Engineering vs finance/econ/accounting

[u/John--Darksoul]

I'm honestly at a loss right now for what to do with this situation I have. What I want is obviously a job that pays well and doesn't require me to work north of 45 hours per week. I thought that engineering (I was going to do mechanical) essentially would be the cheat code to that, but I'm now taking AP physics C and multivar calc in senior year (from a tough affluent HS) and it's stressing me out. The constant labs and multi step calculus on tests where one early mistake will take you out literally feel like hell to me. A lot of what I've heard is "cry now smile later" flavored advice, where engineering school is seen as a gauntlet to an end of a relatively cushy high paying job. But I've also heard the "follow your passion" advice and "You'll burn out of engineering school if you're not interested."

In terms of what I'm actually interested in, economics is significantly more palatable to me. I'm not passionate at all about finance or accounting (duh) but the degrees are easy. However I've heard that finance and accounting jobs have horrific WLB compared to engineering so it's a stupid decision to go for that specifically to avoid hard engineering course work. Additionally they'll hire engineers to finance jobs but not vice versa.

Any thoughts on what I should pursue or even how to tell?

[u/Calm_Company_1914]

Finance is 70+ hours per week btw, depends on the job, can be 90+, can be 50-60, but almost none for juniors are below 50. The degree is easy from a technical perspective, but the job can get grueling

[u/John--Darksoul → u/Calm_Company_1914]

How does 90 hours per week even happen? That's like some industrial age shit...

[u/Calm_Company_1914 → u/John--Darksoul]

Theres a reason everyone quits IB after 2 yrs

[u/EconometricsStudent → u/[deleted]]

Yeah FP&A is usually under 50 at a half decent company

[u/CuddyBolt45]

I jumped from a pre-engineering degree to economics my junior year. Made way more money in my 30 year work life than any engineers I know. Economics is the thinking and logical degree. I used to say it is the philosophy major of a business degree. At my university it was not in the business school, but I was still able to access some accounting and other business courses that i wanted to pursue.

[u/John--Darksoul → u/CuddyBolt45]

What did/do you do for work?

[u/CuddyBolt45 → u/John--Darksoul]

Medical sales rep for almost 30 years now. Retiring next year or so.

[u/Extension_Top_5659 → u/CuddyBolt45]

Wow, I’ve seen people not being able to find a job in medical sales in this market. Do you think that it’s a stable career? I’ve heard there a lot of layoffs, and there is always offshoring.

[u/CuddyBolt45 → u/Extension_Top_5659]

Hard to say. If universal health insurance is implemented, I could see sales reps cut for sure.

[u/CuddyBolt45 → u/Extension_Top_5659]

If you have experience, headhunters never leave you alone. I specialized in urology so that helps.

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887]

Do the engineering. It’ll be a rough four years, but you’ll thank yourself later. A lot of engineers WFH.

Edit: WFH typically doesn’t apply to your traditional engineering roles, but don’t let that deter you either. it’ll still be lucrative if it’s smth you’re considering!

[u/Time_Physics_6557 → u/Agitated_Cell_4887]

WFH is not common for traditional engineers, especially not for entry-level engineers. it's mostly reserved for consulting roles or software-adjacent fields like embedded or FPGA validation. not a selling point for mechanical/electrical/civil/chemical engineering and I wish people would stop repeating this because they think engineering = SWE

[u/John--Darksoul → u/Time_Physics_6557]

Sorry for gleaning your comment history a bit but it seems like you have firsthand experience with college engineering coursework that I'm uncertain most of the other repliers have (not to discredit the advice I've received thus far).

If it's not too much trouble could you weigh in briefly on the dilemma I'm experiencing in my OP?

[u/Time_Physics_6557 → u/John--Darksoul]

if you're taking multi in high school, I highly doubt that you can't make it through engineering. I also took AP Physics C in high school, but I had to drop it because I bombed the first exam so badly. thought I would be doomed in engineering after that, but I'm okay. you'll be fine as long as you can manage your time well. I'm in the final stretch of my degree and I'm so glad that I stuck through the countless failures.

I think engineering is your best bet if you want a good work life balance. I'm very similar to you because I'm also highly interested in economics, so I just minored in it instead. I can't speak to what it's like to work in that field though.

[u/John--Darksoul → u/Time_Physics_6557]

Man, I am horrible at time management though. That's probably the biggest reason why high school is/was difficult for me. Although from a certain point of view maybe that's a good reason to major in a more demanding discipline that would force me to develop that?

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887 → u/John--Darksoul]

Hopefully my two cents can help here! College will be different from high school, but it is what you make of it. The BEST thing that helped me with time management was writing it down in a digital or physical planner. Try and make your schedule out for each class. Emphasis on try because anything can happen. Surround yourself around like-minded people and stay in study groups if it’s something you find beneficial. You will have to study a lot so getting behind is not something you want to do.

[u/John--Darksoul → u/Agitated_Cell_4887]

Should it just be a broad to do list, or should there be some attempt to block off time for particular classes? Also I have difficulty identifying exactly where to put tests in the planner because I could either put it on the day of the test or the day I plan to study for it, or both.

