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if you have that sort of degree, you should be firmly in six figures by that point in your career (unless you don't care about the money and deliberately take low stress low pay jobs or something)
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Originally Posted by jobaba
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LOL! at Mechanical Engineers making 200K a year!
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I don't doubt you, but it's not typical. Even for MEs or CEs who move into upper management, they usually make less.
The guy 2nd in charge at my last firm made 150K and it's a huge, well know firm in engineering.
this i agree with. almost everyone i know with a technical degree who makes > 200k either consults independently, or is a partner
i know an exception or two, but they graduated from top schools and worked at apple for 5-10 years. their options and bonuses bump them just above 200k
there's really a ceiling in the mid to upper 100s if you don't own a piece of the company, or aren't willing to take a chance on go on your own
if you have that sort of degree, you should be firmly in six figures by that point in your career (unless you don't care about the money and deliberately take low stress low pay jobs or something)
Wow. That's high.
I think it's because they went into the EE side instead of the Software Engineering side. Software Engineering pays big bucks.
But yes, I do know such people. Real life salaries are almost always lower than what people print, but Berkeley is pretty candid about that stuff.
Demur,
Major in college in a career that people will need you in person.
A job that can not be out scourced.
Like in the medical field, nursing, doctors,
like a car mechanic, get it?
Your job will not be able to be sent overseas, because if it can,
it will be.
Good Luck!
Consider this...
the most talented creatives will make one or more orders of magnitude more than the most talented engineers (or as a different view, patents pay better than copyrights, but copyrights pay to fewer people for a longer time).
An average talent engineer will probably make more than a high talent creative.
An average creative will make more than a bottom of the class engineer, and vice versa.
A dropout creative will probably make more than a dropout engineer, but neither will do much better than a graduate in either.
So, the real question, what are you best at and just how good are you at it?
-I applied to CCNY, Queens College, Hunter College, John Jay, Cooper Union, Manhattan College, and NYU Poly. I got into all of them except Cooper. MC and NYU Poly didn't offer enough aid, so I had to decline and choose from CUNY. I picked CCNY mostly because of the engineering department.
-I'm more concerned about stability in a career as opposed to making millions.
Some of you have told me of novelists who worked in other careers while they wrote. Perhaps someone could tell me of an artist/ animator who has a job as an artist/ animator but didn't get the related degree and had to "break out", so to speak?
This fall, I will be starting college. I got into CCNY's engineering program, but I am definitely not enthralled by the idea majoring in engineering. I applied because my parents say my strengths lie in math and science, and that those skills are what make money. My initial plan was to major in environmental engineering, because I would get to be outside often and possibly help with reversing climate change. Noble motive, indeed.
However, I don't have fun trying to find tangents, or finding atomic masses to the nearest thousandth, or calculating the energy of a spring. I wouldn't go as far as to say I hate those subjects, but they do bore me more than a typical engineering major should be.
Conversely, a lot of my enjoyment comes from storytelling. Novel writing, animation, film-making, song writing, take your pick. Just the idea of something I create affecting someone else on a deep level is just... I don't know, but I like it.
But the related college majors (English, art, film studies, music, etc.) are majors that statistically have higher unemployment. Even if you do get a job, either you get some entry position that takes any college degree, or a low paying job that while related to your interests, doesn't pay the bills. (I don't want to be a teacher, by the way; it's too socially demanding for an introverted person like myself. I know because I recently had a part time job as a teacher's assistant for a summer school.)
People talk about how engineering gets outsourced, which is true. However, I'd say a larger percentage animation gets outsourced. I'd also say that a lot of people are competing to become authors, or animators, or anything creative, really. I haven't heard about rampant competition for engineering jobs in the states, which leads me to conclude that getting a job, regardless of pay, isn't too challenging.
I guess my question is this: should I pursue a creative major in college, or should I stick to engineering (or something else with low unemployment), and keep my storytelling passion as a hobby?
Or hey, maybe suggest a third option for me. I would greatly appreciate some insight.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: I noticed my thread title has a grammar error. Sorry about that.
A major that is also a trade is generally a very good idea. Understand that once you get out of school, very few engineers will actually do much heavy math lifting.
I would never, ever go into any amount of debt for a degree in film studies. An engineer can still find a way into a creative career, but you're not going to get a job in a practical discipline with a creative degree.
I propose option C. Option C is find a field with low unemployment that you fit the skills. If it's an algebra based field and you suck at alegbra, DON'T GO INTO IT! If you are not good at science and it is a science field, DON'T GO INTO IT! However if you are good at a major component of the major and it has a need, you will be fine and shouldn't waste money. There's no use going into a major you cannot do even if the unemployment rate is low.
-I applied to CCNY, Queens College, Hunter College, John Jay, Cooper Union, Manhattan College, and NYU Poly. I got into all of them except Cooper. MC and NYU Poly didn't offer enough aid, so I had to decline and choose from CUNY. I picked CCNY mostly because of the engineering department.
-I'm more concerned about stability in a career as opposed to making millions.
Some of you have told me of novelists who worked in other careers while they wrote. Perhaps someone could tell me of an artist/ animator who has a job as an artist/ animator but didn't get the related degree and had to "break out", so to speak?
well, anton chekhov most famously had both a straight career and an artistic one
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As Chekhov wrote to a friend, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other
you might be overthinking this a bit... there's not a predefined process to follow in the arts towards success. if you've already accepted CCNY you'd have to take a year off to change schools, which is a bad idea without any alternative lined up. why don't you take also some classes in writing or art while at CCNY starting your engineering studies? you might find the best path that way
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