<p>This is an arbitrary question and has many opinions and possible directions... don't hate, because it's ONLY a question. What is the FASTEST way to make BIG money after earning a masters in a highly technical field of engineering (ie: electrical)? Your answer can take any direction and does NOT require staying in the field of engineering. </p>
<p>Like I said, it's only a question; I just want to hear your input!</p>
<p>1) Buy lotto ticket
2) Win lotto</p>
<p>I’d say, kidnap some billionaire’s son / daughter.
If you have a team I think it’s possible. Those body guards are useless.
Well if I were that rich I would hire a team of FBI, CIA and develop my own intelligence system there. </p>
<p>Or you should watch Ocean 11, 12, 13. They make big money.</p>
<p>Ha… very clever, but let’s stay on topics with reasonable feasibility; jobs surging to management?.. future school to become an investment banker?.. things like that</p>
<p>It’s possible. I attended a wedding and the cousin of the bride said that he moved from CS to investment banking after graduation. He was making a lot of money but that was in 2009. I didn’t ask how much though.</p>
<p>You can’t jump from one level to another unless you have the right opportunity and the right skills. Realistically you can’t make big money without being lucky enough. </p>
<p>And why master? Do you already have a bachelor?
As a student I would love to hear if anyone has any answers for this question. Interesting question. Most of us still want to make big money. We are not one of those genius out there that aren’t after money at all. <em>The Russian Mathematician… xxxxxxxx</em></p>
<p>I suppose, although I stated earlier that this was an “arbitrary” question, that I skewed the query in the direction of my education; yes- I have a bachelors in mathematics and very soon will have completed a masters in electrical engineering. However, I rather prefer the question to remain more open-ended. I was unsure if an advanced education such as a masters would provide a more substantial backing in reference to the topic of BIG money; I just figured that it is fairly ascertainable that a bachelor’s in engineering doesn’t sing “BIG MONEY!!!” haha. So that’s why I said masters. I would love to hear more input from some of the more advanced and experienced users! This is an interesting subject and it’s good for people to see what other doors engineering could open and what type of lucrative opportunities may be available.</p>
<p>Drug smuggling. Use your engineering knowledge to create and underground “dock” for submarines. Smuggle in cocaine from Colombia in submarines. </p>
<p>…</p>
<p>The real answer is entrepreurship. If you start working on a few projects before you graduate it could conceivably only take you a year or two to make millions off one of them. That’s how fast things move in technology.</p>
<p>Inmotion12- could you please expand on the entrepreneurship of college projects? I’ve been a part of several projects, a few of which have employed some very state of the art technologies, however, I haven’t heard of any opportunities to make millions.</p>
<p>Anyone else who cares to chime in, please do so!</p>
<p>drewski, education trains you for a job. I believe what Inmation is saying is you have to have a good idea and develop it. For example, Fred Smith wrote a paper outlining the notion of Fedex and a few years later made that dream a reality. If you don’t think any of the ideas you have heard don’t satify your notions of hittig it big, you have to go o n to the next idea. You have to keep trying and be willing to fail and learn from your failures.</p>
<p>Alaskan King Crab Fishing</p>
<p>drewski - Ultimately, each profession has its own reasonable pay scales. In engineering, the pay is quite good and better than something like 99% of college graduates, but apparently not enough to count as “big money” to you. If that is the case, your only real option is to go into some other field. Here are some common options starting from engineering:</p>
<p>Entrepreneurship: Not an option for everyone, it requires that you have some idea that you can study and implement without a massive investment, and then it requires that you have the business savvy to actually turn it into a profitable business. Most people going this route will not see much money, but some will hit it big. If this is your interest, I would recommend software engineering - low investment costs with high profit potential. Contrast that with aerospace engineering, where it can take tens or hundreds of millions to implement a design.</p>
<p>Business: Get an MBA and go into the sales/management side. This will take some time (a couple years of experience, a couple more years of MBA, then some time spent in “entry” MBA management/sales positions), but is straightforward, can be quite lucrative, and can lead to upper management. </p>
<p>Finance/Consulting/IB: Get an MBA and leave engineering completely. Competition is high, but pay for those selected is quite high if you can stomach the work.</p>
<p>Financial Engineering: Like the above, but it doesn’t require an MBA - my boss’s PhD-graduate peers went into the financial engineering side. Pay is higher than most engineering jobs, but despite being “harder” the pay is lower than your finance/IB peers.</p>
<p>Patent Law: More school still, and a notoriously busy work life, but very profitable.</p>
<p>Mathematicians should become actuaries if they want big money.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You have to make your own opportunities. For example, Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook all started out as student projects.</p>
<p>Above all else, you need to have a deep passion for the business you undertake.</p>
<p>What’s the best engineering degree do go into finance or business? Would a double major in industrial engineering and economics be good?</p>
<p>
And as a note, all of those are software companies. It’s a lot easier to start a company when your start-up costs consist of the computer you already own and some of your own time. The first innovative component I designed cost $100 grand for two prototypes and took the assistance of two different PhD’s in very specialized fields not my own. Plus, they won’t be commercially producable for a decade or so.</p>
<p>
Is there a specific reason you want an engineering degree to go into finance or business? And what do you want to DO in finance or business? There are many end destinations in those categories, and they all have different “optimum” paths and can probably all be reached regardless of where you start.</p>
<p>Well I thought that an engineering degree is a lot more valued than a business degree even in business. I’m good at math and am a very good and well rounded student. I just am not the typical engineer - I never build things or care how things work. I like econ so I thought an industrial engineering and econ double major will give me opportunities for good jobs in and out of engineering depending how I like it. I also am mainly interested in the high salary that business can lead to that engineering can’t. I don’t want any job with terrible stress though like investment banking. Mostly I just want the money so I can live in a nice house on a lake when I grow up.</p>
<p>IE and econ is an awesome combination. Perfect complements of one another and should open a ton of opportunites. Think twice about what you want out of your life though, because desiring money in order to acquire hedonic pleasure creates a high probability of being miserable.</p>
<p>Consider quantitative finance maybe? They seem to have starting salaries of 100k+ and if you turn out to be good at it then the sky is the limit</p>