Civil Engineering Job Outlook

By: Nash Roberts

      As many know an engineering degree, especially from Michigan State University's college of Engineering, can really take you places but will this trend continue? Right now all signs are pointing to yes. Which is fortunate for anyone on the path to becoming an engineer or even high school students with aspirations of going into the trade.
      One reason for this constant and exponential increase in demand is population growth. As new people are born into this world they will need somewhere to live and grow up. That is where engineers come in, to build a suburb it takes engineers of all kinds. An environmental engineer to determine the effect it will have on the local ecosystem, a structural engineer to design sound houses, a civil engineer plan roads and even a electrical engineer to provide power. As one can see the demand for engineers is not going away anytime soon.
     Competition is another reason that this demand is not going away. This competition is most evident between fortune 500 companies such as Apple and Samsung. While a lot is done with marketing there is still a small but important component that has to do with the technology put in the phones. Apple does a great job of branding but that is not the entire reason why they are so successful, they have the best engineers and programmers in the world. An unfathomable amount of engineering goes into every phone, from the motherboard to the camera to the frame itself. This is all driven by completion and this war between companies and even countries has only increased the number of engineers demanded because the more engineers that are hired the more knowledgeable perspectives that company or country has, and maybe this gives them a slight edge.
      The last and maybe most important cause behind the hiring of engineers is development of second and third world countries. In the last couple of decades there have been initiatives put in place to help underdeveloped countries in places like east Africa. To help these counties not only did the governmental infrastructure have be overhauled but also the physical infrastructure within the cities and the surrounding neighborhoods. To do this engineers were called upon to help these struggling countries get back on their feet. To me this is one of the most selfless things a person can do. Taking a sizable pay-cut to help out complete strangers in need.
      I did not want to become an engineer because of job security but rather because it is the best way I know how to help other people. I want to be able to measure life not by the number in my bank account but rather by the number of lives I am able to positively affect.

Citations

•      "Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17 Dec. 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.