<p>Hey guys I am at Iowa State University currently fighting between chemical and mechanical with mechanical pretty much on top at the moment. I want to basically have an engineering job that allows me to travel outside of the USA and makes good money. I know I know money isn't a deciding factor but it is for me I want to get the most out of my college degree so that I can make a living that's in the 100k( its fine if it may take a while I just don't want to hit a peak of 80k and be stuck there). That's just the kind of person I am. I want to see the passion I have for technical design, problem solving and the murder of my social life to show for something more than an above average paycheck. So my question to you is how can I do this? Should I graduate with a degree in Mechanical or chemical and then go for an MBA or some sort of law degree,business minor etc? I think i'm trying to find a magical sweet spot between business and actual design of new products. I am also a medic in the Army so maybe companies see that as leadership? Any advice would help guys and please don't judge me for the money part.</p>
<p>This is a very broad post, I am not surprised you have not had any answers yet - short and focused works better on here. There are lots of ways to turn an engineering degree into a $100k+/year salary, the real issue is what are you willing to do to get it.</p>
<p>Engineers of either type can hit that salary range within a decade without being particularly exceptional - you just have to work hard at it. Most engineers don’t tend to travel that much for work, especially not internationally - there just isn’t a need for it. You could certainly do so privately, of course.</p>
<p>Petroleum engineers (which I think you could go into from either ChemE or ME) make that kind of money almost immediately AND travel a lot outside the US, but it is an unusual life that not many would choose (so I hear).</p>
<p>An MBA is risky - if you use it to transfer into certain non-engineering industries (like finance) then it can certainly reap HUGE financial rewards… for a tiny fraction of MBA’s. Otherwise, taking the MBA right after the BS will hurt your career (and bank account!) more than it will help. I cannot immediately think of any MBA-requiring jobs that still involve any actual engineering, incidentally.</p>
<p>A law degree is also quite risky, and will make the “murder of your social life” seem like spring break. Again, a small fraction make an absolute killing, a surprising number wind up worse than they started. And again, you won’t be doing any engineering work any more.</p>
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You might do well in an area like program management, or in a few more specialized business areas like competitive intelligence. Most of these you can get into with just the engineering degree and interest, although some business classes would certainly help. They can pay well and offer travel, but that depends a lot on the company and the individual.</p>
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Just as an observation, that peak you deride is more than most college graduates will see, and $80k for a career should more than make up for 4 busy years of school.</p>
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Thank you for your service! Some companies will value your service automatically (esp. defense contractors), others will ignore it. Few will automatically consider it “leadership” unless you can show them that it was such. The veterans I have worked with have done well in industry and have often been noted for their skills and attitude as a leader, but it is not universal and will not usually be assumed. So convince them. And good luck!</p>
<p>No job that I’m aware of will stop you from being able to travel outside the US. As for traveling outside the US for work, your chances for that are pretty slim and your options few, so I might suggest you give up on that. </p>
<p>Neither ChemE nor MechE will stick you at 80K in today’s dollars for life. There is a ceiling but it’s a bit higher than that. </p>
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<p>I highly doubt the median peak salary for bachelors graduates in the US is under 80K. Do you have a source? According to wikipedia ( <a href=“Household income in the United States - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States</a> ) the median salary for a college graduate in 2003 (in 2003 dollars) was $73,446. And that was the median of all working college graduates, not the median peak salary. Further, nominal salaries today are higher than in 2003. </p>
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From the wiki article you indicated, $73,446 is household income, not individual - it includes a lot of two-income families. The median for individuals with a bachelors degree is shown as $45,400.</p>
<p>For more recent data, consider:</p>
<p><a href=“Median annual earnings of full-time year-round workers 25 years old and over, by highest level of educational attainment and sex: 1990 through 2011”>http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_438.asp</a> </p>
<p>Which shows that in 2011, median incomes for those with a bachelors degree were $66,200 for men and $49,110 for women, $58,553 overall. Unless median incomes have risen at least $13,800 in the last 3 years, my statement stands. If you crunch the numbers a little more, you get median for a masters at $71,831, for a professional degree* at $106,754, and for a doctorate at $92,537. Men have a median >$80k for any advanced degree, but women beat that mark only with a professional degree, like a JD, MBA, or MD.</p>
<p>My bad on that sourcing. Sorry about that.</p>
<p>The numbers I see on your source are $73,850 for males and $52,140 for females, unless you’re excluding anyone who got anything beyond a bachelors. And again, those are median salaries which will be substantially lower than peak salaries. </p>
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I am excluding anything beyond a bachelors, because that is an extra step that the OP may or may not follow. Regardless, the median is well below $80k even if you include those with advanced degrees.</p>
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Of course! “Peak” salaries are not generally a useful reference, simply because only a tiny percentage of individuals will ever reach that peak. There are billionaires with engineering degrees, that does not make that a realistic part of choosing a career path.</p>
<p>There are many variables to making money and traveling. It depends on what type of job you get and the employer’s philosophy. It also depends on your employers clients. For many consulting engineering assignments, some clients will not let anyone with less than X years or Y criteria on the site. I cannot tell you how CRUSHED I was when my resume was rejected for overseas postings no less than dozen times in several years.</p>
<p>Best bet: try to get in with a large multinational organization with large training and development budgets. A good field/technical service engineer is worth his/her weight in gold and there will be many overseas opportunities. I agree that Petroleum, Mining or Geological are likely the best paths for these goals right out of school. On another note, sales engineers travel a lot and can make a lot of money but this is not for everyone. </p>
<p>In smaller firms where money is tight, opportunities for travel may be limited and who travels to which spot is likely to be very political. </p>
<p>Just an observation; but the friends that I have that do travel for engineering jobs (petroleum industry mostly) don’t exactly see the “garden spots” of the world. It usually involves a lot of sand in the middle of nowhere and different cultural customs. Not the kind of travel I would be interested in. So, as another friend of mine says; “be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.”</p>
<p>That is true. Petroleum engineering travel is not focussed on the global capitals but rather isolated spots where the petroleum is found. This is where you get good experience though. </p>