I’m telling relatives with kids that engineering is now a loser as a degree — it’s a big investment in time and money, and in a couple of years the job will be outsourced to India anyway with the U.S. government either looking the other way or being in full support.
As an engineer (20 yrs)and engineering manager for 8 yrs, I have never been unemployed and my job has never been outsourced. This is also the case for 6 other engineers across two generations in my family.
In my opinion, the IT industry is the one that is usually held up as the example of outsourcing and is not representative of other engineering careers available.
I am not claiming that my experience is representative of the entire country or all industries. I am just giving my personal perspective.
I hope your rels aren’t listening to you because if they are, they’re screwing their kids over. BS is the only degree that pays anything!