What Can You Do with Your Degree?

You name it! You can engage in traditional engineering, invent new products, enter the law profession, enter the medical profession, go into engineering sales, manage engineers and other employees, lead/head a company, start/own a company, teach engineering/math/science courses, and much more.  MEs are almost everywhere and in almost every company, leading and providing support.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (May of 2014) shows that MEs have a strong presence in a majority of the engineering job markets in the US. Following are approximate numbers of engineers employed in the US in 2014:

• Electrical & Electronics- 315,900
• Civil- 281,400
• Mechanical- 277,500
• Industrial- 241,400
• Aerospace- 72,500
• Petroleum- 35,100
• Chemical- 34,300
• Materials- 25,300
• Nuclear- 16,800
• Mining & Geological- 8,300
• Agricultural- 2,900

Per BLS projections over the next ten years, annual ME job growth is predicted to be 5%. Although overall employment numbers will increase over those ten years, relative numbers of engineers are expected to remain approximately constant. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics show approximate ratios of engineers in a few well-known industries (May of 2014):

• Aerospace Parts Manufacturing (Mechanical/Aerospace Engineers)- 1/2
• Architect, Engineering and Related (Mechanical/Civil Engineers)- 1/2
• Automotive Manufacturing (Mechanical/Industrial Engineers)- 1/2.5
• Chemical Manufacturing (Mechanical/Chemical Engineers)- 1/4
• Heating, Ventilating, & AC Industry (Mechanical/All Other Eng. Discipl.)- 1/2
• Petroleum & Coal Products Manufacturing (Mechanical/Chemical)- 1/2
• Petroleum & Coal Products Manufacturing (Mechanical/Petroleum)- 1/3