What Can I Do With a Major In Agricultural Engineering?

• Connect with Kristina Rust, your Career Consultant.
• Connect with your Academic Advisors.
• School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering
• Agricultural Engineering Areas of Emphasis
  • Natural Resource Management/Natural Resources Engineering
  • Electrical/Electronic
  • Process Operations
  • Biologistics
  • Food Engineering
  • Agricultural Systems Automation Engineering
  • Mechanical Systems
  • Structural Engineering

CAMPUS ORGANIZATIONS

• American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) • Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) • Sigma Alpha Professional Agricultural Sorority • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) • Society of Women Engineers (SWE) • National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) • Society of American Scientists and Engineers (SASE)
• Find additional clubs and organizations here.

ADDITIONAL TRAINING

Sustainability Certificate • Undergraduate International Agriculture Certificate • Graduate International Agriculture Certificate • Local Food Systems Certificate • Undergraduate Certificate in Water Resources • Undergraduate Certificate in Atmospheric Sciences

To learn more about working for the federal government, review our Federal Careers page.

Possible Career Paths in Agricultural Engineering

• Irrigation Engineer: Work or large or complicated landscape irrigation projects or in states that require construction plans be approved by an engineer or landscape architect. Analyze existing site surveys, conduct research, and identify potential structural and environmental problems. 

• Stormwater Engineer: Determine how to build infrastructure and drainage systems to best manage, direct, and utilize stormwater. 

• Water Resources Engineer: Design new systems and equipment that help manage human water resources, including in water treatment facilities, underground wells, and natural spring. Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of water treatment and aquatic resource management. 

• Industrial Engineer: Design, develop, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes, including human work factors, quality control, inventory control, logistics and material flow, cost analysis, and production coordination. 

• Logistics Engineer: Design or analyze operational solutions for projects, such as transportation optimization, network modeling, process and methods analysis, cost containment, capacity enhancement, routing and shipment optimization, or information management. 

• Agricultural Engineer: Apply knowledge of engineering technology and biological science to agricultural problems concerned with power and machinery, electrification, structures, soil and water conservation, and processing and agricultural products. 

• Project Engineer: Plan, organize, and oversee the construction of civil engineering projects. Direct the construction of roads, bridges, dams, pipelines, airports and other structures, and gas, water, and sewer systems. 

• Geospatial Engineer: Use modern mapping technologies, such as GIS and GPS, to map, collect, and analyze geographic data. Create 2D or 3D maps of building sites, national parks, or other locations of interest. 

• Field Engineer: Manage technical functions, test equipment, handle repairs, manage engineering projects, and conduct site inspections. Maintain infrastructure outside of centralized operations center. 

• Engineers in Natural Resources/Environmental Systems: Determine crop water requirements, design irrigation systems; agricultural hydrology principles (controlling drainage, soil erosion, effects of sediment on stream quality); water control structures (reservoirs, floodways, channels). 

• Engineers in Power Systems & Machinery Design: Design advanced equipment (food processing, crop spraying, agricultural commodity/waste transport, turn and landscape maintenance) that makes it more efficient and less damaging of natural resources. 

• Engineers in Structures & Environment: Design animal housing, storage structures, greenhouses with ventilation systems, temperature and humidity controls, structural strength appropriate for climate and purpose; systems for storing, reusing, recovering, and transporting waste products. 

• Food and Bioprocess Engineers: versatile career path that applies to virtually all other engineering specialty areas (ex. Geographic information systems, global positioning systems, machine instrumentation and controls, electromagnetics, “bioinformatics”). 

• Engineers in Forest Engineering: Solve natural resource and environment problems in forest production systems and related manufacturing industries. 

• Engineers in Energy Systems: Identify and develop viable energy sources – biomass, methane, vegetable oil, etc.; develop energy conservation strategies to reduce costs and protect the environment. 

• Engineers in Aquacultural Engineering: Design farm systems for raising fish and shellfish; specialize in water quality, biotechnology, machinery, natural resources, feeding and ventilation systems, sanitization 

• Engineers in Nursery & Greenhouse Engineering: Design equipment for transplantation, control systems for temperature, humidity, and ventilation; plant biology issues (hydroponics, tissue culture, seedling propagation methods). 

Other Job Titles: production engineer, physical science technician 

• O*NET: The O*NET database includes information on skills, abilities, knowledges, work activities, and interests associated with over 900 occupations.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.
• Firsthand: Explore a library of guides, articles, and other resources to help you explore careers, plan your job search, and learn about different work environments. Create a free account with your UGA email.
• Candid Career: Watch recorded informational interviews of professionals in specific careers. Filter videos by career title, college major, industry, and more. Scroll down our Resources page to access Candid Career for free through UGA.
• Interstride: View jobs/internship in other countries and country career guides. Scroll down our Resources page to access Interstride for free through UGA.
• UGA Mentor Program: Networking with your Bulldog family can help you get ahead in life and career, and the UGA Mentor Program connects students to alumni mentors for personal and professional development.
• Glassdoor: Glassdoor is a free jobs and career community that offers the world an inside look at jobs and companies. What sets us apart is our "employee generated content" – anonymous salaries, company reviews, interview questions, and more – all posted by employees, job seekers, and sometimes the companies themselves. Now with nearly 3 million salaries and reviews, you have all the information you might need to make your next career decision/.
• Big Interview: Online practice interview platform. Practice basic interview questions or questions based on your industry interests or competencies! Also provides practice interview questions for graduate/professional schools. Scroll down our Resources page to access Big Interview for free through UGA.
• Career Cornerstone Center: Career planning resources for STEM field.

GENERAL:

• Handshake - Login with your UGA myID and password to view thousands of jobs/internships from employers looking for UGA students
• LinkedIn - Network with professionals and view job openings
• Interstride - Job/internship openings in countries abroad as well as country career guides providing information about finding employment in other countries
• Specialized - Check out Idealist for jobs in the Nonprofit sector and USAJobs for opportunities in the federal government

MAJOR/ENGINEERING-SPECIFIC, OPEN TO ALL:

• American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Career Center
• AgCareers.com
• Environmental Job Board
• Engineering Jobs, Job Source, Technical Jobs
• Engineering Jobs
• Engineering.com Jobs
• Career Cast: IT & Engineering Job Board

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER-FRIENDLY PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

• American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers • American Academy of Environmental Engineers • American Society of Civil Engineers • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers • American Society of Mechanical Engineers • National Society of Professional Engineers • Institute of Biological Engineering 

ADDITIONAL ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• American Society of Naval Engineers • American Institute of Chemical Engineers • American Society of Safety Engineers • Association for Computing Machinery • Biomedical Engineering Society • Institute of Industrial Engineers • National Academy of Forensic Engineers • National Society of Black Engineers • Institute of Transportation Engineers • Society of American Military Engineers • Society of Automotive Engineers • Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers • Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers • Society of Petroleum Engineers • Society of Women Engineers • Society of Manufacturing Engineers 

COMPANY & SALARY RESEARCH - Career Bliss • GlassDoor • Salary.com

LINKEDIN GROUPS - Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your career interests.  To search, select "groups" & type in your keywords.  Review the groups that professionals in your field of interest have joined & consider joining those as well. To login, visit the LinkedIn main page.