00:00is an environmental engineering major or
00:02environmental engineering degree
00:04worth it that's the question that we're
00:06going to be tackling today and we are
00:09right into it we're going to figure out
00:10whether this degree is worth going 40
00:12000 in debt for and spending four years
00:16grinding away studying all day okay so
00:20what exactly is environmental
00:23environmental engineers are going to use
00:25engineering principles to develop
00:26solutions for environmental problems
00:29along with the engineering curriculum
00:30you're going to be studying a lot of
00:32science biology chemistry as well as
00:36generally you're going to be working to
00:38improve problems that have to do with
00:41public health environmental
00:43sustainability global warming
00:45air pollution control etc so there's one
00:47really cool example i'm pretty sure i
00:49saw this on shark tank where there's a
00:51and this straw just automatically
00:55if you get stranded out in the woods and
00:56you have the straw with you you can go
00:59and just use it to drink the water and
01:01it will filter it for you now this is a
01:04and rare degree every year around 1 500
01:06people graduate in the u.s with a
01:09now when you're looking at a degree and
01:11trying to decide whether you want to go
01:12for this or not as your major
01:14you want to break it down into important
01:17i like to break it down into four
01:19different sections salary
01:20demand satisfaction and x factors
01:24so first we're going to talk about
01:25salary and people who graduate with this
01:27degree are going to make around 59
01:29000 a year starting out and 101 000 in
01:32mid-career pay now if you became an
01:34environmental engineer they make around
01:37000 a year and that's around 42 dollars
01:40and there's a few other career paths you
01:42might find yourself going down so i'll
01:44just go ahead and list them off really
01:46chemical engineer civil engineer
01:47environmental engineering technician
01:49environmental scientists hydrologist and
01:52natural sciences manager
01:54and as you can see the salary for all of
01:55them is relatively good and i always
01:58just to maximize your happiness that you
02:00try to go for around 70 to 80 000
02:02a year i know that everybody's different
02:05and you know you might live in a part of
02:07things are more expensive or maybe
02:08you're a minimalist and you can live off
02:11a year but generally speaking studies
02:14have shown that happiness
02:16is in fact going to increase the more
02:19up until a certain point and that's
02:21usually around 70 to 80 000. now if you
02:23look at the latest census and you see
02:24how much engineering degrees make over a
02:27is excellent by far the number one
02:29degree at around 3.5 million
02:32compared to all the other ones which are
02:342.4 so it's no surprise
02:36here engineering degrees score really
02:37well when it comes to salary or earning
02:40i'm going to give this one a 9 out of
02:4210. next we're going to be talking about
02:44the most subjective section which is
02:46satisfaction and i like to break this
02:49into meaning and job satisfaction and
02:52meaning is basically how much you think
02:54positively impacts the rest of the world
02:56in a significant way
02:57so for this degree it has a meaning
03:01and if you compare that to one that's
03:03really high and one that's really low
03:04you'll see that it's above
03:06average now if you were to become an
03:08environmental engineer the meaning score
03:1070 which again is going to be above
03:13and if you look at the job satisfaction
03:14score it's 72 percent and you can
03:16compare that to a really good one and a
03:18and again it's going to be on the higher
03:20side so everything is looking really
03:22good there it looks like people who go
03:23into this career path
03:25not only find it meaningful but they
03:27enjoy doing their job on a day-to-day
03:29now another thing i like to look at is
03:30the percentage of people who regret
03:32getting their college degree and
03:33ziprecruiter released data and it shows
03:35that engineering is the third
03:37least regretted type of degree only
03:40around 15 percent of people who got it
03:41regretted it and the main reason is
03:44jobs out there sometimes require an
03:46advanced degree like a master's or a
03:48doctorate but overall
03:50really good this section is extremely
03:52subjective like i said there's so many
03:54other things that can influence how you
03:56enjoy your job or how much meaning you
03:58find in your job it could be the people
04:00the company you work for industry you
04:02work in all kinds of different things
04:05for some people salary is going to be
04:07very important if they have a high
04:08salary that will make them happy for
04:10others it doesn't really matter
04:11for most people it matters up to a
