Why I Became an Engineer
We’ve all been at that point in our lives. We’re in our last year of high school, we need to which major to apply to in which university. It’s never an easy decision.
This decision holds the direction your life will be going from here on out. A commitment of 3 years at a minimum that you can rarely back out from. I was facing this choice 5 years ago.
I already knew where I was going to study receiving a fully funded education at Lebanon’s best university, The American University of Beirut. The only problem is — I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I looked at the application form browsing the major catalogues to decide what seemed most appealing to me.
I had always been interested in Science, so I knew I wouldn’t do any business, art, or literature-related major. This didn’t narrow down my choices much. There was still Medicine, Biology, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Medical Lab, etc.
There were around 20 majors I could choose from and just as many choices that I could regret for the rest of my life. I was kind of good at all the scientific subjects at school, so I didn’t know which would be the best to study.
Let’s walk through my thought process.
Biology? If I do it, I’ll have to do premed and do medicine after or I won’t find a proper job. Do I want to study for the next 7 or more years of my life? No, thank you.
Medical Lab or other Medical sciences? I would have a repetitive job with mediocre pay for the rest of my life. Not only that, but the job would most likely be physically draining to a certain degree. Next!
Chemistry? I’d rather die.
Physics? Now, here it got a little interesting. I’ve always been a fan of the stereotypical famous physicists. It was sort of a theme at that time. Nikola Tesla, Stephen Hawking, and Albert Einstein were all very appealing figures. The hype that quantum physics had also made me want to learn about it. Physics was definitely a top contender for me.
Now comes the engineering majors: Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Communication, Industrial, Civil, Biomedical, and Chemical Engineering. The problem was, I found all of these interesting and I didn’t know which to choose. All of these majors gave me a future I could accept having for the rest of my life.
Now, came the hard part. I made a list of the majors I found interesting and would like to discover. Here came a lot of research about each major and what jobs I could get after getting a degree in each of them.
I found that many had common career paths. Chemical and Mechanical Engineers were quite similar with some exceptions. This was also the case for Electrical and Mechanical. All Civil Engineering jobs seemed boring to me (sorry, not a fan of concrete). Computer Engineering and Computer Science never really had my attention that strongly; they didn’t have enough physics in them. Industrial Engineering was pretty much a Business with some general engineering and optimization courses.
Eventually, I crossed out Communication and Biomedical Engineering simply because I didn’t find it as interesting as the other majors. Also, the jobs engineering majors offered seemed way cooler than any Physics job. Many physicists also simply ended up doing engineering jobs.
That leaves us with 3 choices: Mechanical, Electrical, and Chemical. I think you know how this will go. I couldn’t decide which I liked the most, so I ended up picking the most general one among the three.
The winner is *drum roll* Mechanical Engineering!
Today, I have finished my Mechanical Engineering degree and I’m pursuing my masters degree in Power Engineering. Although I am returning to a more electrical-dominated field, I do not regret my choice. Thanks to studying Mechanical Engineering I was able to get an insight into almost all engineering disciplines and know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life. I believe Mechanical Engineering is the best major for someone who likes all branches of physics and would like to have more options moving forward in their career.
Thank you for reading! If you’d like to support me, feel free to follow me Writer Thinker and More. Also, let me know how you picked your major!
