Engineering majors should stay on task

I am a Purdue Chemical Engineering class of 1988 and I agree that freshman engineers should beware. Beware that at some point in your college career you will doubt the field you have chosen to study. You will see engineers as mindless, number crunching, mundane zombies. You will want to switch out of engineering to the magical "something else" that is so perfect. I had the exact same feelings during my junior year and wanted to switch majors into something else.

Luckily I had an adviser that convinced me to stay the course.

Engineering isn't about crunching numbers all day long. It's about

developing and implementing solutions to real life problems. If you are a problem solver, a career in engineering is very rewarding. You envision solutions, work with R&D, manufacturing, quality, planning, etc. and implement your solution. It's tangible and its real. You work in teams with energetic and creative people. Number crunching is typically less than one percent of your job. Engineering provides a rock-solid base from which you can do so much more. That is why the engineering job market is better than most others (even today). Take a look at the CEOs of the Fortune 500 and see how many of them have engineering backgrounds.

So my advice to freshman engineers is keep your eyes on the horizon. The immersion in numerical calisthenics can get you down after a few years, but rest assured that your career will be something far more exciting and rewarding.

Gerry Gherardini

Purdue Alumni

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