What’s the most profitable career path?

[u/MistakeSea6886]

I’m a freshmen Engineering major that is taking gen Ed’s. I am thinking of switching to chemical engineering next year. I really like ChE but but want to pick a profitable career path, which is why I’m on the fence between it and Computer science. I did research and found that petroleum engineering is very profitable, and ChE can pick it pretty quickly. However with the way the world is going(more green energy), are renewable energy jobs such as nuclear power plants going to experience a boom in demand and become more profitable?

[u/[deleted]]

Aside from my interest in chemical engineering, I choose this field because being a ChemE is stable. Once you become a ChemE you stay valuable. You don’t have to compete with new grads and stay on top of new material or anything. No. Plant experiences is plant experience. So while the degree is hard to obtain and getting a job right out of graduation may be difficult, once you’re in you are in.

The pay can be and is good, but more importantly the degree lets you stay flexible. You can work higher pay jobs for worse WLB and location, or do something else with it. For example if you major in ChemE you can still get a finance job because you have math skills. Also, you can do grad school for something else after the degree. You can get an MD or JD, ChemEs are not penalized for not going pre law or pre med as much as other degrees.

It’s just kind of hard to regret majoring in this field from money perspective.

[u/MistakeSea6886 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, but in terms of a degree that gives me lots of freedom, I’ve been told to go either electrical or mechanical engineering. EE has so much flexibility because everything has electronics nowadays. Likewise, ME can be applied to everything because they are strong on physics, fluid dynamics, and other stuff. ChE doesn’t seem to have as many applications if I don’t go into medical.