<p>Magma 55: Sorry but you are again, wrong. I don’t want to turn this into an investment banking thread but analysts now are starting at around 70k a year plus bonus. And my brother started at a well known financial company with a 3.0 in finance from a no-name, and I mean no-name, school with a little ‘networking’, family member knew someone. Maybe he is the exception, but honestly, from talking to others, it sure doesn’t seem like it. </p>
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<p>The first rule of sampling is that taking a few isolated incidents such as your brother and a few people you know or who are friends with people you know is not a representative sample. National salary data shows this is the exception. I am sorry you apparently got into engineering for the wrong reasons and now feel disheartened, but that doesn’t condemn engineering as a discipline or as a career.</p>
<p>Terps93 sounds like he’s trying to discourage ppl from engineering to lower the amount of competition he’ll have for future work. His post came across to me as extremely bias.</p>
<p>Terps,
We know lots of engineers and the they all do such different things from each other. I wouldn’t throw in the towel just yet. </p>
<p>Which branch of engineering are you studying? You may not be a good match for the one you picked. I don’'t know if it’s too late for you to change but that could be part of your problem. If there’s anyway you can swing it financially, perhaps you could go on a trip with Engineers Without Borders.</p>
<p>Engineering may be, and I also believe it is, a ticket to the middle class. However, I grew up in the middle class and honestly, I would consider not moving up in terms of financial standing to be a failure on my part, that is why I dislike engineering. If you grew up poor, yeah it’s a great way to move up in the world, but already being middle class, honestly it feels like settling. What about all those people with finance degrees and other degrees you claim make less on average, aren’t they also middle class? If both get you into the middle class, what’s the point of taking the harder route? </p>
<p>“Sorry but you are again, wrong. I don’t want to turn this into an investment banking thread but analysts now are starting at around 70k a year plus bonus. And my brother started at a well known financial company with a 3.0 in finance from a no-name, and I mean no-name, school with a little ‘networking’, family member knew someone. Maybe he is the exception, but honestly, from talking to others, it sure doesn’t seem like it.”</p>
<p>Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about. I worked in Finance for over five years and the experience you are describing is the total exception to the rule.</p>
<p>I remember looking for a position as a Financial Analyst right out of college and most jobs in this field start at about 40K- To get to the 6 figure level, it takes many years of experience</p>
<p>Most Finance jobs suck ass anyways-you come to the office, pull the same reports everyday, do the same BS everyday- mostly menial jobs with 0 intellectual stimulation.</p>
<p>I would say, people who are making good money in Finance are either slaving away 14 hours/day at I-banking jobs or have become some very good sales people. </p>
<p>Perhaps you misunderstood me. By ‘analysts’ I am referring only to investment banking analysts, not your run of the mill ‘financial analyst’ whatever that even means. Ibanking analysts do tend to start at around 70k now, plus a very large bonus. Keep in mind this is for the large banks in major financial centers. And in my area, less competitive positions for finance grads still pay around 50-55k because I know many people who have gotten these types of jobs, and they were not exactly superstars by any means. </p>
<p>Some of your points are valid (and too bad you didn’t know the scoop BEFORE starting in Engineering). </p>
<p>This one made me laugh, “while your friend in finance or marketing starts at $55,000 or even more.” Really> The marketing grad I know has been working a few years as assistant mgr at Hertz, for $11/hour. From my reading, marketing majors often have a tough job hunt. Around here the business/finance/econ jobs for new grads seem mostly under $40K. Engineering much higher. </p>
<p>Well a couple things jump to mind here:
[ul][li]Some people genuinely enjoy engineering and the rewards and difficulties it has to offer. Others just enjoy that more than they enjoy the prospect of a career in business. There’s something to be said for many people about actually helping create the product instead of just figuring out how to sell it.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Sure with most business degrees you can also make a decent salary and also end up comfortably in the middle class most of the time, but for the most part, those jobs are less stable. Given, some branches of engineering are notoriously unstable, such as aerospace, but the majority of engineering jobs are remarkably stable since industry runs on engineering. Factories don’t keep working without engineers. New products don’t get designed without engineers. Not all of the jobs are glamorous, but most of them are essential enough for the company in question that they aren’t typically the first on the chopping block when it comes time to make layoffs.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]The easy road isn’t always the most fruitful. It certainly seems like an easier path to the middle class to get a business degree, and that is fine, especially if you are one of those people who will really never truly enjoy any job and just need to have something solid to help you pay for your family and a vacation here and there. For those people, absolutely do business. For the people who legitimately want to do business, study business. Despite what some haughty engineers would have you believe, there is no shame in that as long as you do it for the right reasons.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Looking at your past posting history, you had an awful lot of questions about studying engineering in order to get into medical school and you seemed to continue down that path despite many people here warning you against trying that. Like I said earlier, I think you just got into engineering for the wrong reasons and didn’t figure that out until it was late in the game.</p>
