# Engineer vs Accountant



## kyrax12 (May 12, 2010)

So I was wondering since I be heading off to college soon I would need to pick a field to major on.

So Engineering and Accounting battles!
Scenario 1: Job Security match
Scenario 2: Difficulty match
Scenario 3: Income match

Which wins?


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## Havoc (May 12, 2010)

Either one is probably easy to get a job.

Engineering is a lot harder, has good job security, and in the US you'll come out of college making around 50k with a Bachelors.

This isn't a vs thread, ask in the plaza.


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## kyrax12 (May 12, 2010)

Havoc said:


> Either one is probably easy to get a job.
> 
> Engineering is a lot harder, has good job security, and in the US you'll come out of college making around 50k with a Bachelors.
> 
> This isn't a vs thread, ask in the plaza.



Let me make it VS thread format.


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## fakund1to (May 12, 2010)

Do you people in the US only care about money and income and how difficult is it gonna be?
Do you even like any of those careers? you have no soul dude


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## kyrax12 (May 13, 2010)

fakund1to said:


> Do you people in the US only care about money and income and how difficult is it gonna be?
> Do you even like any of those careers? you have no soul dude



Well no.. but what makes money makes money.


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## Crimson King (May 13, 2010)

Gordan Freeman>Someone sitting at a desk


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## kyrax12 (May 13, 2010)

Crimson King said:


> Gordan Freeman>Someone sitting at a desk



Ok not everyone can be like Gordon Freeman.....


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## Dante Alighieri (May 13, 2010)

Gordon Freeman isn't an engineer. He's a theoretical physicist.


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## martryn (May 13, 2010)

If you're an engineer you're going to be able to find work, you'll get paid more, and you'll have more opportunity to advance in your company.

Being an accountant is going to be easier on you in school, and you'll still likely find a job, but you won't see the massive pay increases you get in engineering.  

Basically the question comes down to whether you can train yourself to think like an engineer.  Being a good engineer isn't about ability to do math or science, but the ability to apply math and science to a problem to find a unique solution.  You go to school for engineering not so much to learn engineering skills, but to train your mind to think like an engineer.


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## kyrax12 (May 13, 2010)

martryn said:


> If you're an engineer you're going to be able to find work, you'll get paid more, and you'll have more opportunity to advance in your company.
> 
> Being an accountant is going to be easier on you in school, and you'll still likely find a job, but you won't see the massive pay increases you get in engineering.
> 
> *Basically the question comes down to whether you can train yourself to think like an engineer.  Being a good engineer isn't about ability to do math or science, but the ability to apply math and science to a problem to find a unique solution.  You go to school for engineering not so much to learn engineering skills, but to train your mind to think like an engineer.*




damm.. Not really.. So what about accounting?

Any info you can give me on that?


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## Havoc (May 13, 2010)

Engineering and accounting are really nothing alike, how did you come up with these two majors?


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## Gooba (May 13, 2010)

Engineering stomps all other professions in terms of everything.  Electrical Engineering stomps all other types.


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## Havoc (May 13, 2010)

I heard EE was for queers and real men do ME.


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## paulatreides0 (May 13, 2010)

Gooba said:


> Engineering stomps all other professions in terms of everything.  Electrical Engineering stomps all other types.





God Movement said:


> Fixed. **



You're both wrong, everyone knows it's mechanical engineers.


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## Gooba (May 13, 2010)

There is an old joke at WPI.  There is a Price Chopper down the street that has shopping carts with electrical brakes that lock up if it goes outside an electrical fence.  An electrical engineer would try to get around this by taking it apart and disabling the circuitry.  A computer scientist would try to hack into the system to disable the fence.  A mechanical engineer would hit it with a rock until it broke.


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## Aokiji (May 13, 2010)

Dante Alighieri said:


> Gordon Freeman isn't an engineer. He's a theoretical physicist.



Considering he was experimenting when he opened the portal to Xen....



Gooba said:


> Engineering stomps all other professions in terms of everything.  Electrical Engineering stomps all other types.





Havoc said:


> I heard EE was for queers and real men do ME.


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## Gooba (May 13, 2010)




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## Aokiji (May 13, 2010)

Wasn't Tesla more a physicist than an engineer?


