engineers in Austria are employed by foreign companies or by companies with a foreign affiliation.
Engineering degrees may be obtained from Fachhochschulen (FH), a state financed school, or technical university. A high school diploma, or the equivalent, is necessary to attend a university or FH. To be a state certified engineer, it is necessary to complete a course of study in engineering and have three years of experience in the field. Only Austrian citizens can receive this certification. Due to Austria's membership in the EU, foreign engineering degrees are accepted as equal to Austrian engineering degrees. At the moment, there are efforts to promote the use of the title Eur Ing (European Engineer) in order to standardize the certifications and eliminate the differences in requirements between European countries. The VOI trade association has useful information on its website
**CuR10u$, **why she doesnt want to continue in computers, because she says that she has done is for 5 years and is kind of full of it and there were some subject and due to some few teachers she doesnt want to do it again. But she is still considering it, I also told her to do something in information technology as there is still lots of jobs in this field here and she was also good in it. She liked Media Technology.
But as its a personal choice, I think she has to decide for herself.
Rizwan, thats nice piece of information there, I’ll tell her to read it herself.
She has studied computers for 5 yrs and is full of it!?
You mean she has already got Bachelor’s in computers … I thought she’s just going to Univ. for bachelor’s.
And now will be doing another Bachelor’s in a totally different field like Civil or Chemical … right? It means her 5 yrs study would be of no use… I’m confused here .
Oh sorry .. here in Austria, you can do High School in different directions kind of like concentrations hmm like in economics, cs (5 years) and some others or just normal High School for 4 years after doing 8 years of school education.
So in all its 13 years of school with concentration on computer science, well she is not so full of it, but wants to do something new I guess!
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