Female, Wants To Be An Engineer?

Thanks Gamine.
If at all one needs to talk about backbone, they ought to be mentioning elect/elect because:
manufacturing companies need robots which are mainly built by elect/elect (PIC micro-controllers, sensors, control systems design)
aeronautic : sensors, control systems, power generated which inturn turns to energy
oil & gas: power, control systems, instrument, measurement
Computers: programs, data communication,
Telecoms: mobile communication, switch
nuclear: using the power created by nuclear fission to turn turbines which in turn generates electricity that gets channel to the power grid (electrical)
i can go on and on but even though i am an elect/elect engineer i didn't for one ask the poster to choose the course over her preference because having asked her of the stuffs she likes best, the natural transformation for her would be civil/structural

I'm an engineer myself and I know it is a challenging profession but what you really need to be successful in the engineering field is a passion for mathematics.

It is what will see you through the academic stresses and rigors of an engineering program. As for being successful as an engineer in the real world, that depends on your people skills. It doesn't really matter if you are a man or a woman. It is your competence and ability to work with others in a team that count.

@Tats,

I totally agree with you here. We could go on and on about which is more important and end up with arguments like "which comes first, the egg or the hen"? All engineering fields are interwoven and one can not exist or go far without the other. It is when all the fields are equally developed that you offer the best product and options to humanity.

So is your name 

I'm the poster with a diff screen name

I don't live in NIGERIA and i am still very young so what will I know about employment in a foreign country. I only know about the issues concerned in London

Maybe your trying to get a reaction I don't know but you got one anyway

That your question make me think say your pu ssy is small.

i work with alot of female engineers here. they are really smart people.

whatever you put your mind to do. just maintain focus.

only you know what is good for you.

work hard though, nothing productive comes easy.

cheers.

I would rather watch my little daughters pulling memory
chips off a computer CPU on a table than watching
them walking around a construction site in helmets!!

Personally, I would encourage any girl wishing to study
engineering to go for the "soft engineering" like computers,
electronics, production, biogenetics, materials, etc than "hard
engineering" like structural, civil, electrical, etc.

By hard I don't mean degree of difficulty since all engineering
courses essentially apply maths, physisc, chemistry, etc  but
the extent of field work involved. I believe men are more suited
for the hard engineering courses than women.

Just my lone opinion. Cheers!

Firstly, engineering is cool but to tell you d truth in Nigeria all u need is first degree. u can also delve into any field of engineering i mean switch in Msc to try any other aspect of engineering. Chase your dream girl All the best

@ Tats and jay bee

you guys want to turn this into 'which engineering field is better' eh?

Don't make me add my own portion to this drama - without chemical engineers to design the materials and devise processes to make any of these things, you mechs and elects would simply be dreaming up things with no mass production implementation.

I don't really subscribe to the 'hard engineering' and 'soft engineering' thing - people keep propagating those stereotypes and it doesn't help. As long as you're talking about being an engineer and not a 'technician' or 'floor hand' or 'rough neck' that needs to get on the ground and do the heavy lifting and manual labour (which some women excel at anyways) then a woman can be highly successful in either the 'hard' or 'soft' engineering fields. She just needs to discover where her passion lies and go with it.

There is every possibility that she'll be very successful as an engineer - whichever field she chooses.

keep working at it,

my dear Engineering is quite interesting, it depends on interest and dedication,I'm a female read computer science in
school, i work as an engineer  in a telecoms firm that is into fiberoptics, my dear it,s fun,going out to site to work and supervise,
it,s more interesting especially if u are going out for troubleshooting because u do alot of thinking,instead of putting on suit
and staying under ac  u put on ur  jean and go to site, i hate staying in the office because i see it as someting boring,to cut the long story short
engineering is fun,don't allow any body to discourage u follow ur dreams.

