In this article let’s take a look at 15 best non engineering jobs for engineers and alternative career options for engineers who drop out of college and also for the people who do not like coding and confused what you should do next.
This is the most comprehensive article you can find online on this topic of what you can do with engineering degree without doing engineering so I would recommend you to bookmark the article and share the article with your friends to let them know alternative career options for engineers.
So without further ado let’s get started.
15 best non engineering jobs for engineers (alternative career options for engineers).
Graphic design
Graphic design is one of the best career options for engineering students. If you have the skills such as creativity designing attention to detail critical thinking photo editing and Photoshop skills then this is a good skill to have.
Basically the job of graphic designers is to create amazing visuals that easily communicate various ideas and information such as infographics and logos and other things like posters billboards marketing material and others using various softwares colours typography images and many more.
Unlike most career paths, You do not need a degree to become a graphic designer and make money as you can take many online courses for graphic design on Udemy and you can also use many online tools like Adobe Photoshop and illustrator to create amazing graphic design elements.
You can work for many multinational companies as a graphic designer and there are many the benefits of a graphic design like it can significantly increase the sales and brand value of any company more importantly graphic design is one such career that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence in future because it requires creativity and critical thinking a lot and obviously it is lucrative as well.
The average salary of a graphic designer in India is 7 lakh rupees per annum whereas 55000 dollars is the average salary in America obviously your salary will depend upon your experience, portfolio, reviews etc
Digital marketing [DM]
There are different types of things you can learn in digital marketing such as search engine optimisation or social media marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, etc you can specialise in any field, become expert in it and start making money by offering your services to companies.
For example if you are engineer in India, study says that by the end of 2020, DM in India is expected to grow by 10.9% to touch Rs 75,952 crore mark and for your kind information more than 4.5 billion people use Google, 3 billion people use Facebook and 2.5 billion people use YouTube worldwide,
there are many studies which show that people always read articles and reviews and take the influencer advice before purchasing any product, service and thanks to covid pandemic online sales on e-commerce sites have drastically increased due to lockdowns and social distancing and more people are purchasing products online so digital marketing is something you can learn and get a job.
You should learn DM if you are interested in marketing online, You have creativity and critical thinking, attention to detail, and persistence.
And what’s amazing is you do not need to have a degree to be a digital marketer as you can either learn DM through online courses or by practising it yourself through free resources.
- You can check out this article on how you can learn digital marketing in detail.
You can work from any part of the world since all you need is a computer and internet connection to work, and apart from working as a employee you can also start your own digital marketing agency and basically offer various digital marketing services to businesses with very minimal investment and you can also consider starting your own website and blog and make money by publishing articles or you can start a YouTube channel and make money.
The average salary of a digital marketer in America is around $60,000 per annum whereas 7 lakh rupees per annum is the average salary in India.
Technical writer
Basically a technical writer is someone who communicates complex and sophisticated information in simple words for example they write documentation of various products like manuals product description user manuals articles of journals tutorials reference guides and white papers.
Basically a job of a technical writer to write some stuff which is complex and explain it in easy words so that people can easily understand it.You can become technical writer if you have in depth knowledge in any product and service and you have the ability to explain complex concept in easy words and strong writing skills.
The average salary of technical writer is ₹6,00,000 per year in India and $68,555 in USA per year.
Real estate and property business
You can get into real estate and property-related industries after engineering. For example, A real estate agent is a licensed professional who represents buyers or sellers in real estate transactions and obviously earns a commission in the middle.
You can become a real estate agent after engineering or a property manager who basically looks after the daily operations of residential or commercial properties including apartment complexes, office buildings, or business parks & collect rent payments, hire and train staff and take care of the maintenance of buildings and recruit security guards.
If you have good communication skills, human management, negotiation skills, and critical thinking then you can get into this field most often you don’t need a degree but you can get knowledge of it by working under the specialized people in this area.
The average salary of a real estate agent is $94836 per year in United States and 5 lakh rupees in India
Copywriter
Copy writing is another good path, in this the main work is to write copy or text to promote or sell some product or service online on website, social media posts, and in ads and landing pages, etc
Copy writers are very important for any company’s marketing as they help influecner audience in buying products which they are promoting and copywriters help in branding and marketing of a product and create a good impression of product in audience mind.
Whats more amazing is you dont need a degree to become a copywriter as you can learn the skill online on many platforms for free and paid courses, and you can start working as a freelance copywriter or even get hired by any company to work in sales and marketing team, the average salary is $62170 in america and 5 lakh rupees per month in india and most importantly copywriting cannot get replaced by AI in future because this requires alot of creativity, critical thinking, research, etc which AI cant have In most of the cases.
Journalism
Journalism is another interesting path you can choose after engineering. As a matter of fact, journalism & media is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy because they tell the public what’s the truth and keep the public updated about the government’s actions and thereby keeping the government accountable.
The key objective of a journalist is to gather information, present the news in an honest and balanced manner. In addition to investigating and reporting on current events, they also work on articles and features that update and influence public opinion.
To be a good journalist, the qualities are flair for writing, presentation and communication skills, extensive reading, an analytical mind, observational skills, presence of mind and courage.
If you don’t get any job in any news channel then you can also start your own news channel on YouTube and provide news to your audience and then you can join as a journalist for major news publications like Indian express and Times of India and foreign news websites like New York Times.
The average salary of a journalist is 5 lakh rupees per annum in India and $60,000 per annum in America.
Professor
You can also become a teacher and professor in any college, university, school and teach various subjects to students.
You should become a teacher if you have indepth knowledge in any subject and share it with your students. But the thing is most universities hire professors with masters or PhD degrees so You might have to go for higher education to become a professor in any university and college because universities pay more money than school for professors.
