I like engineering, I do have a passion for it, and I've always the seen the value of doing an engineering degree since a very young age.
I have always been told by teachers, friends and family that Engineers "will never worry about unemployment" and they are highly respected in society.
So now I will be going to Warwick this year to start studying engineering, I have been doing a lot more research and this doesn't necessarily look like it is the case.
There are so many articles in the Guardian and Telegraph, with loads of comments from people who did engineering, saying they were treated terrible in the UK and given low pay with little opportunity to every climb higher, and that they went abroad to the Middle-East or Germany where they were highly repsected and given double the salaries with little tax to pay. Many of them advised people not to go into engineering in this day and age. They said Engineering firms in the UK just want to employ engineers as cheaply as possible, and that is why so many of them go into different sectors
Examples (check the comments):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/8729050/Engineering-graduates-choosing-to-work-in-other-sectors.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/10139818/Lack-of-engineers-means-Britain-ill-prepared-for-future.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9936226/One-in-five-must-become-an-engineer.htmlExample comments:
" After 40 years in Research and Development, armed with an HND in Mech Eng I am qualified to state that,
1) The pay is crap
2) The pension is crap
3) The career structure is wobbly, especially when you see manufacturing crumble and the prospects get worse and worse
4) The pensionable age is higher than a lot of public sector jobs, and getting higher
5) There is no status
"" I am CEng retired having worked in engineering all my life.
A couple of points, I spent some time in Germany at double the salary I could earn in the UK.
I have heard the comment from various sources over the years that " we need to improve the image of engineers" This was rubbish because the image of engineers was always the correct one. Low pay, no respect. Engineering isn't seen as a profession in the UK.
Finally, I have watched many people scramble to get away from the technical side of engineering into management and sales for more money,prestige and often less responsibility. No can to carry when things go wrong.
Wouldn't recommend engineering to someone bright enough to follow other opportunities.
"To back this up, a good friend of mine who graduated from Warwick last year and did the same course as I will is now working at The Royal Bank of Scotland. He was very passionate about engineering in the beginning I remember, but I asked him about his career choices and he said that he chose to go into finance simply because his numeracy and problem solving skills were much more highly valued there, he received much better pay and that it raised his position socially...
To any engineers out there who have graduated or are studying engineering, is this really true? Is the engineering sector in the UK really hopeless, and should I be looking in other sectors for employment while doing and after finishing my degree or consider going abroad?