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It can be a hard choice to pick a major after high school. The many options can leave you frustrated and confused, but this is a major decision we must all go through. If you are tossing between engineering and law, this is the right place for you. This post compares those two degrees across different metrics to help you pick the best degree that aligns with your interest and personality.
Students generally go for an engineering degree if they have an interest in math and applied physics and enjoy solving problems. On the other hand, students go for law degrees if they enjoy reasoning, gathering facts and strategising. Both careers are highly scaleable and pay reasonably well, with lawyers paid slightly more. However, lawyers will likely work more and have a more stressful job.
To help you make a choice, we have broken down the key differences and similarities between engineering and law to help you make a decision, all explained in the next few sections.
6 Key differences between engineering and law
1- Law is a reasoning job, while engineering is a common-sense job
In general, law is a degree that revolves around helping people to get out of a problem. This means gathering facts and understanding the situation to provide a solution. This requires reasoning and sometimes negotiations.
Engineering is a degree that focuses on finding solutions to world problems that can impact human lives. This means developing an app that can help people find the cheapest flight or building a bridge that can save drivers 10 minutes of travel time. Read What Engineers Do? Simple Definition for more aid.
While both jobs solve problems, lawyers use reasoning and fact check, while engineers use math, physics and design codes to solve problems. You should ask yourself, how do you approach problem-solving? Are you the type that reasons and strategises with the problem or tries to find a logical solution to it?
2- Law helps people directly, while engineering helps people indirectly
Lawyers help people directly by standing by their clients and fighting for their rights. This is a very direct help, and every client a lawyer take has a different situation. For example, a criminal lawyer helps people who have been accused of criminal activity; this helps people directly.
Engineering helps people indirectly by developing a tool that can help people reach a goal or destination. For example, software engineers develop an app to help people lose weight. They are not helping someone directly; they are helping all overweight people indirectly to lose weight.
This is very critical to understand as there are differences in the scale and magnitude you affect people when going for law or engineering. As both degrees aim to help people and make an impact, a law degree is catered toward people who can be in desperate need, which is very direct, and engineering is helping people on a large scale which is indirect. You should ask yourself how you want to help people directly or indirectly?
3- Lawyers make more money than engineers
If money is your motivation, then a law degree is your option. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Experienced lawyers make on average $142,000 a year, while experienced engineers make on average $92,000 a year.
But this is not always true. While the above are average results that prove engineers make less than lawyers, when we compare salaries to the extreme, we can see that the top 10% of engineers are paid significantly higher than lawyers. Those are the CEO and senior-level executives in tech companies with 7-figure salaries. To learn how high engineers can make, read Can Engineering Make you Rich? Are CEOs rich?
The following is an average annual salary of common engineering and law fields:
| Field | Undergraduate | Entry Level | Mid Career | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Lawyer | $45,000 | $68,000 | $122,000 | $213,000 |
| Criminal Lawyer | $55,000 | $71,000 | $105,000 | $253,000 |
| Corporate Lawyer | $41,000 | $72,000 | $144,000 | $218,000 |
| Civil litigation lawyer | $47,000 | $62,000 | $152,000 | $179,000 |
| TAX attorney | $52,000 | $61,000 | $120,000 | $208,000 |
| Civil Engineer | $38,000 | $65,000 | $95,000 | $130,000 |
| Electrical Engineer | $42,000 | $75,000 | $99,000 | $148,000 |
| Mechanical Engineer | $39,000 | $71,000 | $100,000 | $130,000 |
| Chemical Engineer | $34,000 | $67,000 | $97,000 | $135,000 |
| Software Engineer | $55,000 | $82,000 | $105,000 | $155,000 |
However, going for the highest-paying profession is not always the best choice. It is very hard to succeed at something you do not have a passion for. Financial gains should not be your only motivation when deciding. If you are struggling with this argument, we encourage you to read: Which is more important: High salary or job satisfaction?
4- To some degree, engineers have a less stressful job than lawyers
High pay comes with more responsibility. While both professions work longer hours, studies have shown that lawyers will likely work more hours than engineers. At least 5-8 extra hours a week.
Lawyers need to gather evidence, write reports and deal with the opposite party, which is not easy, resulting in constant clashes; this adds more stress to the already difficult job. While engineering can be all of the above plus the problem-solving aspect, design and analysis, there is more support in engineering.
Engineers always collaborate and work in teams to achieve a common goal. They check each other work and communicate effectively to ensure things are executed smoothly. Even between contractors, there is a general sense of collaboration which can be less stressful.
Both careers are extremely competitive. However, engineering has more teamwork and large teams, while law involves small teams of 2-5 lawyers.
5- Law degrees take longer to complete than engineering degrees
This is the tricky part. It takes around 7 years of university before you can work as a lawyer, while engineering takes 4 years of study to work as an engineer.
Simple right? not quite.
Lawers need to complete 4 years of undergraduate degree before applying for law school. An undergraduate degree can be anything related to law, such as political science or criminal justice. After graduation, students become eligible to take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). After passing, the LSAT, students can apply for law schools which can take 3 years to complete. After graduation, students become eligible to take the Bar exam, which is the final step before you can practice law.
Engineers need to complete an undergraduate engineering degree to work as engineers. On average full-time undergraduate degree take 4 years to complete. However, that does not mean graduate engineers are licenced engineers. Engineers must practice engineering for at least 4 years after graduation to be eligible to apply for the Professional Engineers exam (P.E.) to become certified engineers. However, doing the P.E. exam is not mandatory for engineers, and most engineers do not take the P.E. exam.
