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What are some non-IE courses (doesn’t even have to be Engineering classes) that you find useful towards building your skills and towards your engineering career?
Hello.
I was a Chemistry major with an Engineering Minor in college, so I did not take an exactly “traditional” path to getting to be an Engineer in industry. Because of this, I took a lot of different classes than that of a “real/normal” engineering major. In saying that, when I first read this though, I knew right away what my class I took that I would recommend was in school. The class that I took that I know I use the absolute most day to day is Technical Writing. I took it my Senior year (wasn’t a required class but was recommended) and, frankly, I was not looking forward to it at all. I needed credits and thought it was going to be a good space filler. I was so wrong. I think the reason it was so influential was because of an amazing Professor who really showed and tailored the class towards extremely usable skills for Engineers. I learned so much and think about that class very often. I have been in industry for almost 3 years now and know that being able to strongly communicate progress and work in written forms is an extremely important skill that is not always emphasized as much as it should be. I would recommend all students to take some sort of Technical writing course prior to entering their field.
KJ
Classes that center around engineering economics is always a great idea. Give you insight into how your manager is looking out for the rest of the year
While working in an environment that fabricates parts out of sheet metal, I’ve found that the content taught in Materials Science and Engineering 350 has been very helpful in understanding the different aspects of each material type, and the variation that will propagate in the material, and processes that shape it.
Introduction to Finance with Mark LaPlante was a very helpful course I took outside the IE curriculum. It teaches you not only about corporate financing, but also about personal financing and how planning and budgeting money can impact your and your company’s future. To this day I still use the skills I learned from that class to plan out financial decisions!
One class I found very helpful that is not part of the Industrial Engineering program is Computer Science 301 (I think the class number has since been changed, but it is Introduction to Python). This class was my introduction to coding. We were also taught about SQLite and HTML in this class. Just having a basic knowledge of how coding works and the structure of the language has helped carry me through a variety of projects and real-world applications.
I agree with the above comments! I found Comp Sci 301 to be a helpful initial introduction to coding. It helped me understand basic if statements, logic, and for loops that I have used in all my internships and in other ISyE classes. I would recommend taking as many classes in computer science and coding as you can as they are extremely useful in the real world!
I would say all of my statistics classes like STAT 311 and 312 have proved to be helpful during internships and for IE classes that followed that sequence. Taking these earlier on as a student sets you up for success in the real world and provides a good foundation for the workplace.
Take economics/ business or even material science engineering classes as you can build on IE knowledge through these courses.
I took American Legal History 1860-Present. I want to pursue Law School after graduation, and I found this class to be very beneficial to my career path, but I also found it to be useful to every citizen in America. We learned about how territorial expansion, democracy, and slavery shaped nineteenth-century American law. We also studied major Supreme Court cases. If you like to read & write about history, I would highly recommend.
I agree with Julia in that 311 and 312 (Stats) are some of the most important courses down the line working towards your undergraduate degree.
A class that is useful towards building a better life in terms of financial well-being is Consumer Science 321: Financial Life Skills For Life After Graduation. It teaches you all about budgeting, 401(k)’s, investing, renting apartments, job offers, benefits, and all the basic knowledge that many people have to try to figure out as they start their careers. It’s a class that I believe should be a requirement for people, so that everyone has at least a basic understanding of how to be using their money.
I found both Computer Science courses and ECE courses to be very beneficial for what I want to do in the future. I think that knowing how to code and a couple languages coming out of college is extremely helpful and makes you even easier to hire.
I took Accounting last year and thought it was extremely beneficial because it exposed me how money is interpreted for business and record-keeping reasons. Also, I saw similarities in some aspects of the course to what I’ve learned in a few industrial engineering classes, so it was fun to have that background coming into the course. Lastly, I feel as though everyone in the work force should have some understanding of accounting because it can apply to certain parts of a job.
I took civil engineering 498 and found it to be really beneficial because you learn a lot about being a project manager. While this isn’t a career I see for myself, we learned so much about how to lead people, how to be a good team mate, how to work well with your boss and more. This class emphasized how important good management is to the success of projects and businesses.
