Originally Posted by
Sabby
I have to say it's great being a statistician. I taught at Emory U for a couple of years. My husband is a tenure track professor there in a different field. He's very stressed about funding and grants. So, I can't say I would recommend to my son to go the academia route. But, government or corporate routes for statisticians are good careers tracks. At least it's been good to me.
But I am surprised to hear that it's tough to be an engineer.
I can tell you that, as of right now...he's 12 and he wants to design top tier sports/super cars. So he wants to become an engineer. I cannot, in good conscience, dissuade him from that! It certainly seems sexy and it's definitely STEM. Perhaps it will grow more realistic as he gets older but I think its' a good goal for a 12 year old.
The problem is...each of us have given talents. Take engineering. It is more a calling than a choice. I was tuning my parent's cars when I was 12 years old.
Engineering is a very uncertain track based upon global competition and outsourcing of manufacturing. Bike frames are made in Tiawan for good reason. As goes manufacturing, so goes engineering jobs. The dilemma for the college student today is choosing a field with a perceived long term demand. Health care field seems pretty solid with the aging population of boomers howeve some serious headwinds with Obamacare looming. Unclear as to what the future holds for teachers....funding and changing ciricula cloud things...will always need teachers at some level but China may end up manufacturing most things we use in America....or another emerging country where they are kicking out more engineers per capita compared to America. Science majors are way down as you know here...partly because it isn't rewarded.