Why is Engineering such a popular profession?

So I just travelled to India (for family visits), and I was surprised how many of my blood relatives are/were engineers. I even have a cousin sister who is my age studying computer engineering at college. Even family from my step mum's side, the majority of them are engineers. Not to mention I have friends in the UK taking Engineering courses at university. Why do you think Engineering is such a popular occupation?

Engineering is a term that has many prefixes, I would question if all engineering is equal.

Because you get to play with expensive equipment, build stuff that lasts and make decent money.

As previously mentioned, engineering is a profession with many prefixes. Similar to a doctor where you'd put more practical value in an MD or a surgeon as opposed to a PhD in literature or podiatrist. Similarly, computer engineers are probably a dime a dozen in India and a lot of asian countries.

Originally posted by TheIndyJedi
So I just travelled to India (for family visits), and I was surprised how many of my blood relatives are/were engineers. I even have a cousin sister who is my age studying computer engineering at college. Even family from my step mum's side, the majority of them are engineers. Not to mention I have friends in the UK taking Engineering courses at university. Why do you think Engineering is such a popular occupation?

Originally posted by TheIndyJedi
So I just travelled to India (for family visits), and I was surprised how many of my blood relatives are/were engineers. I even have a cousin sister who is my age studying computer engineering at college. Even family from my step mum's side, the majority of them are engineers. Not to mention I have friends in the UK taking Engineering courses at university. Why do you think Engineering is such a popular occupation?

According to an Indian friend, he claims it's simply easier for Indians to get work, by the "batch" system.

Essentially, a large block of coders/engineers/what have you gets packaged together as a block, and sold overseas. Some are good, some not. Often, they are fitted with fabricated resumes.

Management doesn't really care, because the point is to replace more expensive domestic labor, with foreign labor.

That's not to.say Indians aren't well paid. They are. But, they might make, say, half of what a US citizen makes. This obviously varies at the upper and lower ends..

Of course, since there so many Indians in the system, they can help stragglers who don't go through the usual route get in, too. A friend of mine just turned 40, has zero work experience, and got several corporate job interviews due to connections in the industry.

This is something an inexperienced prospect isn't likely to be able to pull, through tradtional channels.

Id assume most of them started with a love for trains at a young age and their passion for driving them grew from there.

Why is Engineering such a popular profession

I'd imagine it has much to do with bandwagon hopping and over-hyping of the field. It's the same reason why you see so many zealous pre-meds, pre-law, etc students. Prospects of a high-paying, 40-hour work-week job where you get to create 'cool' technology appeals to your average, naive high-school student.

Many do not understand that much of what your typical engineer does is sit in a cubicle all day, develop hemorrhoids, and play with AutoCad while they think about the last time a female other than their mother touched them (the answer is usually never btw).

Not all engineering programs are created equal, and many for-profit schools are emerging to take advantage of this 'hot-trend'. Outsourcing of commodity engineering jobs is very much a real threat for those not graduating from top-tier schools in developed countries.

Originally posted by cdtm
According to an Indian friend, he claims it's simply easier for Indians to get work, by the "batch" system.

Essentially, a large block of coders/engineers/what have you gets packaged together as a block, and sold overseas. Some are good, some not. Often, they are fitted with fabricated resumes.

Management doesn't really care, because the point is to replace more expensive domestic labor, with foreign labor.

That's not to.say Indians aren't well paid. They are. But, they might make, say, half of what a US citizen makes. This obviously varies at the upper and lower ends..

Of course, since there so many Indians in the system, they can help stragglers who don't go through the usual route get in, too. A friend of mine just turned 40, has zero work experience, and got several corporate job interviews due to connections in the industry.

This is something an inexperienced prospect isn't likely to be able to pull, through tradtional channels.

From a recent email:

Dude . There are exaggerations. But people I associated with are giving me good reference.

I dont pay anything... Some Indian recruiters add stuff and market me... They will be taking 20 percent of my pay. I am trying through them also

Dude what Indian recruiters do is quite common...

Keep in mind, this guy has zero work history.. Meaning, when he says "exaggerations", he means lies.

I guess fabricated resumes is nothing new though. The difference is, this is a systemic thing with India where literally everyone does it, and helps out everyone else.

Chuck is probably right about bandwagon hopping. That naturally comes about if all your friends are going into something, and you think there's prospects there.

to a status driven family it has everything in somewhat big but not really big amounts, prestige, money, stability, etc. without many years of something like med school or need for social skills and horrible working conditions like wall street

but computer science/software is replacing it as the main target it seems

oh and some actually like it

Interesting