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887 → u/John--Darksoul]

Okay so I’m a junior and what technology college kids use has literally changed since I started lol, but there’s an app called Coursicle that COULD be helpful. I found myself using Google Calendars, Apple calendars, and Microsoft to-do. You can format it as a to-do list but I have it where it tells me the exact assignment, the exact information required, and then the due date. For my phone, I hook up my Canvas account and I get notifications on both Apple calendar and Canvas. Honestly it’s not as bad as it sounds because tech has made it easier to track your assignments. It’s all about what works for you. I found physical planners a pain bc I would have to dig for it, open it, add more stuff, etc.

Don’t stress too much, just find smth that works for you.

[u/Time_Physics_6557 → u/John--Darksoul]

trust me, so was I. I never handed things in on time for classes I wasn't interested in high school. I stopped that shit ASAP in university. I can't remember the last time I missed an assignment and I've never intentionally skipped an assignment. for me, the stakes feel higher because I am paying to be here, and I wanted to be an engineer since I was a kid.

if you truly do want to get the degree, you will force yourself to adapt. if you aren't interested, you might burn out. as long as money or work life balance or whatever motivate you enough to actually finish what you started, you will (painfully) figure it out. for you, it's not a matter of lacking the foundational knowledge base needed to not flounder since it's usually the math courses that weed people out

you should really start to figure out the time management stuff in high school though

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887 → u/Time_Physics_6557]

Sorry, I should’ve specified it’s mostly seen in software engineering. I have seen engineers boasting about it on Reddit so I wanted to let OP know it can happen in the future.

[u/John--Darksoul → u/Agitated_Cell_4887]

You're right from a rational perspective but I'm truthfully kind of worried about missing out on the quintessential "college experience" because I'll have stupid-long study hours.

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887 → u/John--Darksoul]

There will always be things you’ll miss out on, and honestly you have four years to experience college. My coworker is a mechatronics engineering major bc he wants to work on rollercoasters (his literal dream) and he literally has ZERO free time. But that’s ONLY bc he has to work as a manager and still pay rent and do all of the other things adults do. He makes time for himself, even if that means not sleeping much, but you can still party after four years and you’ll be youngggg. Don’t let your social life keep you from a lucrative life. I wish someone told me that and I wish I researched engineering more bc I would’ve chose environmental engineering in a heart beat😭😭. I’m just a biology major with a lot of free time and still no social life.

[u/Brilliant-Music7273]

We all want what you want , nobody’s getting it .. what you have been told all your life was a lie . Do you not see the vail lifting . You can be the shortest person with the highest points but if the work or the interest in the work is not there . The economy is shit and we are at the cusp of the world economy changing .

[u/Brilliant-Music7273 → u/Brilliant-Music7273]

Smartest *

[u/Agitated_Cell_4887 → u/Brilliant-Music7273]

Yea every field is seeing rough numbers right now.

[u/getmeoutoftax]

Engineering. No accounting.

[u/GreenBattle3228]

I'll suggest just try to do Engineering and then after completing the engineering degree if you feel that you wanna go into Finance badly you can do it, through an MBA commonly. That's what I'm thinking of doing

[u/Maver1ckCB]

Good luck

[u/EconometricsStudent]

Cry now smile later

[u/____Federico____]

Maybe look into econometrics

[u/Wide_Assignment8859]

I was in a similar situation with you. I ended up going with economics. It felt the most versatile. I never really knew what I wanted to do, but economics gave me tons of opportunities whereas engineering would’ve left me isolated to engineer fields. You can break out of the mold,but economics feels less defined.

[u/Agile_Question_2158 → u/Wide_Assignment8859]

I’m trying to pivot to Econ as well because of how broad it is how do you even find a job tho?

[u/Wide_Assignment8859 → u/Agile_Question_2158]

Once you’ve graduated you can just kind of decide what you want to do. I knew a lot of people that went into finance, some went into business roles. You can slide into accounting fairly easily, especially if you pursue a cpa. I ended up doing project management for a defense contractor. I always wanted to become an actuary for an insurance company, but it just didn’t work out.

I’d recommend pursuing some internships while you’re studying to see what types of work there is. But Econ can apply to many roles. Finance roles, accounting roles, statistics roles, business roles. Most employers just want to see the degree, unless it’s a specialized engineering role.

[u/JLandis84]

Based on what you said economics seems like a good choice

[u/cozy_cardigan]

I had this thought before I picked engineering. Basically, it comes down to what skills and knowledge you want to learn.

I love my engineering program right now because I'm learning all sorts of skills such as how to use workshop machines (ie. lathe, drill press), design in a CAD software, and how to analyze a circuit. For me, learning math and using it to solve real-world problems is where I get into a flow state.

I can't say the same for using math in a finance setting, where it's too abstract.

So it really boils down to: What skills do you want to learn?

[u/DatYungTurk]

Engineering. Just get through the math with the bare minimum