I live in Houston texas and am planning on getting a degree in either electrical or mechanical engineering. What do they both involve? Which is better pay and more job offering?
Job outlook is the same. Salary. In most cases, electrical engineers get paid a little more ($3000-5000 more per year on average). But it is not always the case. It depends on industry, location, job hazards, job title, job responsibilities, education, and experience. For both majors, the starting salary range is $45,000-60,000 per year. After 5 years of experience, the ranges are around $63,000-73,000. After 20+ years of experience, the salary for both would be around $88,000-98,000 average. Mechanical engineers solve problems related to mechanical issues whether it is quality, reliability, maintainability related or HVAC and plumbing related, or if it is related to designing a mechanical component with strict tolerances. For example, my mechanical engineering friend is working on this hugs project. His company is developing just one of the gears that will go in future Subaru transmissions. He has to design that single gear to strict tolerances to withstand extreme pressures, speeds, and temperatures. Electrical engineers solve problems related to electrical systems. They design electrical systems for buildings and equipment, conduct electrical surveying, quality inspect circuit boards and other electrical parts. They design or improve electrical components as well.
Mechanical engnieering obviously! (And I'm not being biased at all .) But if you've taken Physics already, depending on the sections that you were good at or were interested in, you can tell which field is better for you. If you liked working with mechanical systems (i.e. forces, accelerations, kinematics, and predicting the motion / behavior of elements in a system) then you would love being a mechanical engineer. But if you found circuits and resistors inductors and capacitors fun (and not confusing at all), then you should lean towards electrical engineering.
