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are kids legit interested in engineering, or is it the parents?
- Thread starter bangai-o
- Start date
I was always interested. My mom was an engineer and she never pushed me to do engineering. She hated it and recommended I not do it.
I went and became an engineer.
I went and became an engineer.
Probably a bit of both. For ten years people were bombarded with "STEM is the best!!!!" type commentary and I think it's still sticking
I want my son to be a hockey player, the kid is going to be an engineer or a scientist.
I wanted to be a scientist since I was 4 and then an engineer since I was 12. I ended up becoming a research engineer. Some of us just have it from within
When I was in high school about 12 kids (in a 60 kid class) the year behind me all planned to be physical therapists.
Why? Because one of them had an older sister who was a physical therapist and made good money, relative to where we lived.
That's why. Being an engineer has now become similar to being a doctor, lawyer, etc., just with 4-6 less years of school. Kids forget that the 4 years you do need to do involve complex math, which most of them can't do, and the 4-6 years of school/etc. are replaced with 5+ years waiting to get a PE license. Job security and pay is a big lure and kids get it in their heads around high school that they need to get that paper.
My mum pushed me towards it becuase it was a high paying career. I only liked certain aspects of engineering.
By kids, do you mean teens? Because if so, then it could be both parental prodding and individual decision (after reading the myriad of doom articles online about non-STEM degrees).
I don't like seeing the inside of the human body nor reading law books. I prefer maths and tech stuff.
I went to a college where engineering was the biggest major. I'd say most kids I knew there were legit interested in it. Some wanted the money, others legitimately enjoyed building things and the math/physics aspects of it.
Just become a software engineer. Problem solved.
My sister asked only for STEM toys for my nephews for Christmas. They are 4 and 6.
I was really interested in engineering, right after my father flat out told me I wasn't allowed to pursue drama.
OP
OP
It seems kind of dangerous to prod kids through their childhood to become something specific. What happens when that kid fails at it? I am not qualified in psychology, but that failure might be pretty harsh.
There are more areas that are making good money that parents are disregarding. Agriculture, for example, is much needed and is a field that makes good money. No one ever talks about it.
There are more areas that are making good money that parents are disregarding. Agriculture, for example, is much needed and is a field that makes good money. No one ever talks about it.
When I was growing up everyone wanted to be a lawyer because that was the job that made you a ton of money (seemingly). Engineers make tons of money. It's got good optics.
You got a smart kid. Geology is the cool science. We make good money and get to spend all our time outside doing fun stuff.
You got a smart kid. Geology is the cool science. We make good money and get to spend all our time outside doing fun stuff.
I doubt kids have an awareness of what engineering really entails. They're not going through ISO standards or ECMA specifications.
Engineer is the adult code for person who builds, and making it so kids understand it probably hides the true extent of the profession.
Engineer is the adult code for person who builds, and making it so kids understand it probably hides the true extent of the profession.
You could say the same about anything. Some kids like sports, some are pushed into it. Some like dance, some are pushed into it. Some want to be doctors, some are pushed into it.
Good parents will support and encourage any of their kids interests, even if thise interests change
Good parents will support and encourage any of their kids interests, even if thise interests change
When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be an engineer because I loved to build things. I build software now.
kids like legos
the closest major to plays with legos as an adult as you can get really
maybe architecture but no one wants to be an architect
the closest major to plays with legos as an adult as you can get really
maybe architecture but no one wants to be an architect
What are you on about, architect is the go to profession from Lego.
Kids are natural engineers. My 2 year old son is constantly taking his toys apart and tries to put them together. His favorite toys are often ones where you have to fit certain shapes into holes, or other object oriented puzzles.
My daughter wants to be an engineer and/or scientist. I don't overtly push this, but when she was much younger, I bought her a school science book from a 2nd hand store, because I used to love reading those when I was her age. Since then, she's wanted to be a scientist or engineer.
It honestly doesn't take much. You just have to cultivate an interest they have, and they'll want to do it. Combined with the fact that they're naturally curious does all the rest.
When I picked engineering, it was because I knww it would pay well. Then when I got my mba and ms in finance it was because I wanted to get paid to do less.
Dunno why I accidentally quoted myself instead of editing, in dumb.
I wanted to be the sole seller of ice cream products, so everyone would have to buy ice cream from me
So Engineers make that much money?
