Picking a career that you want to pursue is one of the most important objectives to complete in your life. You don’t want to be stuck in a job that you don’t like. It’s better to have a career that you are passionate about, than to have one that you dread. The three career choices that interest me are; Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering. I can’t have three majors so I have to choose only one as my major. In order to decide what career I want to pursue, I had to compare salary, training and education requirements, working environment, a typical day at work, and a job outlook for each career.

          In terms of salary, which is almost similar, the Mechanical Engineer makes the most, approximately $79,000. A Computer Scientists makes a little bit less, ranging around $73,000. An electrical engineer makes the least, starting at $61,160. Money isn’t everything. Getting into a job that I might not like is the wrong route to go towards. If I take that route then I might be miserable and dislike my job.  I like all three careers but I have to choose one. Based on salary alone, I want to move towards Mechanical Engineering.
          The educational requirements are fairly similar since all three are engineering related. All three of the careers mentioned in the introduction paragraph require a four year Bachelors Degree in Engineering. It is not required, but recommended to get a PhD in engineering, which is about five to six years. In order to get a professional license (PE) for any of the careers you have to have at least 5-6 years of experience. Right after graduation you are technically called an Engineer in Training (EIT), after taking the EIT exam.
          Most engineers have the same work environment. They work in office buildings, laboratories, and/or industrial plants. Others may spend time outdoors at construction sites, oil, gas exploration and production sites, where they monitor direct operations or solve onsite problems. Some engineers travel extensively to plants or worksites here and abroad. No matter what type of engineer you become you will always have the same work environment. The only difference in engineering from flipping burgers is that you do something different everyday in one of the areas mentioned above.
           Duties and responsibilities are different but all coincide with each other. A mechanical engineer researches, designs, develops, manufactures, and test tools, engines, machines, and other mechanical devices. A computer scientist applies theories to complex problems and creates and uses new–technology, designs robots, improves human computer interaction, researches new ways to improve current ways of solving computer problems and develops algorithms, computer programming, and computer graphics. An electrical engineer designs, develops, tests, and supervises the manufacturing of electrical equipment. These three types of engineering all work together at some point in time in the work place to get things done.
          The job outlook for a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer are the ones with the least amount of growth. The one that has been predicted to grow the most in ten years is a computer scientist. A mechanical engineer will have an employment of 238,700 with a growth rate of 6%. An electrical engineer will have an employment of 157,800 with a growth rate of 2%. A computer scientist will have a growth rate of 24%. So according to the job outlook in ten years a computer scientists will be the most dependable.
           So as a result of the three different careers to choose from, a computer scientist is my best bet. The reasons why are because the job outlook is the highest. The salary is in the middle and is still a lot more than a person on minimum wage makes. About a year ago, I figured out that I like computers and programming. I have decided that I want to be a computer scientist.