Industrial engineering is the engineering most closely tied to manufacturing. The advantage of industrial engineering over many other forms is that it supports the industrial base and its processes. As long as their is manufacturing, they need industrial engineers.
The down side is that if the manufacturing has been outsourced, so has most of the industrial engineer's job - unless you're willing to travel.
There is still US based manufacturing, and those high tech plants need more industrial engineers per factory even if they have fewer workers. For example, scheduling loads between many more machines, managing supply chain for more complex assemblies, the logistics of international supply bases, and software to be tailored for the shop floor needs all increase demand.
With the large number of baby boomers in that field retiring, I see employment opportunities for younger workers even if manufacturing base stays steady.
My official career title is "Manufacturing Engineer" which is a mix between Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. This career focuses primarily on mechanical processes and the people that use them. I spend roughly half of my day with people in the factory environment identifying and solving immediate and long term problems. The other half on my day is spent on the computer helping writing reports, using AutoCAD to design layouts/tools, calling suppliers, working with routings for part flow, etc. I sometimes work on long term capital projects but the majority of the work is focused on the day-to-day activities of keeping production running.
I would recommend this career to someone is excellent at multi-tasking, priority setting, and comfortable with project management. If you are easily frazzeled by pressure, stress, deadlines, and people with high emotions around change, it is not the career for you.
Dentists have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions. Their rate of suicide is 6.64 times greater than the rest of the working population.
Did you know...
The MyPlan.com Career Assessment Tests provide more detailed career recommendations than any other set of tests available anywhere!