<p>From what i have seen on CC, engineering is one of the hardest majors, if not the hardest, to go into. And if you do manage to survive, a lot of the jobs will be sent overseas in the future people say.</p>
<p>Also, what kind of engineers make the most money?</p>
<p>I heard a lot about petroleum engineers making the most money.</p>
<p>Is going into engineering worth it? Yes, if this is your passion, then it definitely is worth it. If you're not particularly interested in it, and just want a lot of money, chances are it won't work out well for you in the end. </p>
<p>Will a lot of jobs be sent overseas? Some will and some won't. It depends on the complexity of the task and the nature of the job. Some work requires you to be on-site. For example, I manage construction projects and need to be where the action is to do my job. Other types of work do not, such as programming a virus scanner. You can do that from anywhere in the world, and being proficient in English probably isn't even a necessity. Some fields are safer than others, but at the moment, there are plenty of engineering jobs to go around in the United States. I'm a recent grad and none of my classmates had problems finding a job if they made a half-decent effort.</p>
<p>What kind of engineers make the most money? From the friends I know, it's the ones who work for oil companies.</p>
<p>aerospace cannot be outsourced or given to noncitizens because of security clearances.</p>
<p>For aerospace, is that only for spacecraft and defense? Or does that apply to designing commercial airliners as well?</p>
<p>Since a company like Boeing, which makes commercial airliners, also designs military aircraft, I'd say those can't be outsourced either.</p>
<p>This is something I've wondered for a while now... I entered engineering because I was passionate about math and physics. Even then, I still don't know if it's worth the ridiculous amounts of work I need to put in...</p>
<p>Here's the salary link I found back in some other related topics. Looks like Petroleum engineering makes the most currently? It's also weird, how a Master's in Petroleum makes LESS than a bachelor....</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings%5DEngineers%5B/url">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings]Engineers[/url</a>]</p>
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It's also weird, how a Master's in Petroleum makes LESS than a bachelor....
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<p>That's one of the reasons I always scrutinize statistics, because even though they don't lie, they CAN mislead. It gives $57,000 flat for those with an MS in PetE, which leads me to believe the sample size was quite small. What are the chances that an average would be such an even number. For all we know, there could have only been 1 person responding to that survey in that category. </p>
<p>The other instance where an MS had a higher starting salary than a BS is for civil engineering. That, I can't explain...</p>
<p>It really depends on if you enjoy engineering. Although it is difficult to strike it rich (multimillionaire) you will make well above the national average. If you love your job and what you do and you get compensated well, that job is great.</p>
<p>Computer Engineering baby! I got a fun career ahead of me!</p>
<p>Salary tables don't tell the whole story. Petroleum engineers have the highest average salaries but are often stationed in other countries, some with a higher cost of living, and tend to have to travel an enormous amount. While I think that would be very interesting for a while, I personally would want the choice of settling down somewhere and not having to move every few years, especially if I was starting a family.</p>
<p>I believe nuclear engineering comes in second for salary, but i've heard that the average age of the nuclear engineer workforce is higher than other engineering fields, so maybe that skews the average salaries in that field higher than they are in reality for someone starting out. The fact that starting salaries for nuke engineers aren't much higher than others seems to suggest this.</p>
<p>IMO, what's good about engineering is the flexibility.. and you don't have to face the huge loans of doctors and lawyers.. yet you could go into jobs in the finance industry or just be engineers- which isn't bad at all..</p>
<p>A masters in PetE makes 57k/year. Yeah, that's laughable.</p>
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Salary tables don't tell the whole story. Petroleum engineers have the highest average salaries but are often stationed in other countries, some with a higher cost of living, and tend to have to travel an enormous amount.
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1) Some are stationed in other countries, the vast majority do it with their own free will.
2) Most do not a have a higher cost of living. Of course, this doesn't even account for the 30%+ salary bump one gets from working international.
3) Petroleum engineers do not travel a tremendous amount. Certainly the travel less than other careers like consulting or some sales jobs.</p>
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While I think that would be very interesting for a while, I personally would want the choice of settling down somewhere and not having to move every few years, especially if I was starting a family.
