Aerospace graduates going into finance - annoyed!

[RatherBeOnVacation]

My DD wants to study aerospace / aeronautical engineering at university with a view to either building things to send into space or working for an F1 team. It’s all she wants to do and has huge amounts of work experience to support this (arranged herself in her spare time).

She went to the Imperial open day recently and was horrified to learn that 25% of their recent graduates went straight into finance. A lot of them never had any intention of carrying on in engineering when they started their degree. A bit of digging online and The Student Room is full of people talking about the same thing.

Is this really a thing?

I can understand being tempted by the money, particularly with debt levels. I also get deciding it’s not for you. But it’s a specialist degree and why are you studying it for four years if you have no intention of using it when you first start out? And 25%?????

I guess I’m just annoyed as offers are three / four A stars, or two A stars one A at most top ranking universities. It feels like genuine applicants are having places taken away from them.

Sorry, rant over.

My DD28 got a First in Aerospace Engineering, but failed to get a job in the field. She now works as a test engineer and has recently done a fairly hefty electronics course.
Aerospace engineering can take you down a lot of different paths

It's always been a thing. I did a degree in a different branch of engineering in the 80s and a few of my classmates went into Finance/Management Consultancy.

Most did stick with engineering though.

I suspect that the percentage not staying in engineering varies with the university.

Also, it's very common for people who have studied other subjects to work in an unrelated field. My friends who studied humanities subjects ended up working in IT. So you can't reasonably look askance at engineers doing similar.

it's been a thing for decades and finance as a career option appears when looking at engineering courses at all unis. my DD did the same kind of course your DD is looking at and is currently working on space-related projects but a lot of that is luck - there's no way everyone who does that kind of degree will end up with a space or F1 job.

How is it your business?

I graduated from an Engineering degree nearly 30 years ago and went straight into finance. Luckily we live in a free country and that was completely my choice.

Well then they need to look at offering things like degree apprenticeships/ degree sponsorship to attract grads.

My brother did an English degree and now works in IT. Is that annoying for you too OP?

We should talk about this more. The big London institutions have made this their business model now. They are not there to educate British students any more. Yes ok it’s about money… but how did we get here?

When education became a free market commodity rather than a public good.

My guess is that the OP’s daughter is less likely to get the grades for this course, and the OP feels that these ‘less interested candidates with very high grades’ are pushing up the entry requirements.

The point I would make is that those who go into finance etc may have started off dedicated to an engineering career, but along the way (or even after multiple failed job applications) felt that this was no longer the route for them. The 25% aren’t identifiable in the first day, or in advance.

Indeed, the OP’s child may herself find her path twisting in an alternative direction over the coming years.

(Wait until she realises that eg 50% of those graduating in architecture from Cambridge, one of the courses with the highest applications per place, never work as architects)

And as for going into finance - how else are you going to pay a mortgage?! It’s all about the filthy lucre.

Finance have always recruited from numerate disciplines. Given the tech driven nature of the sector it needs loads of bright minds who can adapt quickly and solve problems. So engineers, physicists, mathematicians and comp sci grads are always targeted. And have been for decades.

Shouldn’t be seen as a negative for the course but a huge positive that there are options across multiple industries.

I'd be delighted in your position. Fewer aerospace engineering graduates with the genuine passion your DD has to fight for the very few aerospace engineering graduate jobs. What's not to like?

I think - OP may want to correct me - that her DD is not yet a student looking for a graduate job, but a sixth former aiming to apply.

These supposed ‘non genuine engineering students’ are blocking the way for her DD because they are raising the entrance grade requirement beyond what she can attain. OP thinks that if they were weeded out at application stage (how?!) the grades would go down and give her child a place.

Not at all. My DD is aiming for four A stars and has nine grade 9s at GCSE. The space sector is booming, particularly in terms of defence and even the RAF recruit for it. For those naysayers she has also already had work experience with two F1 teams and works for a Ginetta Junior team in her spare time. I know she’ll stand as good a chance as anyone getting to where she wants to be.

There’s 128 spots at Imperial on this particular course. 10 times more apply than spaces. The reason it appeals is because of the huge amount of research going on in these fields and having access to actually being able to work alongside the experts in the 3rd and 4th years on some really niche and exciting stuff.

I am genuinely struggling with the why would you even START this course knowing full well you are never going to use it? Is it not a little selfish to deny others access to some of the most advanced thinking and research on the subject? It must surely be frustrating for your peers when working on group projects knowing that a significant proportion really aren’t that into it?

I’m not talking about changing your mind mid way through etc. You just don’t get the same dropout to other vocations in subjects like medicine. There’s the same amount of prep required in terms of entrance testing and interviews. I think people might look at it differently if 25% of all medics were going into finance and had no intention of becoming doctors?

DS got a degree in this subject. It attracts very bright applicants and they will be in demand in the finance industry among others. There was a significant drop out after and during the first year, however, when the reality is a focus on hard core maths and very little to do with planes or rockets. It's quite a sexy sounding degree, though.

I am genuinely struggling with the why would you even START this course knowing full well you are never going to use it?

Have you not read the previous posts? The people going into finance are going to be using the knowledge used in this course, they're just not going to be using it to build F1 cars or aeroplanes themselves. Financial institutions need engineers, computer scientists, doctors, and all kinds of other skilled professions in order to understand what their money is being spent on when they invest in these projects.

It feels like genuine applicants are having places taken away from them.

They all want to do the course, which makes them 'genuine applicants'.

You don't get to decree they are not 'genuine' because of the career path they ultimately choose.

Also people have to have a degree these days to get into most professions. It is a high, level prestigious degree demonstrates their ability no matter what field they eventually go into.

a lot of people, like myself, didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do when they graduated so picked something that interested them and then just rolled with it until a career found its way to them.

I did a music degree and most of my class mates went in to finance/accountancy.

How many graduate jobs actually exist in aerospace engineering?

Engineering skills fit well with finance - maths, computing, project management, understanding production processes etc.

In reality the number of engineering grads is likely higher than the number of jobs for them to do.

My dad worked his whole career as a MechEng and latterly in a research role at Imperial but he said few kids had the skills to “make it” as an engineer.

I actually think it's good that people in finance understand engineering. If it doesn't get financed it's not going to get built and it's better that the people making decisions about companies and investment and resources know when an engineering company or idea is good and when it's flimflam.

I did engineering and went into finance (before sidestepping into another field) and I fail to understand why it matters? Besides medicine, I know very, very few people who actually use their degree for a job. History grads in the civil service, biology grads in software, geography grads in supply chain etc etc.
Also - the other major industy for aerospace grads is weapons. Most of us sleep better at night when we're not responsible for bombing children.

My child has just started at uni studying this. At this point I have no idea where their career will take them and I will just be happy that they have studied something that interests them and that they will potentially end up in a job that they enjoy. There are likely to be many jobs in aerospace coming up in the next 10 years. People could say the same about your daughter- why is she not studying motorsports if that's what she wants to do? Yes, I do understand there is a huge crossover as with many jobs.

Probably it's more interesting than studying finance at university.