About This Lesson
If you excel at science and math or have a love for technology, a career in engineering may be for you. Engineers combine these three things to design, research, develop and test applications, software, and hardware to solve complex technical problems. The field of engineering offers more choices right now than any other career. There are six major branches of engineering, but each branch has hundreds of subcategories that you can go into. Here is a list of the six major branches to give you an overall picture of the types of careers you can go into.
Electrical Engineering
Whether you get your degree in a physical location or get an online masters in electrical engineering, the median salary for an electrical engineer is $95,230. Electrical engineers are experts in power supply and generation. They develop, design, test, and supervise the manufacturing of electrical equipment and solve problems of how to get power to operate or improve electrical equipment. They have also been trained to wire and light automobiles, buildings, and aircraft. Industries that you may potentially end up in with this career choice include construction, manufacturing, and design.
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering studies motion, energy, and force. They design, develop, build, and test mechanical devices such as tools, engines, and machines. The median salary for a mechanical engineer is $83,590, with a growth rate of 5% over the next ten years. In most cases, a mechanical engineer is tasked with creating or harnessing the energy found in household appliances such as refrigerators, boilers, and air conditioners. Other fields that require a mechanical engineering degree include product design, manufacturing, energy, systems management, and research and development.
Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineers work with the smallest blocks of life - atoms and molecules. They are trained to convert basic raw materials into other products. The development of new materials in this manner is crucial in fields like energy storage, nanotechnology, and computing. The median salary for a chemical engineer is $97,360 with a growth rate of 2% over the next ten years.
Civil Engineering
Civil engineers specialize in bridges, roads, buildings, water supply system designs, sewage system designs, and construction. This is an important position that leads and directs crews of people to build and construct buildings to ensure that they can withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. Also called a construction engineer, this job focuses primarily on the construction field. The growth rate is expected to be 8% over the next ten years and has a median salary of $82,220.
Management Engineer
Management engineering focuses on using knowledge and skills from industrial engineering to organize, monitor, and develop efficient business strategies. These jobs can be held in any field that uses and implements processes in their business, which opens a wide range of potential for prospective jobs. The median salary for this career is $115,000 and is expected to grow 3% over the next ten years. A management engineer also often manages other groups of engineers to see projects through to completion.
Geotechnical Engineer
A geotechnical engineer is a specialization within civil engineering that involves looking at and understanding the functions of the earth and elements. This can include studying water tables and flood plains to determine the best way to build around the environment as well as looking at how the topsoil and geography will affect construction. With a median salary of $81,147, this field is expected to grow by 11% over the next decade, which is the highest growth rate of the different branches of engineering.
With these six main branches of engineering, you should have some idea of what the job prospects would look like under each field. Engineering degrees open people up to not only a wide range of jobs, but a very competitive salary. With a few years of experience in the field under your best, you may end up earning well over six figures in this field.