In summary, the Bar exam is mandatory for lawyers to practice law, P.E. exam is not mandatory for engineers to practice engineering. It takes 7 years to become a lawyer while 4 years to become an engineer. The following table breakdown how long it takes to pursue higher education (Masters and PhD) in engineering and law:
| Degree | Bachelors | Masters | PhD | Total years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law degree | 7 Years | 1-2 Years | 3-4 Years | 11-13 Years |
| Civil Engineering | 4 Years | 2 Years | 3-4 Years | 9-10 Years |
| Electrical Engineering | 4 Years | 1-2 Years | 3-4 Years | 8-10 Years |
| Mechanical Engineering | 4 Years | 2-3 Years | 3-5 Years | 9-12 Years |
| Chemical Engineering | 4 Years | 1-2 Years | 4-5 Years | 9-11 Years |
| Software Engineering | 4 Years | 2 Years | 5-7 Years | 11-13 Years |
Because engineering has many fields, you can find exactly how long it takes to become an engineer in the engineering field you want to get to here: How Long Does It Take To Become An Engineer? Full Guide.
We should also mention the student debt differences between engineers and lawyers. To complete a bachelor’s degree in engineering, you can expect student debt of around $60,000, while law degrees are around $165,000. This is 2.5 times more than an engineering degree.
6- Engineers have more career options than lawyers
Engineers are highly employable. There is generally more demand for engineers, even outside engineering jobs such as sales and finance. Because the skills engineers learn at university can prepare them for many challenges and career paths.
Law graduates are only limited to legal jobs, which are also quite large in scale but not close to engineering. This significantly gives engineers the chance to branch out and change careers in the future.
We should also mention that the demand for careers is relatively high compared to the number of law and engineering graduates every year. However, this also works in favour of the engineers because of their ability to work outside their field. For more, read Why Do Most Engineers End Up Joining Other Fields?
Nevertheless, this should not discourage you from pursuing a law degree as most people eventually become good at one or two things in life, so do not be too concerned about your career options. But it is a good practice to understand the job market in your city before choosing a university major.
3 Common similarities between engineers & lawyers
1- Both Engineering and law are respected professions
There is no doubt that both jobs are pretty prestigious. Engineers and lawyers are well respected and are among the most sought-after degrees. If you get any of those degrees, you can count yourself lucky as they pay very well.
2- Both engineering and law have strong income potential
They both have the potential to achieve 6-figure salaries within a span of 7 to 10 years. The strong income potential comes with time. The more engineers and lawyers work in their fields, the more experience they build and the more money they make.
3- Both engineering and law are scalable careers
Engineering degrees are very scalable, which means you can climb the corporate hierarchy in your organisation and get to a senior level. This usually means an increase in salary and responsibility.
FAQ About engineering & law
Who is richer: lawyer or engineer?
While average income salaries reported in the U.S. shows that lawyers are paid more, that is not always the case. Engineers, specifically software engineers (highest paid engineers), can get significantly high salaries, especially among big tech and FAANG companies (Facebook or Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google).
While on paper, it might look like engineers get compensated around $120,000 a year, that does not count stock ownership and bounces; these can be anything between $50,000-$500,000 a year and even in millions in senior high levels. Reported income reports only focus on base salary, which is not always accurate. To get an impression of how much engineers can make in tech companies, see levels.fyi.
Who is smarter, engineers or lawyers?
We can say that engineers are collectively smart bunch, but individually, lawyers are smarter academically based on degree entry requirements. Engineers make complex things, and we can not deny some exceptionally gifted engineers arguably are smarter than any lawyer. But exam difficulty of LSAT and Bar tests are very difficult that consistently only let exceptional and hard-working students to law.
As much as I hate to say it because I am an engineer, entry requirements to engineering are easy, so arguably, we can say that lawyers are smarter than engineers on an academic level. Yet academic results are just one metric of a multi-variable problem. In the real world, engineers make complex things that impact how people live.
Which is harder, law or engineering?
Engineering is more challenging technically, and law is more challenging argumentatively. Generally, both degrees are difficult and quite challenging to complete, but a law degree has difficult entry requirements. Engineering is not difficult to get to. However, the problems that engineers try to solve are complicated. Therefore, engineering is harder than law from a technical point of view.
Why engineering is the best option to choose as a career?
Engineering can be the best option as a career for many people; first, it has easy entry requirements. Second, easily scalable and have many work opportunity. Third, it pays reasonably well. Plus, graduate engineers have a good understanding of sales, business and finance, making it easy to branch out and go into fields outside engineering.
Why engineers do not make as much as lawyers?
Engineering industries are based on bidding contracts in which usually the lowest bidder gets the job. This increases competition and pays less to the people who actually do the job. This makes engineers among the lowest-paid profession compared to the amount of work they do.
In addition, engineering companies have huge overhead costs spent on resources, training, and equipment. This cost is carried forward in the project and affects how much engineers can make. Compared to lawyers, their overhead costs are mostly office-related, which are substantially low.
Engineering vs Law: Are you ready to make a choice?
In summary, students should go for engineering if they are passionate about math, science and physics. In contrast, they should consider law if they are passionate about reasoning and solving interpersonal problems. Both degrees are highly respected and rewarding.
If you still need further help in choosing which degree to do after high school, the following are related resources:
