<p>I have looked around and I see that the average starting wage for an engineer is around 50,000 a year. But this is right out of college. Does anyone know what how much an engineer could make, particularly Civil and Environmental Engineers, at around the age of 40??? And does getting a masters increase this greatly????? </p>
<p>If there is a site can someone post it!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings</a></p>
<p>ya i saw this but I have a hard trouble understanding the whole percentages....mind clearing it up for me???????</p>
<p>Hmm... I didn't expect nuclear engineers to make so much.</p>
<p>The percentages are percentiles. It shows you the range of engineering salaries. Obviously those engineers who are just starting out will make less than those with lots of experience.</p>
<p>However, keep in mind that one weakness of that percentile table is that it does not break down the educational levels of those engineers. For example, obviously a PhD engineer will make more than a BS engineer. Certain fields, notably bioengineering/biomedE, will have a higher proportion of people with advanced degrees.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. In fields that are constantly evolving (IE computer hardware), no one will care what kind of degree you have 5 years down the line. If someone gets just a BS and enters the industry, and 5 years down the line (after doing their share of engineering "***** work") proves to be one of the best at his position he could very easily end up making more than a PhD guy who doesn't accomplish as much.</p>
<p>Nobody said 'necessarily'. However, I think you can tell by context that it is true on average. </p>
<p>For example, I can say that smoking is dangerous. Yeah, well, one can always say "not necessarily" because there are those people out there who smoke 3 packs a day and still live to be a 100. However, ON AVERAGE, smoking is bad for your health.</p>
<p>The highest paid engineers are usually either in management or sales. Staff engineers generally do not get paid well relative to other professionals and salaries often plateau at 65K to 70K for non-management positions.</p>
<p>hey toronto_guy, you say that management make more money then the staff engineers. Well next year Im going to start my undergraduate work in engineering and i was thinking down the line and considering a masters in business. Do you think this is a wise choice? Because my goal is to one day be in management, I see myself as an extremely good entrepreneur and i am not trying to be cocky at all but I work really well with people. Do you know how much those kind of engineers in management make a year???
Thank you</p>
<p>I know someone who graduated from berkeley about 3-4 years ago and now gets almost $80,000 a year working for qualcomm</p>
<p>I think for an engineer interested in management an MBA is an excellent degree. Engineers have a a great technical base so the MBA gives you a solid commerical foundation across a variety of disciplines including, accounting, finance, HR, etc. In other words, it introduces you to the language of business. </p>
<p>There is no way to indicate how much you can make as an engineer with an MBA since this will vary dramatically. However, suffice to say if you work up into senior management at a large manufacturing firm, the rewards are potentially very significant. </p>
<p>And the MBA is the standard price of entry to enter the fields of Investment Banking and Management Consulting which are very lucrative as well. Of course, this all depends where you get your MBA and your ranking. </p>
<p>In short, it is difficult to generalise the wages of an engineer with an MBA since there are so many factors than enter the equation.</p>
<p>thank you very much for your help toronto_guy. Your explanation really did help me and is very much appreciated!!!!!! It sounds like you are a very successful person in whatever it is that you do!!!!</p>
<p>So is a Masters more important or a MBA?</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do...an MBA is obviously for people that want to move into management more quickly, or to open up opportunities for jobs completely outside of engineering.</p>
<p>An MS or ME is more of a technical degree, and will better you career as a true "engineer" (whereas an MBA doesn't do anything for your technical understanding of your engineering discipline).</p>
<p>I want to do reasearch for pharmaceutical company if I can.</p>
<p>Do any schools offer programs to get both a masters of engineering and an MBA?</p>
<p>Sure, MIT offers such a program through its LFM program and Northwestern does so through its MMM program. Several other schools do the same.</p>
<p>However, you should keep in mind that if you're getting your MBA, especially from an elite school, you probably will get into management and don't want to work as an engineer anymore. It's like the attitude that many people have towards menial labor - it's fine to do through high school and through college to pay the bills, but once you have your degree, you just don't want to be flipping burgers and mopping floors at McDonalds anymore.</p>
<p>But what about some technical consulting jobs or something of that nature. An MBA would help in that area, however wouldnt it be smart to maintain a technical background, especially if your going to a higher position in a field still related to engineering.</p>
<p>Oh, don't get me wrong. The dual-degree is definitely highly appropriate for certain people. For example, LFM is tailor-made for those people who want to get into technical management or operations/manufacturing management. MMM is also very good for those people.</p>
<p>However, my point is that you have to be aware that 2 degrees are not always better than 1. While you are gaining something by going to these programs, you are also losing something. I talk about the strengths and weaknesses of LFM here in post #140.</p>
<p>I would imagine that the same thing would hold in MMM. Bottom line, the dual-degree programs can actually hurt you relative to a regular single-degree program. It depends on where you want to take your career.</p>
<p>I agree with sakky. Once you are in the MBA stream either at night, or XMBA or full-time, this signals to employers that you are looking for commercial/management work and are not really interested pure design/technical work. </p>
<p>This should not be confused with not using your knowledge. It is just that your technical knowledge becomes incidental to your commercial and management functions.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are very few organizations that recognize good technical talent and work towards retaining this talent in a technical field. The way to higher financial rewards continues to be through management and as mentioned, an MBA is an important asset in that journey.</p>