What major do I choose?

I am stuck between electrical or civil engineering and optometry. I live in Europe so optometry isn't as developed or advanced as in USA and would be very limited unless I pursue masters/phd or move abroad. Engineering seems like the obvious choice because of the opportunities/pay that comes with it but I really enjoy clinical work/patient interactions and find the field to be fascinating. I am very conflicted and have less than 2 weeks to choose and I still don't know what to do!
 
Aboowe I'm in a similar boat as you. I'll be entering uni this fall inshallah with engineering undecided conflicted between many engineering options but I'm mainly eying civil engineering. Anyway, both fields get paid pretty well, just go with optometry as it's a field you have genuine interest in. But then again take my words with a grain of salt as I'm just a naive 18 year old.
 
I would say a large part of this depends on you being a Faraax or a Xalimo.

Without asking and going of from your words, it seems to me that you like working with animate things (animals, people, in groups etc) rather than inanimate things (material, structures, abstraction, programming etc).

I would say this dichotomy of object oriented and people oriented split is as real as the left brained and right brained split, and sex is the single biggest predictor of it. Its for this reason why you see so many nurses, teachers and doctors being female. This is a dirty thing to say, but its been my observation.

A large part of engineering involves practical engineering and a healthy amount of paper work, such as finalising CAD specs into PDFs, micro managing minute abstractions, often on your own, only occasionally meeting up with higher ups for progress reports.

Being an electrical engineer in highly developed nations like the UK is uh... something. My brother is one, he works 2 days from home and goes in 3 days, he stresses there is hardly any difference.

A large part of his work is just satisfying healthy and safety codes and baby sitting Indians. For example, his current project at Heathrow, the company out sourced large parts of the electrical designs to a second company in India, so he gets sloppy work every week that he has to sanitise, before submitting it, he has given up telling them how to do it properly.

This appeals to a lot of people whom may not necessarily be introverts, but who certainly want to be left alone to their devices.

I am not discouraging you from going down the engineering route but only do it if a large part of it appeals to you, in and of it self, not primarily for the money. That you see yourself spending long nights alone on your own, dont think that will only be so during your studies, it wont. It only gets worse on the job.

I am currently trying to solve this very problem, for example I am trying to set up a social group for software/hardware engineers, and so far I have had 1 person wanting to join, that is it.

There is a healthy balance to be had; don't choose a career solely on "muh pashuun" nor just for the $$. Nobody likes the guy who spent £70.000 on a useless history degree or the office drone who is dead on the inside.
 

Duke

The only true Yankee here
I would say a large part of this depends on you being a Faraax or a Xalimo.

Without asking and going of from your words, it seems to me that you like working with animate things (animals, people, in groups etc) rather than inanimate things (material, structures, abstraction, programming etc).

I would say this dichotomy of object oriented and people oriented split is as real as the left brained and right brained split, and sex is the single biggest predictor of it. Its for this reason why you see so many nurses, teachers and doctors being female. This is a dirty thing to say, but its been my observation.

A large part of engineering involves practical engineering and a healthy amount of paper work, such as finalising CAD specs into PDFs, micro managing minute abstractions, often on your own, only occasionally meeting up with higher ups for progress reports.

Being an electrical engineer in highly developed nations like the UK is uh... something. My brother is one, he works 2 days from home and goes in 3 days, he stresses there is hardly any difference.

A large part of his work is just satisfying healthy and safety codes and baby sitting Indians. For example, his current project at Heathrow, the company out sourced large parts of the electrical designs to a second company in India, so he gets sloppy work every week that he has to sanitise, before submitting it, he has given up telling them how to do it properly.

This appeals to a lot of people whom may not necessarily be introverts, but who certainly want to be left alone to their devices.

I am not discouraging you from going down the engineering route but only do it if a large part of it appeals to you, in and of it self, not primarily for the money. That you see yourself spending long nights alone on your own, dont think that will only be so during your studies, it wont. It only gets worse on the job.

I am currently trying to solve this very problem, for example I am trying to set up a social group for software/hardware engineers, and so far I have had 1 person wanting to join, that is it.

There is a healthy balance to be had; don't choose a career solely on "muh pashuun" nor just for the $$. Nobody likes the guy who spent £70.000 on a useless history degree or the office drone who is dead on the inside.
just get a degree where it allows you to get a remote job and jus live life
Summer Time GIF by Merge Mansion
 

Gacmeey

Madaxweynaha Qurbo Joogta 🇸🇴
What the civil eng market in Europe like? I know in the UK it’s gaajo and not even worth it but are other places better in terms of compensation vs workload?
 
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