04:13certain point so this is extremely
04:15subjective for one person it could be
04:17amazing for another person it could be
04:19but overall i'm going to give this one a
04:219 out of 10 when it comes to
04:23next we're going to be talking about
04:25demand and this is probably the most
04:27important out of all the factors that
04:30the reason for this is because
04:31everything else comes from demand at the
04:33end of the day the economy works in a
04:35supply and demand format
04:37if you have skills that are in demand
04:39and there's not a lot of other people
04:41have those skills that can supply those
04:43skills then they'll probably end up
04:45paying you more they'll probably end up
04:46treating you better and there's just
04:47going to be a lot more opportunity in
04:49general so when it comes to an
04:51environmental engineering career there's
04:5355 000 jobs available right now and it's
04:55growing at three percent which is as
04:57fast as average meaning over the next 10
04:59years there's going to be 1700 new jobs
05:01created to be honest with you that's
05:02pretty average not very impressive and
05:05one of the downsides of getting an
05:07environmental engineering degree
05:09is it's not going to be as flexible as
05:10other types of engineering degrees like
05:12mechanical engineering for instance so
05:14realistically speaking with a mechanical
05:17or a chemical engineering degree you
05:19a lot of the same jobs as an
05:21environmental engineer
05:22but it doesn't necessarily work in the
05:24other direction a lot of the time
05:26hiring managers and business owners are
05:28really used to mechanical engineers
05:29applying for jobs even if those jobs
05:31don't necessarily have much to do with
05:34a lot of the time they'll end up hiring
05:35people with these degrees just because
05:38them and they know that they're hiring
05:39somebody who's probably really smart
05:41and also really hard working so it's
05:43almost like they have a little bit of
05:44real estate inside of people's heads who
05:46make important decisions when it comes
05:48to hiring however environmental
05:50engineering although it might be just
05:52as good in terms of the skills you learn
05:54isn't nearly as well known and probably
05:56not nearly as respected so it could be
05:58much more difficult for you to get your
05:59first job especially if you aren't able
06:01as an environmental engineer now one way
06:04you can test the waters a little bit is
06:06look up the keyword for the degree
06:08you're going for on monster.com or
06:10indeed.com so for instance you could
06:11type in environmental engineering degree
06:159400 jobs popped up you can compare that
06:18to a really bad one and a really good
06:20and you'll see that it's actually not
06:21that bad it's on the better side
06:23especially when you consider that not
06:25that many people are graduating with a
06:27this is a pretty good sign now another
06:29thing that's really great about
06:30engineering degrees is when big
06:32companies you know fortune 500
06:34companies are surveyed a lot of the time
06:37love hiring engineers it's usually
06:39either the first or the second most
06:40popular type of degree for those
06:43and businesses up there as well however
06:45a lot of the time they're going to be
06:46looking for mechanical
06:48engineers chemical electrical that sort
06:51because they're not nearly as familiar
06:52with this type of engineering major so
06:55is a little lacking in this category
06:57maybe it'll be different 20 years from
06:59now but right now i'm going to have to
07:027 out of 10. next we're going to be
07:04talking about x factors this is anything
07:06else that i think is important that
07:07didn't make it into any of the other
07:09so one thing i always like to mention
07:11when it comes to engineering degrees is
07:13not only do you make more money over a
07:15lifetime 3.5 million versus 2.4 million
07:18but it's good pretty much no matter what
07:20career path you end up going down so the
07:22average artist is going to make around
07:232.3 million over a lifetime whereas the
07:26engineer that becomes an artist is going
07:283 million that is a huge difference same
07:31thing when it comes to community and
07:32legal services it's going to be 1.8
07:36engineering degree graduates tend to do
07:38really well no matter what career path
07:40they end up going down and there could
07:41be a multitude of reasons for this but
07:44it is a good sign now another thing i
07:46like to do is look up the skill
07:48index for these different types of
07:49careers and degrees and you'll see that
07:52environmental engineering isn't going to
07:54show up on there but something that's
07:55really close to it is going to be
07:57chemical engineering and that one scores
07:5959 out of a hundred you can compare that