And most importantly you can have a lot of satisfaction & happiness in your life because you can change the career and be a role model for many students as a professor.
The average annual salary is around 11 lakh rupees per annum in India and $70,000 per annum in top universities of America like Harvard.
Read pros and cons of becoming a professor in detail here.
Photography
Photography is another career option you can choose.
Photographer works with clients to capture photos of people in events like weeding, functions, using his camera skills and photo editing work.
And in photography there are many career options you can choose like you can become a wedding photographer or wildlife photographer or fashion food sports adventure creative commercial architecture astrophotography editorial and still life photographer and many more depending upon your interest.
And you can also work as a freelancer for many companies and also sell your best photos you have clicked on stock photography website like Shutterstock and Getty images as a royalty and
make money but obviously you need to learn photography and photo editing skills which you can do it online through paid courses or attending a boot camp offline and you need a camera of good quality which you can purchase either the second hand version online for cheaper price to get started.
The average salary is around $42,000 per annum in America and 6 lakh rupees per annum in India for photographer and the salary will be very depending upon your specialisation and experience.
UPSC and other government jobs
UPSC and other government jobs are another good option for engineers especially in India.
Basically you can become IAS, IFS, IPS and other offices in the administrative service or you can write other exams like RRB SSC, SSC CGL for railway jobs or bank IBPS PO, TET exam to become a teacher and professor in many government colleges and schools in state or state level service exams to become police officers and constables.
You can also prepare and crack the GATE exam after your UG to get a job in many public sector undertaking companies like BDL Midhani, NTPC, ONGC, Bharat electronics limited and many more.
Basically if you just want a govt job then you can try a bunch of exams, you can get selected in any one of them because you cannot only focus on one exam due to competition and limited seats.
The main benefit of getting government job is you can get job security, fixed office timings and more promotions sick leaves, pensions, retirement benefits health insurance and housing benefits and many more.
Health and fitness coach & guide
You can also get into health and fitness industry if you are really interested in that as many engineers also have passion in such industry.
And for example you can become a nutritionist or dietitian and even fitness coach and start guiding students and professionals under you in gyms.
After covid pandemic people have realised that the importance of exercise and living healthy life and many people take the help of health coach to either reduce their weight or fat and become healthy and fit under some guidance so there is a huge demand of this profession in this industry.
There are many online courses and certificates you can take on this topic and getting right certifications is very important to establish credibility in front of your clients that you know what you’re talking about when you are giving advice of health and fitness to your clients.
You would need good communication negotiation and human management skills along with creativity and critical thinking to be good health wellness and lifestyle fitness coach.
And after you become certified coach in this industry you can start offering free service to some of your clients to get some feedback and reviews online then through word of mouth marketing and positive reviews of your clients you can create any website to attract leads to your service and you can grow your business of offering services of coaching.
The average salary of health coach is around 5 lakh rupees per annum in India and $60,000 per annum in America, obviously your salary will grow as you get more experience and more positive reviews of clients because your reviews and word of mouth is what gets you more money because credibility is everything in this industry.
MBA & jobs in sales and marketing
Another good career is to pursue MBA degree after engineering by writing CAT exam.
And you should try to get admission in top MBA colleges like IIM and if you can’t afford them then you can try online MBA courses from upgrad and other platforms, and the main benefit of doing MBA is you can get many job opportunities after it such as you can get into investment banking sales marketing finance operation management business development logistics manager technical recruiters financial analyst accounting product manager human resource manager supply chain manager internet marketing manager market research and many more paths.
You can also start your own business or any marketing agency and service because you will learn all the skills and knowledge required from this degree.
The average salary of MBA graduate is around 25 lakh rupees in india whereas in America it is $100000 per year and obviously your salary will depend upon your skills, specialisation and experience in the industry.
- Read pros and cons of pursuing MBA after b.tech in detail here
Lawyer
You can also become a lawyer after engineering if you want.
Basically a lawyer is advocate and attorney who practises law and solves legal matters in court for his customers.
There are many career options You can choose in law such as criminal lawyer corporate lawyer family lawyer, real estate lawyer environment lawyer, etc.
You should become a lawyer if you have strong speaking ability, You can work in tough and pressure situations, You have good critical thinking, etc and you can pursue LLB after BTech to become one.
The average salary of a lawyer is around 25 lakh rupees per annum in India and 130,000 dollars per annum in America.
- Read pros and cons of becoming a lawyer in detail here.
Film making
You can also get into film making and there are many options you can choose in film making like become actor or even director and other positions like director of photography or art director, screen writer film editor costume designer makeup artist videographer line producer sound engineer and production designer etc.
Now obviously you will have to choose anyone depending upon your interest and skill.
For example if you want to become a director, You would need a bachelor’s of film degree or you most probably have to work under any assistant director or any director to gain the experience and knowledge of making a movie from scratch before you can get enough experience and knowledge to start your own project.
Similarly if you want to become an actor then you will have to get into a theatre and acting school and learn the basics of acting then you will have to get into industries like Bollywood or Tollywood and start looking for opportunities and get into rehearsals, shoots and practice.
One of the main disadvantages is it is extremely competitive and very tough to get into film industry without any background and connections and once you get into the industry and showcase your skills of acting or directing then there is no looking back but you will have to struggle to get the initial opportunities and success in your career.
Average base pay for directors is about $50,000 in America for annum and more than 40 lakh rupees in India and obviously you are salary will depend upon your past movies success history, your experience and budget of the project.
With that said let’s end the article.
Conclusion
These are all the best career options you can choose which are good alternatives for engineering to engineers.
Do comment on what are your thoughts about options I mentioned earlier.
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