Page:Engineering as a vocation (IA cu31924004245605).pdf/46

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ENGINEERING AS A VOCATION

sent for a post-graduate course to an advanced engineering school. Civil engineers in the United States Navy, in charge of navy yards, etc., are selected after severe competitive examinations from graduates of good civil engineering schools. Naval engineers and naval architects are graduates of Annapolis who stand at, or near, the head of the graduating class and are then sent to special schools for more instruction.

The greatest opportunities for engineering graduates to-day lie in the field of contracting and general construction work and the best training for this employment is to be had in the civil engineering and mining engineering courses.

The four great divisions of engineering, military and naval engineers being ranked merely as engineers, are:

Civil Engineering,
Mining Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering,
Electrical Engineering.

Each is divided into numerous specialties, but the young man who takes a specialty in one of the above branches makes a mistake, unless he is preparing himself to fit into a certain position already provided.

Every engineer ends by specializing to a greater or less extent. This is unavoidable in the conduct of the work of the world, but the fundamentals are