Do Engineer Grads Really Make The Most Money Out of Undergrad? (degree, master's)
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Signing bonuses shouldn't be taken into account, because they aren't recurring income.
I'd argue they are reoccurring. As long as you do a somewhat decent job at your employer in this industry you will get a bonus every year approximate to the signing bonus (or more) that you were originally granted.
Otherwise the company would have mass attrition (at least in this industry).
But anyway, now I'm taking it way off topic from the OP. Sorry!
Jesus, 190k 3 yrs out of college..that's more than the top position at my employer gets paid, and it normally takes one an entire career to be competitive for it. Not bad, and grats to you for doing so well.
I'm making a decent middle class income where I'm at, and it's very secure and has a pension, but I have burned out on my career and it has become completely routine and without challenge. I feel like my brain is turning to jello; my job is 80% downtime. Also, options for moving up are extremely limited. Those that exist aren't worth it as they get worked very, very hard for only a slight increase in pay.
I'm considering going to back to school for engineering. But..I'm 35. I've already got a BS in flight ops. Would it be worth it, or is a young man's game? Would I be at disadvantage entering it older? I'm not necessarily chasing money, I'm ok with what I make, but I feel I can achieve so much more, crave challenge and want a 'thinking' job, and if it pays more than I make now that's icing on the cake.
You might look into trying to get a masters in aerospace engineering.
I don't think 35 is "too old" to expand your education. We had an engineer who must have been in his 50's taking classes with us when I was in undergrad.
Jesus, 190k 3 yrs out of college..that's more than the top position at my employer gets paid, and it normally takes one an entire career to be competitive for it. Not bad, and grats to you for doing so well.
I'm making a decent middle class income where I'm at, and it's very secure and has a pension, but I have burned out on my career and it has become completely routine and without challenge. I feel like my brain is turning to jello; my job is 80% downtime. Also, options for moving up are extremely limited. Those that exist aren't worth it as they get worked very, very hard for only a slight increase in pay.
I'm considering going to back to school for engineering. But..I'm 35. I've already got a BS in flight ops. Would it be worth it, or is a young man's game? Would I be at disadvantage entering it older? I'm not necessarily chasing money, I'm ok with what I make, but I feel I can achieve so much more, crave challenge and want a 'thinking' job, and if it pays more than I make now that's icing on the cake.
I'd also recommend getting a Masters; experience in the field coupled with a higher educational attainment should help you find a job you're seeking. I work for one of the biggest aerospace defense organizations in the Valley and someone with experience and a masters degree is ideal for my firm. I'd say you'd easily be able to start out at $80K here.
I'd argue they are reoccurring. As long as you do a somewhat decent job at your employer in this industry you will get a bonus every year approximate to the signing bonus (or more) that you were originally granted.
Otherwise the company would have mass attrition (at least in this industry).
But anyway, now I'm taking it way off topic from the OP. Sorry!
This is absolutely correct. Most decent petroleum engineers as well as petroleum geologists (although they usually require a masters) will make this kind of money right out of school and going forward unless they work for some cheap company.
I'd also recommend getting a Masters; experience in the field coupled with a higher educational attainment should help you find a job you're seeking. I work for one of the biggest aerospace defense organizations in the Valley and someone with experience and a masters degree is ideal for my firm. I'd say you'd easily be able to start out at $80K here.
I did take a couple aerodynamics courses and found them interesting and I did well in them. Of course they weren't engineer level courses, but it sparked my interest in the science behind flight. I stopped at calc 1 and got a b out of that course. I'm sure I'd have to redo all the maths as it's been so long. I flew for the airlines for a number of years, but got sick of layoffs, paycuts, base transfers, and being gone from home so much, so I moved into airport ops and mgmt. Right before I did this I developed a temporary health condition (lasted 3 days) that caused the FAA to ground me permanently for anyway. So I guess it was fate. Anyway, I am very familiar with aviation from a couple different perspectives. Honestly I've contemplated going into aerospace engineering for quite a while.
So just a few questions. Can you give me a ballpark idea of salaries? How's stability..ie lots of boom and bust cycles like the airlines? How about work conditions, ie long hours, have to move a lot, stress, respect and job satisfaction, etc? How's the career outlook (such as growing opportunities or shrinking?) Thanks for any info you have.
So just a few questions. Can you give me a ballpark idea of salaries? How's stability..ie lots of boom and bust cycles like the airlines? How about work conditions, ie long hours, have to move a lot, stress, respect and job satisfaction, etc? How's the career outlook (such as growing opportunities or shrinking?) Thanks for any info you have.
I did take a couple aerodynamics courses and found them interesting and I did well in them. Of course they weren't engineer level courses, but it sparked my interest in the science behind flight. I stopped at calc 1 and got a b out of that course. I'm sure I'd have to redo all the maths as it's been so long. I flew for the airlines for a number of years, but got sick of layoffs, paycuts, base transfers, and being gone from home so much, so I moved into airport ops and mgmt. Right before I did this I developed a temporary health condition (lasted 3 days) that caused the FAA to ground me permanently for anyway. So I guess it was fate. Anyway, I am very familiar with aviation from a couple different perspectives. Honestly I've contemplated going into aerospace engineering for quite a while.
So just a few questions. Can you give me a ballpark idea of salaries? How's stability..ie lots of boom and bust cycles like the airlines? How about work conditions, ie long hours, have to move a lot, stress, respect and job satisfaction, etc? How's the career outlook (such as growing opportunities or shrinking?) Thanks for any info you have.
I'd be happy to help!
Ballpark salaries for aeronautical engineer in the defense firm I work for start at right around $70K with added compensation for those who posses a master's degree and/or experience at about $80K-$85K.
Once you've been here for a few years, you steadily work your way up the latter and within 3-5 years, I'd expect you to be between $95K-$110K. Some of the senior engineers who are at the helm of some big projects easily earn salaries upwards of $150K with some evening reaching $200K. Of course many of the top-level executives earn hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now this is all based off personal experience and is probably unique to where I work. I've been lucky enough to stay ahead of my peers (I'm 31) in regards to salary because I've gotten a few extra-ordinary promotions to positions that are usually reserved for more senior-level individuals.
Boom and bust cycles? Rarely, depends on the administration more than anything. When military spending decreases, it hurts our firm but not to the point of busting.
Long hours? Sort of, about 10 hour days. With my current position, I have a bit more flexibility with my hours. I'm in meetings quite often more than I am working hands-on with projects. I have an office in my house where I can do work as well so it isn't necessary that I'm actually in the building every day although usually I am just because things pop up that need attention. Stress? I smoke a pack a day. Not good habit but it's a fairly stressful position, you don't want to screw up too many times or you're out of there! I'm satisfied with my job, always have been. As far as respect, you mean from family/friends? Well...I guess I don't talk about what I do with them. It's just a topic that you can't discuss with your immediate circle, you have to deal with that. Growing opportunities as well, very in-demand field right now. Good engineers are difficult to come by and they're retain when we find them!
You better have a fairly, squeaky-clean background though. Because we're a defense corp, many of our projects are straight from the Pentagon and top secret clearance levels are necessary. I don't talk about the intricacies of what I do or even of where I work. This is one of those things where a group of Navy Seal's show up in a couple blacked-out Suburbans carrying M16 automatic rifles and burst into your house at 3 a.m. and take you to a secure location....definitely don't need that.
I can give perspective about the commercial side of the aerospace biz, and defense as I worked on that side for a few years.
LOL, I dunno about SEALs coming to your house at 3 AM but in order to work many defense related jobs you should have a pretty clean background. Minor offenses and minor personality quirks are probably red flags but nothing serious and you should be OK. Basically, at my old job, so long as you were hard working and output some good work, you were set. The unfortunate thing was defense jobs do come and go so much, you don't know if you're going to work that job a year or ten or your whole career. So there's constantly this albatross that "Yeah, MOST LIKELY you won't lose your job, BUT ..."
On the commercial side of things, we have been in an "up" cycle and I think will continue to be so for another ten years or more. I work in the commercial side of things now and there's a TON of work going on. Both Airbus and Boeing are hiring engineers like crazy because there's THOUSANDS of old (~20 yrs or older) airplanes that need replacing. And on top of that China and much of the developing world need new airplanes. I think both B and A believe around 25,000 new airplanes will be needed over the next 20 years. That's incredible.
In terms of college, I work with a guy who is in his late 50s and is thinking of retiring in a few years. He was a mechanic working on airplanes until he got tired of working for the IAM. At 40, he was able to go through his undergrad and grad schools pretty well because the biggest thing is discipline. You're in your mid 30s, you should have a handle on your ability to manage time now. So it's do-able.
As it just so happens, MIT has a series of FREE online courses at Free Online Course Materials | Courses | MIT OpenCourseWare. OCW doesn't offer certification or formal degrees, but it should get you started and brush off the cobwebs. Try keeping pace and complete homework and stuff at the same pace as the students. If you can, you're good to go.
In terms of college, I work with a guy who is in his late 50s and is thinking of retiring in a few years. He was a mechanic working on airplanes until he got tired of working for the IAM. At 40, he was able to go through his undergrad and grad schools pretty well because the biggest thing is discipline. You're in your mid 30s, you should have a handle on your ability to manage time now. So it's do-able.
Absolutely. I did both my undergrad and master's at night and at least half of the people in the classes were 10 years older than I was. At 35, you shouldn't think twice about it if you have the desire. As you say, discipline is key. Another is experience with real-world applications and problem solving. With both of these attributes, one should do well if they have the aptitude and the interest.
As far as the guy making 190k 3 years out of an undergrad and not knowing anyone in the same discipline not making 6 figures, my guess is that they're likely paying in pesos. Making that kind of dollar figure being that young in your career is very, very unlikely. On average, a wet-behind-the-ears undergrad is making somewhere in the 50's (depending on the ZIP code). Depending on the industry, location, and the degree advancement, you may see $100k or more. But it is not likely that you will with an undergrad in less than 10-15 years. With a Master's you'll probably shave 5-6 years off of that (again, it will completely depend on everything mentioned above).
Numbers show that engineer grads earn the most for starting salaries, but do they remain the highest paid throughout their career life?
Well, there are many different types of engineers (electrical, structural, petroleum, computer, industrial, civil, environmental, etc.), so I am sure what one person will start out with, another will not.
I've always heard that engineers have a higher-than-average starting salary out of college, but hit a ceiling early in their career.
Despite that, I find it funny that the posters who claim to be engineers are calling BS on each other.
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