08:01to the highest score and one of the
08:02lowest scores and you'll see
08:04that it's definitely on the higher side
08:06that's a great sign because it shows
08:07that hiring managers and business owners
08:09are looking for people who have these
08:10types of skills another thing i like to
08:12look at is the likelihood of
08:14automation so for instance environmental
08:16engineers have a 1.8
08:19chance of automation so pretty much it's
08:22same thing with environmental scientists
08:24and specialists in general about a three
08:26very very low and when it comes to
08:28outsourcing it's kind of the same thing
08:30usually engineers are relatively
08:32hands-on they're going to be
08:33communicating with other people there's
08:34a lot of creative intelligence involved
08:37very unlikely that it will be outsourced
08:39another thing i like to mention with
08:40engineering degrees in general is they
08:42tend to create a lot of millionaires
08:44and billionaires they're actually number
08:46one in terms of degrees they create the
08:48most millionaires and billionaires and
08:49the main reason for that besides the
08:51high salary is the fact that it is a
08:52really good segue into
08:54entrepreneurship engineers are the
08:56ultimate problem solvers they are
08:58extremely practical when it comes to
09:01at the end of the day that's what most
09:02of entrepreneurship is that's basically
09:05of it so it's extremely flexible with an
09:07engineering degree you can go down
09:09so many different routes you can work in
09:11almost any industry in any business
09:13for all kinds of different careers and
09:15then once you've gotten a few years of
09:16experience you've gotten some skills
09:18you can go off on your own and start
09:20your own business and you'll likely have
09:22the technical skills to have a very good
09:24of being successful now one last thing
09:26that i like to mention about engineering
09:28degrees is that they are
09:29very difficult okay so you know you want
09:32to know what you're getting yourself
09:33into engineering degrees are tough
09:34you're going to be studying
09:35all the time it's going to be one of the
09:37hardest things you have to do but with
09:38that being said when i was researching
09:40this video a lot of people on forums
09:42said that it's not as hard as some of
09:43the other engineering degrees
09:45and some of the skills you learn might
09:48as practical or as applicable so overall
09:51when it comes to x factors i'm going to
09:538 out of 10. so when you take all four
09:56of those and divided by 4 the final
09:58is going to be 8.25 out of 10. that is
10:02good now of course this is subjective
10:04it's going to be different for
10:05everybody so make sure that you do your
10:07research i'm assuming here
10:09that you've done your due diligence
10:10you've done your research you've talked
10:12in the career path that you're trying to
10:14go for and you've asked them if this is
10:16a good idea but for the right person
10:18in the right situation i think this can
10:19be an amazing major for you to go for
10:22if you know exactly what you want to do
10:23i say definitely go for it if you're not
10:26a hundred percent sure you might want to
10:27play it safe and go for more of a
10:29general engineering degree like
10:31mechanical or chemical
10:33that way you have a little bit more
10:34flexibility down the line but at the end
10:37once you get your first job and you get
10:39a couple years of experience
10:40college isn't going to be that important
10:42because at that point what they care
10:44about is your experience and your skill
10:46while you're in college it's very
10:47important that you focus on learning
10:49skills this is key and then on top of
10:51that it's a good idea to do internships
10:53or get work experience
10:54and then networking never hurts either
10:57now if you want more help doing research
10:58on college degrees i did create the
11:00college degree ranker it's going to be
11:02down in the description below
11:03this in my opinion is the best resource
11:07anywhere that you can find for doing
11:09research on college degrees
11:10right now it's in version 1.1 pretty
11:13soon i'm going to be updating it after
11:15craziness in the world is done with and
11:17i'm going to make it even better i'm
11:18going to be doing version 2.
11:20if you haven't done already gently tap
11:21the like button hit the subscribe button
11:23ring the notification bell and comment
11:24down below any thoughts comments
11:26criticisms etc that you
11:28have on the video sharing the video
11:29always helps as well
11:31and don't leave check out my other
11:32videos right here i made them
![Welp, Here's what the Fed *Just* Said [Fed FOMC Minutes]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fl8u23oq1E9E%2Fhqdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