Doctors are commonly pushed for being a great career, for example. But you need 4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, all while racking up debt (avg 180k or so), then 2-7+ years of residency making 50s-low70s k. Then come out making 250k+.
Doctors are commonly pushed for being a great career, for example. But you need 4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, all while racking up debt (avg 180k or so), then 2-7+ years of residency making 50s-low70s k. Then come out making 250k+.
I can speak a lot from software engineering/CS a lot from experience, but I do think its an area that has cultivated a lot of interest. It is a field that pays really well and has such a low overhead to get into. It has to be one of the top-most paying careers that doesn't require you to get some sort of bureaucratic certificate, ignoring professions like acting or sports obviously. It is kind of mind-boggling the first time you work an internship/job and the company is trusting you to modify their codebase even when you have zero experience in doing so. The only problem is that a lot of this interest is coming from a small subset of people. Not enough is done to encourage more women and non-Indian/Asian minorities to enter the field more. A lot of it has to do with a really annoying flexing culture in CS.
There is this culture of trying to prove how smart and accomplished you are. A lot of it is gate-keeping that tries to make it seem like you have to come out of the womb and already have a favorite Linux distro and an unyielding love of coding. It doesn't help that a lot of how software engineering is painted by pop culture as being full of genius eggheads that are fully sustained on mathematics and intense coding 24/7. There are definitely some jobs that require you to be some elite master in your field. If you're working on Google's search algorithms, you're going to need to have a lot of knowledge on graph theory, statistics, machine learning, algorithm analysis and optimization, etc. But most software engineering jobs have you just implementing some basic business logic to work automatically and is something that rarely requires much beyond basic math and algorithm comprehension.
There is this culture of trying to prove how smart and accomplished you are. A lot of it is gate-keeping that tries to make it seem like you have to come out of the womb and already have a favorite Linux distro and an unyielding love of coding. It doesn't help that a lot of how software engineering is painted by pop culture as being full of genius eggheads that are fully sustained on mathematics and intense coding 24/7. There are definitely some jobs that require you to be some elite master in your field. If you're working on Google's search algorithms, you're going to need to have a lot of knowledge on graph theory, statistics, machine learning, algorithm analysis and optimization, etc. But most software engineering jobs have you just implementing some basic business logic to work automatically and is something that rarely requires much beyond basic math and algorithm comprehension.
when i was a kid i would give god ultimatums that i would believe in them if they granted my wishes like a genie
but anyway yeah i was always interested in at least breaking machines apart to look at them, even if i wasnt really interested in how to make them
but kids certainly get interested in design
but anyway yeah i was always interested in at least breaking machines apart to look at them, even if i wasnt really interested in how to make them
but kids certainly get interested in design
I wanted to be a programmer when I was a kid to make video games lol. I'm now an EE that also writes software but sadly no video games.
Haha, right? Barely any math involved and no certifications needed. I remember when I was first getting in my CS degree and I was so worried about the math requirements. I had to struggle through calculus, but I improved from it. Discrete mathematics was really different, but actually a lot easier. Linear algebra was also kind of weird, but made a lot of sense and became easy. Probability and statistics was the last hurdle that was easy except for a few parts, and that's it. And honestly, the only part of math that kept showing up in other CS classes was induction and summations/integration/derivatives. And from those, induction felt like the only part you really had to truly exercise on versus just relying on a definition that comes from the math.
And being able to just jump into a codebase with a company simply from having a degree, and sometimes not even that, is such a freeing feeling. I've heard some people argue the need for there to be a sort of "software engineering license", but that is total nonsense.
As a parent of three, kids are interested in their own shit. I couldn't force an interest on my kids to save my life.
My daughter hates video games :(
None of them are interested in writing. Or art in general.
One even plays Fortnite. /sigh
My daughter hates video games :(
None of them are interested in writing. Or art in general.
One even plays Fortnite. /sigh
Hmm I grew up in a very STEM-orientated environment (bunch of first and second generation immigrants), everyone wanted to be an engineer. I bought into the hype myself, was a computer science major for 2 years before I realized it wasn't for me. I would say 40% of my friends ended up doing something in engineering/computer science/math, but only 5% were truly passionate about it. Everyone else (including myself, admittedly) was really in it for the money.
I didn't even know what engineering was until I got a bit older. It just sounded so ambiguously vague. Though I knew about civil engineers.