- #36
StatGuy2000
Education Advisor
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Observer_hal said:It's not so much people look down on civil engineering, as people look down on engineering in general. There are many, many reasons why this is the case, but I think the main reason is that engineers don't get much publicity. They're the people who makes things go around, from behind the curtain. Also, with the rate of technological advancement, engineers have made it seem too easy to design new products and advance technologies. Most people basically take technology for granted, and believe, subconsciously, that all the technologies and products in the world simply create themselves. As products create themselves, of course nobody actually creates them. Thus, there is no such thing as an engineer. And so to most people, an "engineer", is just a technician/mechanic/menial worker, who maintain the factories, which are a form of natural resource.
While I certainly agree that engineers in general do not get much publicity, the same could also be said of almost any profession in general, including scientists (except among those very few who are the top elite in their profession). And at least from my experience among people I speak to, I have never encountered anyone who looks down on an engineer, except among math and science students in university, where there is a (usually playful) rivalry with the engineering students.