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What are some possible career paths for engineering majors?

I am currently a high school senior that was directly admitted into the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. I am simply curious to see what jobs are out there for my type of major.
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Ken’s Answer

Congratulations on being admitted to college. The next step is to get to know more about yourself and meet and talk to people involved in various areas of engineering to see which feels most comfortable for you. During my years of college recruiting, I have encountered too many students who skipped this step and ended up in a situation where they did not like or were not comfortable with the practical application of what they studied. Here are some steps which will help you to prevent that from happening.

Ken recommends the following next steps:

One of the best ways to find out which area of engineering might be most appropriate for you would be to take an interest and aptitude test, which will allow you to see how your personality traits match with people in various career areas. You can do that while you are still in high school, which would be preferable, as you would have more time to do step 2, or you could do it when you get to college, but you would be involved in much chaos in starting school, so you might not want to do it then, unless you cannot do it sooner.
Talk to the person at your school and college who works with and tracks graduates to arrange to meet and talk to graduates who are working in the areas most consistent with your testing, to see how you feel about what they are doing in relation to what you might want to do. Visiting and shadowing and participating internships and coop programs are great ways to get that knowledge and feel for the career area. Also, arrange to meet and talk to graduates of your school who are currently attending or have graduated from the University of Washington, as they will be able to give you much guidance and helpful information and support, which will be invaluable when you get to campus.
Locate professional associations to which people in your career area of interest belong, so that you can talk to and get to know people working in those areas of interest. Here is a site that will allow you to locate such associations, many of which offer internships and even scholarship opportunities. ## https://www.careeronestop.org/BusinessCenter/Toolkit/find-professional-associations.aspx?&frd=true ##
Visit these sites, which will allow you to get to know more about the vast areas of engineering: ## https://www.engineergirl.org/ ## ## http://www.futureengineers.org/ ## ## https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zVcmTJSKM ##
Let me know if and how this might help.
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Christopher’s Answer

Hi Melissa,

Well congrats on being admitted into the College of Engineering. That, in and of itself, is cause for celebration. Since we, as engineers, are a problem solving bunch there actually are a ton of avenues for us to find a career. Please look into all of the types of engineering first and foremost...Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, CS/CE, et al. Then you might be surprised to find out the number of engineers (by formal education) have excelled in public policy, economics and even law. That foundation of curiosity and problem solving emboldens your approach to whatever your interests are and whatever they evolve into. I'd say go boldly into your engineering program, take full advantage of talking with your peers, you professors, find an engineering mentor and get your first summer internship. Once you have a growing breadth of experience(s) under your belt, you can do an azimuth adjustment with great confidence and tune your life interests into a career start. I hope this helps :)
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