<p>At this point, it sounds like the best decision for you is probably either to change majors in the hopes of finding something that will make you happy, or at least less unhappy, or else to stick it out and then vector yourself into a career path that leads you away from the traditional engineer role and more towards something like consulting.</p>
<p>It seems like your prime motivation is money, here. On that front, an MBA is not necessarily a ticket into management in a company, especially if you haven’t done your time as a normal engineer first to establish yourself as someone who has any business managing other engineers. If you are really interested solely in increasing your earning potential, you may consider attempting to get into a career path more like consulting, which generally has high salaries and as a bonus, is also where an MBA can have more weight.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your grades are like or how much time you have to raise them, but the big time consulting firms are rather selective in hiring. If your grades are lower, though, there is certainly plenty of opportunity to work at a smaller firm and work your way into contention for a larger one if you desire down the road. I know of a reasonable number of people who have successfully gone this route.</p>
<p>^You hit the nail on the head in regards to not figuring out engineering was wrong until it was too late. I am trying to get into some sort of consulting or financial role either directly out of undergrad or after business school, but it’s tough coming not coming from an ivy or equivalent. </p>
<p>Dude, I am a working engineer, 20+ years experience, paid about average for my experience level and am into the 90th percentile of income of people working in this country today. I don’t know what your definition of middle class is, but by any statistical measure, 90th percentile is not the middle of any group. I wouldn’t call myself rich or even “upper class” (too snobby sounding), but pretty well off - yes. And I have a blast doing it!</p>
<p>Man, if you are worried about having to deal with competition in engineering, then you may want to read a bit more about a day in the life of the normal investment banker. Those same “best of the best” minds don’t just disappear the second you leave engineering. Investment bankers work their rears off in hopes that they are still employed when the big bonuses come around. </p>
<p>^BearInHoney, I know quite a few other engineers in the same boat. Our accountant tells us we do pretty well most years (2013 was the exception, but work is really picking up now).</p>
<p>IB analysts sit at work for 90+ hours a week… That sounds great to you? Also, you don’t need an ivy to pick up a consulting gig… Big4’s and MBB recruit at many schools other than ivy…</p>
<p>The thing with engineering is you can come right out and get a job paying 60-70k a yr. After an attempt at med or law school you will be in debt up to your neck and working your ass off to pay that off. So… it depends.<br>
Honestly I dont think engineering is hard but it is a lot of time investment. The homework never ends but if you just work with your professors you could still maintain a social life. Really though its up to the person. </p>
<p>90% of millionaires have a college degree and the average gpa of them was a 2.8 so it is not about grades AT ALL my friend. Engineers have the best chance at becoming millionaires as well.</p>
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<p>See this article about investment bankers: <a href=“http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204062704577223623824944472”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204062704577223623824944472</a></p>
<p>Title edit suggestion: Do NOT major in Engineering… if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Or any major if you haven’t done the research.</p>
<p>I’m studying Civil Engineering. We make the least amount of money out of college compared to other engineers. And I need to go to grad school for my specialty. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’m currently living in a high COL city, on an intern salary, living very comfortably by myself (14 hours away from closest family). When I get hired full time, I’ll be making 2x as much as I do now… I won’t know what to do with all that extra cash.</p>
<p>Hilarious thread. </p>
<p>If you’re not doing engineering because you find it interesting, you shouldn’t be doing it. </p>
<p>I love my engineering career. I’ve made enough money (much through a startup) to send two kids through private college, and I actually get paid to do what I’d want to be doing anyway. I’m an engineer through and through and proud!</p>
<p>Accountants make plenty of money too and it’s a lot easier to be one, but I don’t think it could get me up in the morning. THAT sounds like work - eeew. (No disrespect to accountants, we’re just wired differently). </p>
<p>The fact that it’s hard makes it valuable. Engineering wouldn’t be worth doing if engineering labor was just a commodity that anyone can do. </p>
<p>Well, Terp, there are nuggets of truth in your analysis. I am a working engineer and, years ago, worked for a Wall Street investment bank. </p>
<p>Being an engineer is only satisfying if you have the right personality for it. You need to be internally motivated by the work and not by the recognition or the reward. Also, engineering salaries are about 2/3 of what they were in 1980 when I was thinking of applying to colleges. It’s no longer the premium education path that it once was. </p>
<p>As for your assessment that engineering students work harder for lower grades with little free time, my NCAA athlete son with a girlfriend and a 4.0 GPA would disagree. Maybe you just weren’t a good enough student to have ventured into engineering. </p>