You have to think all the time. You have to do math. You can t forget your college calc like the lawyers did, because you have to use the beastly stuff every day. Plus, lawyers live in a world of laws that are flexible and can be bent with a clever argument or the bully levers of nepotism and political cronies. You can t slip a fast one in by playing golf with the judge.
Engineers have objective standards.
Their professional ethics must be absolute. No wonder that when you visit a university graduation the graduate engineers and scientists are ambitious immigrants with names like Kim Cho Park and Mussad al-Amin, while the lawyers are Sue Smith and Ted Wilson. Of course, there are easier things than law. You can become a pilot, but unless you start young and make the airline grade, you can kiss that middle-class lifestyle goodbye. Instructing, for instance, pays slightly better than fast food, or bagging groceries.