Engineering vs Medicine

didn't know where to post this but I want know your thoughts on these two courses. Personally I prefer engineering.

Max1989

Is this asking about what course you want to do or just general discussion? And if engineering what type? Plus I'm going to study the closest thing to the combination of both courses.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 2

NeonGlue

Just a general discussion of the two, career prospects and employability.

Reply 3

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by NeonGlue

Just a general discussion of the two, career prospects and employability.

Career prospects:
-Medicine: basically guaranteed a job, and good salary
-Engineering: can vary widely, some engineering grads struggle to find a job & get $hit pay, some get a very high paying jobs straight out (like 6figures+ in 3-5 years), average engineers get a grad scheme that starts at like £28k then goes up to around £40K in 3-4 years then slowly increases, if u get into management you will probably earn around £100k increasing dependant on what level you get too.

Overall i think medicine is very safe career with a strong salary (average medic earns more than an average engineer), personally i think engineers have a better job culture and lifestyle, normally get more job perks as well and engineering degrees opens more career doors up (IP, finance, R&D, corporate grad schemes & many other things)...

Just depends what you want...

Reply 4

Max1989

Original post by NeonGlue

Just a general discussion of the two, career prospects and employability.

Fair enoof. There are a few jobs humans will always need, engineers and doctors are some of them.

I admire people who do medicine as it's a gruelling career, career prospects are probably the best out of any course, as the NHS especially is short on staff, all medical careers are good that involves seeing patients, also prospects going abroad are amazing. If you stay in the UK then you'll be working in the NHS (depending on specialty) as there are few private clinics and they are usually oversubscribed due to higher pay. Medicine is satisfying but it's also hard work with long shifts and not ideal pay, but most people is medicine are there for what they give back to society, and I appreciate that.

Engineering I'm more inclined to like as I'm more mathsy, but career prospects are slightly worse, although pretty good depending on the discipline and Uni. Unlike medicine the 'market' fluctuates of which engineering is required. We are going into the next stage of humanity which is causing mechanical and chemical engineer demand to lower and electrical and computing to rise. This may not be the case forever but we are going into a more digitised rather than mechanical future. Engineering disciplines can be applied to almost any job in the engineering world however, so there are lots of jobs out there. Some disciplines are over subscribed so that might harm your chances (although I do not know the exact details).