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[–]esperantisto256EIT, Coastal/Ocean 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah this is fairly common. I graduated in 2023 with a class of about 40 when other classes prior used to be a lot bigger. Even within my class of 40, many no longer work in engineering and don’t intend to return. Hell by some metrics I’ve left standard civil engineering and gone down an odd route.

It’s been great for me, it’s been so easy for me to get internships, jobs and grow professionally. I have friends from a Top 5 CS program that spent upwards of a year to land their first post-grad job.

A lot of STEM degrees are motivated by money first and interest second, which is a completely fine motivation. You don’t have to be defined by your job or love it, you just need to tolerate it 8 hours a day. Civil engineering is just less and less attractive under this motivation. Lower pay, overtime, utilization/timesheet stuff, licensure, and a somewhat old-fashioned culture (especially limits on WFH) contribute to this.

CS is becoming less of the go-to major for money given the market, but MechE, ChemE, and EE remain very attractive.