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## Aokiji (May 13, 2010)

Gooba said:


> There is an old joke at WPI.  There is a Price Chopper down the street that has shopping carts with electrical brakes that lock up if it goes outside an electrical fence.  An electrical engineer would try to get around this by taking it apart and disabling the circuitry.  A computer scientist would try to hack into the system to disable the fence.  A mechanical engineer would hit it with a rock until it broke.



Btw, this would actually be proof that the ME is better at engineering than the others.


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## hammer (May 13, 2010)

engineer makes a bomb nukes accountent

oh wait not the vs you meant


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## Shock Therapy (May 13, 2010)

engineer beats the accountant in every category


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## Sasori (May 13, 2010)

Is becoming an accountant really that easy in the US?

It's crazy competitive and extremely difficult in the UK. 

Getting an internship to even get a job after studying itself is a mission.


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## Havoc (May 13, 2010)

Sasori said:


> Is becoming an accountant really that easy in the US?
> 
> It's crazy competitive and extremely difficult in the UK.
> 
> Getting an internship to even get a job after studying itself is a mission.


Accounting isn't easy, but it's easier than Engineering.

The schooling, I mean.


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## Raviene (May 13, 2010)

martryn said:


> If you're an engineer you're going to be able to find work, you'll get paid more, and you'll have more opportunity to advance in your company.
> 
> Being an accountant is going to be easier on you in school, and you'll still likely find a job, but you won't see the massive pay increases you get in engineering.
> 
> Basically the question comes down to whether you can train yourself to think like an engineer.  Being a good engineer isn't about ability to do math or science, but the ability to apply math and science to a problem to find a unique solution.  You go to school for engineering not so much to learn engineering skills, but to train your mind to think like an engineer.



this is what gets most students who go for the eng'g course. they enroll in it thinking it would be easy since they are good at math but later find out how hard it actually is to apply those "theories/numbers" into the real world. "the world is analog...not digital"

oh and in our school...the trash of the eng'g dept usually become the stars of the acctng dept (i hope i didn't offend any accountants here )


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## Gooba (May 13, 2010)

Aokiji said:


> Wasn't Tesla more a physicist than an engineer?





Aokiji said:


> Btw, this would actually be proof that the ME is better at engineering than the others.


No, he was an electrical engineer above all else.  He is the Jesus of EE.  AC vs DC is the greatest EE war of all time, and Tesla won.


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## Waking Dreamer (May 13, 2010)

There are no chicks (well easy on the eyes one) in engineering though. The ratio  of guys to girls is very lopsided.

Just saying...

Anyway engineering is the safe course usually for people who dont really have any desire for another profession in particular. But pretty boring though (well I thought so) and a lot of number crunching you'll find most of your week just doing maths problems...


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## Gooba (May 14, 2010)

> Anyway engineering is the safe course usually for people who dont really have any desire for another profession in particular. But pretty boring though (well I thought so) and a lot of number crunching you'll find most of your week just doing maths problems...


What?  That is ridiculous, except for the lots of math part.


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## blueblip (May 14, 2010)

Theatre major FTW!!!

Naw seriously, both have their pluses for a future career. I mean, engineering pays very well initially, but for later career growth, you will nowadays need some kind of business degree, or you might find that your growth can get stifled. Not saying it will, but an engineer can only go so far in a company with technical qualifications alone. Upper management does not usually take non-business people.

Accounting is the opposite, I believe. You start of very bad, but if you can stick with it, and if your really good at it, you can expect good things mid and late career. But oh God, is the start awful!

And like it's been said, engineering is not about being good at math, its about being good at _*applying*_ math.


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## Schneider (May 14, 2010)

Waking Dreamer said:


> There are no chicks (well easy on the eyes one) in engineering though. The ratio  of guys to girls is very lopsided.
> 
> Just saying...
> 
> Anyway engineering is the safe course usually for people who dont really have any desire for another profession in particular. But pretty boring though (well I thought so) and a lot of number crunching you'll find most of your week just doing maths problems...



True that. Even if it's still inside your interests being an engineer is pretty much entering a huge sausage fest. 

Also, I think teachers will encounter more math problems than engineers ever will. Applying science real time could surprisingly be different than applying formulas to a piece of paper. And people can be good at one but not so much at the other.


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## Waking Dreamer (May 14, 2010)

Gooba said:


> What?  That is ridiculous, except for the lots of math part.



Dude nothing personal...but *studying* engineering was boring as for me. lol

It could be different when you enter the industry depending on what you specialize in, but for the most part its number crunching and formulas while at uni.


