Why I Want to Be an Engineer

¶ … Engineer

A popular joke posted on the flat hats of robed college graduates, listening to commencement speakers it the phrase -- 'will deconstruct for food.' In other words, now that this college graduate has a pricey liberal arts education that has taken him or her four years to obtain -- what does he or she do now? Also, last year, just "over half of all employers said they would raise starting salaries for new hires in the coming year. Those that do increase pay will make only modest adjustments, boosting salaries by 3.4% on average." (Geary, 2003)

The confusion expressed by such slogans as 'will deconstruct for food,' is often not reflective simply of what the graduate knows how to do -- he or she hopefully knows how to think and to engage in critical analysis, but what he or she wants to do with the rest of his or her vocational life. In other words, what skills does the graduate possess that are marketable and useful to society?

Engineering graduates never post 'will do quadratic equations for food' on the backs of their tasseled caps. They have been studying for a professional occupation for their entire undergraduate lives for an education that will enable them to create more functional computer, electrical, and mechanical systems. These engineering undergraduates can walk away from their university education with a certainty that only professional graduates from medical or law schools can vouch, after far longer periods spent in school -- these engineers have the ability to enter a respectable profession with desirable and marketable technical skills.

Engineers know what to do and how to do it and how to be useful to employers. Immediately upon graduation engineers enters a professional class of employment, with a degree that is marketable anywhere in the world the engineer may chose to move.

As an electrical engineer, who is from a family of engineers, admittedly I am a bit biased when I assert that engineers 'do it better' -- i.e. It is better to walk away from college with marketable knowledge and a set of skills, in addition to knowing how to express one's self and to read and think like a college graduate. I consider my love and ability of math and science great gifts. I would like to use my passions for these difficult yet rewarding subjects to give back to the world, for I know these are fields many find quite complicated. But engineers have the power to reform telecommunications, to make it easier for bridges to stand so commuters can better enter the cities of the future, and to create electrical systems that enable quicker and more functional connections between systems and humans.