<p>I found a stat that said the median salary for a chem engineer with 10 years experience was $107k. But this obviously includes Ph D's and MS's. What's the median for someone with a BS after 10 years? Assume this person is from a respectable state school and graduated with a 3.4/3.5.</p>
<p>Let’s just ballpark here…</p>
<p>Say the standard deviation is $15k. Say the median is approximately the mean.</p>
<p>Say that the number of bachelors engineering graduates, and therefore ChemE graduates, is proportional to 67,000.</p>
<p>Say that the number of masters engineering graduates, and therefore ChemE graduates, is proportional to 31,000.</p>
<p>Say that the number of doctoral engineering graduates, and therefore ChemE graduates, is proportional to 8,000.</p>
<p>Assuming that the masters/doctoral make more than any bachelors (false, but probably close enough in the average) and assuming the distribution is normal, we can say that about the top 58% of salaries go to non-bachelors. Let’s call this an even 1/2. So even under these unfavorable assumptions for ChemE, you’re looking at the 25th percentile under this scheme, which is:</p>
<p>107k - (25th percentile of std. normal dist.) * 15k = 97k.</p>
<p>If you assume an unwieldy standard deviation of 30k, you’re now talking about 87k.</p>
<p>Conclusion: At least in the 90k range, possibly somewhat higher.</p>
<p>*** This is a fairly sloppy analysis.</p>
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<p>For a BS engineer that stays solely in engineering (no management, or jump to finance, etc.) that’s actually about right. The downside is that a 40 year experience engineer with a sole engineering focus (no management, etc), is about $120,000. There’s not much movement after you hit the $100,000 mark, unless you go to the business or management side of things.</p>
<p>Of course, many people don’t mind that. $100,000 - $120,000 is a very nice salary, and if you stay in pure chemical engineering, you have a pretty low stress job with not a huge amount of responsibility (as long as you dot your i’s and cross your t’s). Meanwhile those that jump over to business have a much more stressful path that requires some luck, many long nights, and an uncertain career that could put you in the unemployment line with little notice.</p>
<p>Yeah, early 30’s making ~100K+ is not bad. Of course, within Engineering I tend to think top performers can hit the 100K mark pretty quickly (27-28).</p>
<p>Yeah GP, I remember you saying two years ago you were hiring people out of UIUC for an average starting salary of 71k. I go to a pretty well respected state school (top 30-40 engineering rank) and they’re reporting starting salaries of between 52-72k, so I’m just wondering if other people have had experiences where they’re making considerably less when they’re age 30. I mean even if you’re making “only” 80-90k that’s still not bad, but it’s not 100-120k</p>
<p>If you start lower, it takes you longer to reach the $100,000 range (raises are usually a percentage of salary), but you’ll still get there eventually.</p>
<p>The exception would be a really rural area or a sub-marketvalue company.</p>
<p>That is certainly more than I make with my 10 years of experience.</p>
<p>year 0-6; 45k - 70k living in San Jose, CA
moved to Cincinnati, OH
year 6-9; 60k - 70k in a much lower cost of living area
laid off last year
no one would hire an engineer working towards an MBA and I couldn’t move because of I want the degree.<br>
Now make 65k/year, consider myself lucky to have a job that supports my decision to get the MBA, is 5 miles from home, and pretty light on the stress and work load.</p>
<p>Had I stayed in San Jose I probably would be over 100k by now with standard 6% raises. However, I wouldn’t have a home of my own and would be incredibly stressed out trying to raise a family there and would be working towards a masters.</p>
<p>Anyway, if I factor in cost of living adjustments, I would say 10 years out is probably between 80-100k, maybe a little more in the higher cost of living areas or if you are in one of a select few industries. If you opt into project management you can make even more.</p>
<p>OK so it sounds like for an chem engineer coming out of school today who isn’t looking to get an MBA 100k + a little more isn’t unreasonable after 10 years. Does anyone know what a Ph D chem engineer from a top 30 school in industry is making 10 years out, or is it too hard to say because of all the different career paths you can take when you have a Ph D? I’m trying to decide whether or not I’m willing to give up my 20’s to go get a Ph D, and I know money isn’t going to be enough motivation by itself to go get a Ph D, but it would certainly help.</p>
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<p>As a chemical engineer? From what school? You’re making less than the average new college graduate. I would also say that about a third to half of all ChE’s that I’ve worked with had an MBA or were getting an MBA, and nearly all of them had the degree fully subsidized by an employer. The general argument people make is that they’re pursuing an MBA to move up in an existing company and not to jump ship to a different field (though some do anyway).</p>
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<p>That’s too difficult to predict. Some PhD’s go into plant operations and basically act as overqualified BS graduates. They make about a $10,000 - $20,000 premium. Some go into academia and make about $80,000 - $100,000 to teach, but with salary supplements from grants, chaired positions, and consulting, their actual salary could be anywhere from $80,000 to $300,000 per year.</p>
<p>R&D positions, Consulting positions, etc. all depend on how good you are and how much people want your expertise. That could range from a BS salary to hundreds of thousands (though usually closer to $100,000 to start).</p>
<p>Hmmm interesting, lots to think about. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Well, under the somewhat unrealistic assumption that the PhDs are making the ~10% most money, then…</p>
<p>Assuming a normal distribution with mean $107k and and std. dev. $15k, you’re talking a mean of $132k. If you’re assuming a $30k as your standard deviation, you’re talking a ceiling of $157k. So I think you’re looking at something in the $130k’s to $150k’s with a PhD in industry.</p>
<p>You’re assuming a normal distribution, which I doubt is the case here. It’s likely a multimodal distribution.</p>
<p>“The downside is that a 40 year experience engineer with a sole engineering focus (no management, etc), is about $120,000.”</p>
<p>This may be a true statement with respect to ChemEs. But it is not true for MechEs/EEs/AeroEs/MatlEs/SysEs/OpticsEs employed in aerospace. Subject matter experts with patents, trade secrets, publications can make far higher than that figure while functioning in a purely technical capacity.</p>
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<p>UC Davis. I know I’m making less, but it’s what was available when I needed a job. I was getting my MBA subsidized when I was laid off, and rather than stop the program and move I felt I needed to stay in the program and take what I could to finish the degree while keeping my family fed and insured. I’m done with my degree in December, if you can help me find a better position I would appreciate the assistance.</p>
<p>“You’re assuming a normal distribution, which I doubt is the case here. It’s likely a multimodal distribution.”</p>
<p>It’s still probably a useful enough estimate. If I had more data and/or knowledge of the distribution, obviously the estimate would be better. You’re welcome to try to come up with something given a different set of assumptions.</p>