I'm an (actually graduated/working) engineer who has thoughts

I think it's because a certain type of person studies engineering, but every engineering major I've encountered isn't as... worldly as you'd want to be to study law. Law requires a lot of context and looking at the bigger picture, and also is a bit more vague, in contrast to engineering which can often be the opposite. This is coming from someone who studied law when the majority of my family studied engineering.

>>17917222
I think I know what you are saying in regards to the idea that the type of thinking behind engineering doesn't necessarily mesh with what goes into law, but I think that could be an interesting discussion. That being said I dont think I would have as much trouble in regards to ambiguity or bigger picture thinking as others i have met. But what do I know, this is why I'm asking here

>>17917222
I'm a senior engineering student and I can see why you'd say that (it's true of many engineers) but honestly most engineers suck. You're thinking of the "I'm good at math and want a high salary engineers," but ~10% of us are mediocre (by engineering standards) at math and are just really good problem solvers. If you're the latter then I think that would translate great into law.

>>17917242
Well this is really a situation where you won't know until you try. Unfortunately, it'd be expensive for you to just try it out if you don't end up liking it. This really isn't a transition that many people make, and I doubt you'd be able to find many people who had done so on this board. That said, if you've done some humanities courses in your time at university (I know many STEM degrees require you to take papers from other disciplines), that might give you some sort of insight into how much you'd like law and how well you'd do.

>>17917269
>but ~10% of us are mediocre (by engineering standards) at math and are just really good problem solvers. If you're the latter then I think that would translate great into law.

Thats why I mentioned that I think it would be a good discussion about what type of person an "engineer" is in terms of thinking and problem solving and contrast that to how people see lawyers thinking. I don't know if I would agree that engineers, at least not the hard line by the books mathy types, are not good a big picture stuff. I would argue ambiguity and bigger picture thinking would make a better engineer, but thats for another time I suppose.

>>17917269
>If you're the latter then I think that would translate great into law.
Law problem solving is honestly quite different from engineering problem solving though. Like I said, you do need a specific way of thinking which is often the complete opposite of how you'd think in engineering. I'm not saying that to discourage OP, I'm just saying it because it really is the reality. There's a reason people don't often say "I don't know what I want to study; I really like problem solving but I don't know whether to go with engineering or law"

>>17917294
Fair point. I'm just looking for more thoughts so having your is important to me, obviously I'm not going to drop everything tomorrow and go down this path, but it is something I'm at least interested in and want all I can

>>17917303
Well I have just finished my law degree so I can try and answer some questions if you have any, but keep in mind I'm not from the US and probably not from wherever you live if you're not from the US either, so that might limit how applicable my answers are

>>17917284
>you won't know until you try
I would recommend interning at some barrister chambers before you make your decision. It will give you a feel for whether you're current skill set is transferable to the legal setting. It'll also help out when you start to begin the process of residency, if you choose to take it up,

>>17917324
>barrister chambers
Honestly, court work is such a small part of working as a lawyer that it won't give OP proper insight into law. It is a start, but it's not going to give him the full picture.