Industrial Engineering: Employment Opportunities

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Q. I am shortly going to start college, and I am considering majoring in industrial engineering. I would like to know what are the present job opportunites in industrial engineering? Insofar as, are there more IE's than there are industrial engineering jobs? Furtermore, in your oponion, what is the future fate of industrial engineering looking like (i.e. grim, excellent, etc.)? And, if you are an industrial engineer, how often do you find your-self relocating and changing jobs?

A. You didn't mention whether you have already industrial experience and/or other education/degree(s). As for my experience, I got a BSEE back in 1981, started work as design engineer (mobile radio, IC design, advanced TV/video), but noticed that there is more to working as an engineer than doing design. When the opportunity for an advanced degree offered itself, I grabbed it and got my MSIE in 1991. In retrospect, this was the best thing I could have done. I never worked as an Industrial Engineer but instead ventured into manufacturing, management and product engineering (technical/quality customer interface). The stuff I learned while getting my IE degree gave me a significantly broader perspective on things, which shrank the design aspect to almost a singularity in the universe of "making things". The funny thing is that the basic engineering concepts can be successfully applied to almost anything: you have a process that takes place, transforms inputs into outputs while using resources, and does this more or less effectively and efficiently. The broader base obtained through an IE education allows you to successfully solve problems even in lesser known areas, since the tools are always the same. It doesn't matter if you talk about getting a design to work, optimizing a factory floorplan, or re-engineering the change control process for manufacturing support documentation. In short, you have the potential of having not only much more fun doing different things all the time, but at the same time you increase your value to an increasing base of potential employers as well.

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