10 Careers You Didn’t Know Existed in Engineering

Engineering is a more extensive and an enormous field of study. Everything is engineer’s piece of art, from the house you’re living in to high-rise buildings and bridges you see all around the city. Engineering is divided into many branches. Some of the popular and commonly known ones are: electrical engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering and computer engineering.

These fields are further divided into various sub-branches. For example, electrical engineering is further divided into electronics engineering, power engineering, and communication engineering. Each field deals with different aspects of engineering. However, there are some careers in engineering that you may not know that exist. If you want to study engineering, you might be interested to look into these unpopular yet in demand careers of engineering as well. Let’s see what those rarely known fields in engineering are that have careers you didn’t know existed.

#1 Bioenergy Engineering

Bioenergy Engineering
Bioenergy Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Although bioenergy engineering is uncommon, those engineers have researched and worked towards safety of our planet than any other field of engineering. Bioenergy engineer works toward the conversion of wastelands, biomass into productive fuels like renewable sources of energy.
They also make useful industrial products and materials from renewable bio resources. As an example, the gases produced from the heating of waste materials are harnessed to rotate turbines and thus generates electricity.

#2 Food Engineering

Food Engineering
Food Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Food engineering is a field where engineering meets the chemical food processing. Food engineer develops best possible ways to process, store and improve the quality of the food. Processing of food is a technique where different food recipes and altogether different food products are made from the same ingredient. For example, flour can be used to make different processed food products. You may have noticed on some food products that some companies use different packaging for the same food. In fact, they are not the same. The nutrients and proteins are modified to make different products for different aged people. Food engineers also make new ways to store all types of food products for future use.

#3 Earthquake Engineering

Earthquake Engineering
Earthquake Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

The earthquake engineering deals with the study of structure of various buildings and the strength of these buildings against the power of earthquake forces. So, the main task of earthquake engineer is to make the structure of building such that it can resist the power of earthquake. The force produced by earthquake is different than other common forces as it makes the building to shake and vibrate, therefore it requires new field of study to make buildings strong enough to survive the earthquake force. It involves repetition of testing against forces and thus making the most precise design to strengthen the buildings.

#4 Urban Engineering

Urban Engineering
Urban Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Urban engineering is related to making the urban environment better by applying the laws of engineering and science. It also includes construction and maintenance of the roads for public transportation systems. Urban engineering also involves the improvement of urban habitat’s quality of life (QoL) by maintaining the bionomics environment through different means. Disposal of urban solid waste, garbage, and purifying the water for drink are some of the key tasks associated to the field of urban engineering.

#5 Water Resources Engineering

Water Resource Engineering
Water Resource Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

As the name suggests, the field of water resource engineering deals with the maintenance and management of the water resources in both cities and villages. One of the main task of water resource engineers is to research and develop different ways to make the water of lakes and rivers clean and drinkable. Water resource engineers works on various water treatment plants.

#6 Automobile Engineering

Working Principle of Electric Vehicles
Automobile Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Automobile or automotive engineering field is to some extent related to mechanical engineering but now automobile engineering is a separate field of study (a sub-branch of vehicle engineering) and if you are passionate about automobile engineering; you can pursue this interesting field and have a career in automobile industry in the future. Automobile engineer as the name suggests deals with the designing of optimized parts or components for automobiles.

In fact, an automobile engineer has key role in designing all the software, safety systems, electronics components, and structure of automobiles. Moreover, they troubleshoot and solve engineering problems in the automotive industry.

#7 Marine Engineering

Marine Engineering
Marine Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Marine engineering deals with the designing of transportation system for oceans. Every type of boat, ship, cruiser, and submarine are designed and built by marine engineers. A marine engineer designs the system of thrust and the mechanical structure of large ships. He can also make the electrical structure and design by applying the concepts from the field of electronics engineering inside these cruisers.

#8 Nanotechnology Engineering

Nanotechnology Engineering
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Nanotechnology engineering is the on rise these days. This field of engineering finds extensive applications in various parts of practical life. From medicine to textile industries it has application everywhere. Basically, nanotechnology engineer works toward the study, research and development of materials and matter in nano-scale level. It derives its name from the nano-meter, a unit of measurement equaling one billionth of a meter.

They test for contaminants, create powders to supplement our foods and medicines, and study the smallest fragments of DNA. Nanotechnology engineers can even manipulate cells, proteins, and other chemicals from within the body. Although this field of engineering is not commonly known, it has various job prospects in various industries.

Read More: All You Should Know About Nanotechnology Engineering

#9 Information System Engineering

Information System Engineering
Information System Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

Information system engineering is also a rarely known field of engineering but has various job opportunities in the market. It involves the area of software engineering and cyber-security. Information systems engineers design, develop, test and maintain systems used primarily for data.

#10 Audio (Sound) Engineering

Audio (Sound) Engineering
Audio (Sound) Engineering, Image Courtesy of AdobeStock

According to Wikipedia, an audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound.

Have you studied any of the engineering fields listed above? Share your thoughts on these fields of engineering with us in the comment box below.

Aimal Khan is the founder & CEO of Engineering Passion. He is an engineer and has obtained his bachelor's degree in energy engineering from Kandahar University.