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## Lord Genome (May 14, 2010)

Philosophy majors are the cream of the crop

i mean they do so much for people


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## Respite (May 14, 2010)

fakund1to said:


> Do you people in the US only care about money and income and how difficult is it gonna be?
> Do you even like any of those careers? you have no soul dude



Money Talks BS Walks


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## Gooba (May 14, 2010)

Waking Dreamer said:


> Dude nothing personal...but *studying* engineering was boring as for me. lol
> 
> It could be different when you enter the industry depending on what you specialize in, but for the most part its number crunching and formulas while at uni.


The part I was objecting to was 





> Anyway engineering is the safe course usually for people who don't really have any desire for another profession in particular.


It isn't a safe fallback for anyone, especially considering it is harder than almost any other major out there (besides medicine).  I know plenty of people who have a desire for it, and don't go in to it just because they have no other desires.  I know my friends and I haven't spent hundreds of hours doing home projects out of apathy.


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## Havoc (May 14, 2010)

blueblip said:


> Theatre major FTW!!!
> 
> Naw seriously, both have their pluses for a future career. I mean, engineering pays very well initially, but for later career growth, you will nowadays need some kind of business degree, or you might find that your growth can get stifled. Not saying it will, but an engineer can only go so far in a company with technical qualifications alone. Upper management does not usually take non-business people.


That's not true.


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## Gooba (May 14, 2010)

The 3 of the top 4 people at my company are straight EEs, the other is a lawyer.


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## Banhammer (May 14, 2010)

As a mining engineer my job will consist of  looking at piles of rocks and determine wether or not they're doing something.


Upon that decision, I will then think "Sure, they are rocky, but how can I make them explosivey with the most amount of eye witnesses possible?"


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## Waking Dreamer (May 14, 2010)

Gooba said:


> The part I was objecting to was It isn't a safe fallback for anyone, especially considering it is harder than almost any other major out there (besides medicine).  I know plenty of people who have a desire for it, and don't go in to it just because they have no other desires.  I know my friends and I haven't spent hundreds of hours doing home projects out of apathy.



Okay...yea the FAIL RATE is high...oops...someone has mentioned that in this thread right? I mean its relatively safe UPON GRADUATION.

Important: You have to be really motivate/dedicated or have friends who knows what the fuck is going on in the lectures and tuts (lol) to get through  - it is VERY HARD just to pass. 

But there are different crosses to bear when it comes to the courses you chose. Real interest and desire/passion in whatever your go into is always a big plus though.

Consider design/architecture students... in what other faculty would have you see the computer labs and classrooms at uni relatively full and busy at 3:00am in the morning? It is not unusual for people to have an "overnight" bag when completing projects. A sleeping bag is a necessary archi student supply. Ive come in at 8:00am in the morning and seen half a dozen people sleeping in the studio room..I have a friend who has his own kettle in his locker to keep him going all the way into the morning. Actually the same guy once didnt see his kid sister for a week (not that he was complaining), since he gets home late and leaves the house early all before she wakes up to go to highschool.


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## Gooba (May 14, 2010)

Waking Dreamer said:


> Okay...yea the FAIL RATE is high...oops...someone has mentioned that in this thread right? I mean its relatively safe UPON GRADUATION.
> 
> Important: You have to be really motivate/dedicated or have friends who knows what the fuck is going on in the lectures and tuts (lol) to get through  - it is VERY HARD just to pass.
> 
> ...


That is how our EE department lived.


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## Banhammer (May 14, 2010)

Gooba said:


> Engineering stomps all other professions in terms of everything.  Electrical Engineering stomps all other types.



My bombs and rocks > Your bots and ray guns


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## Havoc (May 14, 2010)

I dropped out of engineering school because Gooba promised me a full time moderator position.


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## Gooba (May 14, 2010)

Banhammer said:


> My bombs and rocks > Your bots and ray guns


You guys don't make bombs, you just use them.  I still haven't seen anything from anyone to counter Tesla.  He's a real magician (_Prestige_).


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## Narcissus (May 15, 2010)

The engineer creates a mathematical formula to defeat the accountant which includes paying him off.


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## Banhammer (May 15, 2010)

Gooba said:


> You guys don't make bombs, you just use them.  I still haven't seen anything from anyone to counter Tesla.  He's a real magician (_Prestige_).



Not in my college we don't. We bake and shake. Basic chem so far enables me personally, but next year, we boom with plastics.


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