The Most In-Demand (And Aging) Engineering Jobs.

Our Dean of Engineering, Prof. Pearl Sullivan, pointed out this interesting article from Forbes magazine.  Much of the information I’ve seen before in various places, but it’s a nice compilation and summary.  Also, it’s based on U.S. statistics, so it’s hard to tell how the Canadian situation may compare but the general ideas are likely similar.  There are a few things to point out:

“Industrial Engineering” seems to be in big demand.  At Waterloo, this would roughly correspond to our “Management Engineering” program.

I’m disappointed that my discipline, Chemical Engineering, was lumped into the “All Other Engineers” category!  I guess this also includes Biomedical, Software, etc.

One of the problems with these surveys is that various groups use different classification schemes for the various disciplines, and they don’t always correspond to the name of the university or college program.  For example, “Aerospace Engineers” in this article probably refers to the job title, which could be filled by people with mechanical, mechatronics, or other degrees.  Likewise a “Petroleum Engineer” may be a chemical or mechanical engineering graduate.  Just something to keep in mind.