How to Strategically Pick Your Engineering Major (Pt. 1)

This is something that no one talks about. It's about how to strategically pick your college major. The first question you want to ask yourself is what environment do you want to work in? Do you want to work in the office, the field, a lab, a manufacturing plant, or a mix? For example, if you know that you want to work in a lab or manufacturing plant, you should probably choose something like chemical engineering. But if you know that you want to work in a lab, then bioengineering is probably your best bet. Next is where do you want to live? Do you want to live on the East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, or South? For example, if you're someone who's interested in nuclear engineering, then you probably need to live near those nuclear plants. And if you're not willing to do so, then that's probably not the major for you. The next question is what type of problems do you enjoy solving? Do you like analyzing things? Do you like building things? Do you like programming? Do you like research? The next question is, how much interaction do you want with people? For example, if you're someone who's very shy and introverted, then a customer-facing role probably isn't for you. What lifestyle do you want? Do you want a traditional 9-5? Do you want to work shift work? Do you want to travel frequently? Do you want lots of overtime or predictable hours? Next is what industries genuinely interest you? Energy, aerospace, medical devices, transportation, construction, manufacturing, utilities, defense, software/tech. Number seven, what do you want your day-to-day work to look like? Do you want to be sitting at a computer? Do you want to be walking job sites? Do you want to be working with equipment? Number eight, how important is compensation versus interest? Am I optimizing for salary, passion, stability, work-life balance, or some combination? And number nine, what skills am I naturally good at? Are you naturally good at data analysis? Are you really good with Excel, Power BI, Python? Do you enjoy hands-on work? Do you enjoy CAD and 3D modeling? Do you like circuit design? Once you've done all this, you have essentially mapped out what your dream job looks like. And then from there, we can work backwards. I'll make a part two and on a little bit more in depth about that.