@ phattgirl

I'm going to my final year in mechanical engineering. Mechanical Engineering is the most central discipline because it has aspects of every other discipline in it (even software engineering). The head of the systems engineering group at the company I'm doing my placement studied mechanical engineering as did the head of the sofware and electrical groups. If you are going to go into engineering (same goes for any other degree) make sure it's not for money or because your parents want you to but because you are really, really passionate about it or else you'll end up regretting doing the course (which quite a number of people do). I can tell you that my work load at university is way, way, way more than that of my friends doing other courses at the undergraduate level because for one I have coursework every week and then I've always got one project or the other running year round. On the other hand, engineering degrees are widely respected so it would be quite easy for you to get into another field unless you failed your engineering degree or got a bad degree (3rd class). I hope I'm not discouraging you, I'm just trying to share my experiences with you before you make a choice. Also, make sure you learn about how the programme at the university you want to go to is run.

With all that said, I've got a female (Nigerian) friend who is doing a year long placement this year (just like I am) and if anything she gets preferrential treatment from her colleagues who are all white males, so discrimination should not be an issue for you. Just make sure you really enjoy engineering and work hard at school and you'll get there.

As far as Communication Engineering goes, the reason there are so few women, if any at all, is that the women themselves don't actually want to work! What I mean is, it's very rare to see a woman who is ready to go from site to site doing various projects. They'D rather sit in some office than go to the field. This presents a serious problem as most Communication (Network) Engineers do a lot of fieldwork. So if you're going to stray into Telecoms be ready to work.

In the US high tech industry, Electrical Engineers have the most opportunities available to them and, yes, they work in concert with other engineers especially Mechanical. With electrical engineering you can work in almost any field doing substantive related work. On any particular project, we usually have about 10 electrical engineers to 1 mechanical engineer. I think part of the reason is that mechanical-type work is limited to the beginning of the project (design/fabrication stage).

For example, if engineers were to develop a computer from scratch,

         System engineers (electrical engineer) will layout the specifications
         Electrical engineers will select and/or design the chips according to spec including power supply
         Mechanical will ensure adequate cooling/hot spot and design of the structure; they might also layout the wiring
         Electrical engineers (computer science) will write the software (think drivers, firmware middleware and application program)
         Electrical engineers will be responsible for integration and testing of the product.

I think the reason why electrical engineers might be in more demand is the fact that the field is so broad. Depending on your first job out of college and the type of electives you took while in school, you can do the work of the following majors:
Computer science
Software engineer
RF engineer
Computer engineering
Communications engineering

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the type of work you do will be more fluid once you get into the field especially if you work for a “do it all” type company. I work with a few people with BS in Mechanical that went on to get their master in electrical.


At least in the US, another option you shouldn’t rule out is getting a law degree after your engineering degree to become a Patent Attorney, which is the route I’m pursuing. Again, even with attorneys, there's more demand for engineers with electrical engineering background than any other engineering.

By the way, I have two female electrical engineers in my family that graduated at the top of their class here in the US. One went back to school to get another degree in the medical field and the other is doing her second masters in management. What I'm trying to say is that you (male or female) could be book smart but you might not like engineering-type work. Whatever field you get into make sure you have a passion for it

That is very scintillating and beautiful.

that would be very 9ice.

As a female looking towards multi national oil companies, you will be assigned and refined to office positions (desk related engineering).  It is the same in America too (Exxon, Schlum, B. Hughes) and other companies that treat employees as numbers.  You will not be going for offshore projects or field jobs.  It isn't discrimination but just procedural.  You can try sueing the corporation on this, you'D discover you aren't the first to raise a voice.  Nigeria is stricter on this.  Reasons - I will not explain but I feel the white collar position is still better than all the rigors that come otherwise.

In Nigeria, you may not be paid as men are put it is competitive.   The word is that when H.R. determines pay for men, for the most part, men tend to do negotiate but women accept.  The same thing in Africa, the same thing in the States.  Base pay and max pay is same irregardless of gender but how the offer is received differs. 

I can't think of any other engineering firms besides oil and gas.  You shouldn't have a problem with the companies.