[Gen.Blather]

Of the people I’ve known and asked, it was mostly engineers who were working in the field they studied in college. Most of the others had jobs unrelated to their studied field. Why? I suspect it was mostly due to there not really being lots of remunerative jobs in things like journalism or “art.” I knew a very successful production manager, later director, who started life as a history teacher. He told me, approximatly, “If you want to have a family and pursue the American dream you need a job with more open-ended potential. I could tell you how much money I’d be making as a teacher in ten years or twenty and it was pitiful. I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose history.”

[Alberta's Child]

Good post. I’m an engineer by trade. One reason engineering majors tend to go on and work in their field is that the undergraduate education gets very specialized early on. My first-year course load was dominated by STEM courses that would have been spread out over 5-6 semesters in any other major (if they even took them at all). My first specialized courses in my major showed up on my curriculum in the first semester of my sophomore year. As a result, many of these first and second year courses don’t necessarily transfer well to other fields if the student changes majors.

What this also means is that — unlike many other majors — very few people enter an engineering undergraduate program if they’re uncertain about their major. A STEM major is not the right place to find out whether you like a chosen career field.

[bert]

In retirement, I have attended several weeklong workshops with intense hands on metal work training. They take place in the studios of schools of fine arts.

At one evening introductory visit to the glass studio, the resident artist began with the question?

“What is the difference between an artist making things from glass and a Domino’s large pizza? “

Hmmmm....... The Domino’s pizza will feed a family of four

[plain talk]

“Of the people I’ve known and asked, it was mostly engineers who were working in the field they studied in college. “

Engineering is a solid field. Jobs are competitive but pay well. I was lucky to never get laid off and there was plenty of challenging work throughout my career.

[fretzer]

>I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose history.

I’ve encountered two historians which made the switch to engineering management and have done well. The exception rather than the rule.