Question

Which one has better job outlook present and futurewise, biomedical, mechanical or electrical engineering ?

Answer 1

Did you try looking these up on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics web site? They get some reasonably decent numbers on these things. http://www.bls.gov/

Answer 2

i did and thats what got me confused, because biomedical has the highest growth rate but the number of jobs available is significantly less compared to mechanical and electrical

Answer 3

Growth rate has to do with percentage of new jobs. Lets say there is some job called Widget Sharpener and right now only 100 exist. However, a new use for widgets are just come out and next year there will be a need for 200 Widget Sharpeners! If all 100 new jobs are filled, that is a 100% growth rate.... but if 3000 people learned sharpening to fill 100 new jobs, 2900 of them have no luck finding a job.

So growth rate is only a useful indicator if the field is of a reasonable size. And that widget example may seem far fetched, but something like that actually happened in a very specialized part of applied statistics. The field doubled, so a lot of people went to learn it, but the doubling only happened one year and there were already enough statisticians to fill the new need.

At 15,700, bio engineering has way more than 100 jobs. It is not a large number, but it is not tiny. Also, that is an area where more and more research is happening. There is a lot going on in that space. Does that mean there will certainly be jobs... hard to say. But if it is something you are passionate about, it is not a bad choice.

Passion can be as big a factor as anything else. I know people who became doctors and lawyers just because they could, and they spend tons on vacations and toys because they hate it. On the other hand, I know a guy who is a digital communications tech and they can't get him to do a degree and advance because he loves the work and is not interested in management. He rarely takes vacations and is happy as they come. If you are passionate about your work, it is both easier to get a job because you can share that with prospective employers and it is easier to keep at the work because you will enjoy your life more fully.

Answer 4

@Preetha could also answer better about biomed. She happens to know just a bit about the biochem related fields.

Answer 5

thanx @e.mccormick I have passion for engineering be it any discipline mainly because of its problem solving nature

Answer 6

Well, the work environment for these might be very different from each other. The best thing would be to find organizations that are in each field, or professors, and talk to them about what the work is really like. Professional organizations for those fields, like ASME https://www.asme.org/about-asme , would be a good place to look or contact to get details about what the work is really like. Sure, they are all about problem solving, but sometimes the specifics are very different.

Professional communication sites, like Linkedin, are another good choice to look at. If you explain your interest and that you want to learn about the field before choosing an educational path, someone there will probably reply. It just takes finding the right group to post in. Or, finding a few people on there who list these jobs in their resume and asking them about the work.

Answer 7

thanks

Answer 8

Someone linked me this:

http://youtu.be/nQci3Lw1N_Q

Thought you might be interested because it has to do with biomedical research. Shows just how diverse the field is!

Answer 9

Electrical Engineering!

It is probably the most stable of the list of engineers that you listed. However, biomedical can also be stable also if you work in a hospital or go to medical school, but if you end up doing rsearch, not very stable.
To further explain, what i mean is that, yes. You will have a safe job that pays a good amount of money. However, most engineers start working with a bachelors degree. If you go any higher, then you will end up doing research, and of course get paid more. But, as an engineer, mechanical or biomedical, you will probably be working on some project for about 2-4 years, probably 5, MAYBE 7+. Which will be good, but then once the project is complete, theres a chance that you may be laid off. I'm saying this because most of my professors (math or physics) were engineers who went back to school to pursue a masters/ PhD to teach because it was more stable than engineering. They worked on some project for some time and then let go.

Now, the reason I say electrical engineering is the more stable is because society thrives on engineering. One of the most popular and in demand jobs right now is signal processing (electrical engineerings). Signal processing involves the analysis of signals, sounds, images, electromagnetic waves, sensors. Working with the latest technology to get optimum results for our TV's, our phones, cars, etc., Who doesn't like TV with HD?
With the rapid pace of how technology is evolving, energy can become scarce and finding a way to optimize this more efficiently is how we want to live.

I'm not saying you should do this, because if your passion is mechanical or biomedical, then go for it. I am just giving you something to think about. Do some research on your own or talk to some professors or engineers if you possibly can get in contact with some. Your future, your choices.

Answer 10

They are all very different in one sense and similar in some. I am impressed that you noticed that engineering teaches a particular kind of problem solving. It also teaches a kind of systems thinking. Putting systems together, making them work, debuggin and things like that. I see a big future in biomedical engineering - that is really a final frontier where CS, Chemistry, material sciences, biology, and everything is going to come together. But you have to enjoy and want to work with people, with bodies, with problems of a biological nature - human problems. To me that is the most futuristic of the three - lots of advances need to be made.