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Yeah, that's not a problem.</p>
<p>yeah, I've been wondering about the OPs question for a while. I'm currently an undergrad in EE and sometimes you just can't help thinking whether all this is worth it.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that engineering is a bad choice of major... far from it. In fact, I'm really happy with the education part of it (other than the workload and toughness). What I mean is that by the end of it, in just four years, engineers have decent employment prospects, as well as good starting pay.</p>
<p>But this is where it starts to go downhill, in my opinion. That is, the engineering career does not mature as well as some other careers. If you like averages, ie, the average guy at an average university with an average job in an average place... then engineering is the clear winner. On average, you do pretty well.</p>
<p>But what if you're better than the average, or if you want to keep advancing. I think engineering doesn't offer very good prospects for that. Good engineers (after 20 years of experience) make just shy of 100k and the best might make... maybe 150k? Now we all know that its not all about the money, but for some people (like me) a possibility of advancement is pretty much the most important thing. I love engineering, math, physics and what not, but I don't think I could do it for the rest of my life without reasonable prospects of advancement.</p>
<p>But this still doesn't make engineering a bad choice of major, or even a bad career. The best part about engineering is its versatility. Engineers are probably in a "better than average" situation to launch a business or to pursue a career in business (ie: MBA). Possibilities even exist in medical and law (especially IP/patent law). In fact, if you can stomach the thought of just trying out engineering and then "changing" your career to something else by going to grad school or otherwise, or even by pursuing more advanced degrees within engineering to take a shot at teaching or research, then engineering isn't a bad deal. Its just the thought of a typical engineer that kinda scares me.... thoughts everyone?</p>
<p>If you're sitting here trying to do a cost/benefit on an engineering degree save everybodies time and just go ahead and major in business. Most don't go into engineering for the money because, in the long run, it's probably not worth it for the money. You can probably get an easier degree and make as much/more. You do engineering because you like it. Job security is nice. Job hunting during the "great brain drain" is going to be nice. Good starting pay is going to be nice. None of that would add up to the at times insane amount of work that you have to do to get by, though, if you didn't enjoy it.</p>
<p>How well do above average business majors do salary-wise 20 years down the road? If you're an investment banker, yes you would make more money, but is the cost-benefit ratio higher? For me, it wouldn't be. Working 80-100 hours per week on a regular basis is out of the question regardless of pay. Maybe it's worth it for you though?</p>
<p>Engineers tend to have a fairly good quality of life though, IMO, compared to the top-paying fields. For quality of life, I include earnings, location, working conditions, job security, and happiness. </p>
<p>Earnings - Lower for engineers than lawyers, doctors, bankers, but it's still more than enough to support your family</p>
<p>Location - I think this comes out even between engineers and others. While not every field in engineering can work anywhere in the country (i.e. aerospace), you won't get paid top dollar as a lawyer or investment banker unless you're station in a large city such as NYC, so your options are a bit limited there as well.</p>
<p>Working Conditions - I haven't heard of an engineer working more than 60 hours on a regular basis. I haven't heard of a lawyer or investment banker working less than 60 hours on a regular basis. Doctors have it rough too if they're on call. For me, this is what puts engineering over the top. You can't put a price on time I can spend with my family and time for myself to relax.</p>
<p>Job security - Engineers tend to weather the storm pretty well. Those in finance are having a little trouble right now. About two weeks ago, there was a finance engineer on the streets of New York wearing a sign that said "MIT graduate for hire." He's been unemployed for 6 months now, and has to move back to Nebraska if he can't find another job. I know it's not the norm, but it's just a sign of the times. It seems like every other week, I read in the newspaper about some big finance firm doing a mass layoff. </p>
<p>Happiness - A study (Depression</a> among Adults Employed Full-Time, by Occupational Category, SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies) shows that engineers have one of the lowest rates of depression. </p>
<p>I completely agree with chuy. People that go into engineering for the money are likely to become miserable, which may explain why we don't have enough engineers. The incentive to go into engineering just isn't high enough if you're not truly interested in the field. What I've noticed ASCE doing is that they're trying to stir up interest in students before they get to college. I know they have a program that targets kids as young as kindergartners. There's also the West Point Bridge Design competition that targets middle schoolers and high schoolers. Then there's the Future Cities competition for middle schoolers. Getting kids passionate about engineering at a young age seems to be one of ASCE's strategies.</p>
<p>thx for the replies..they really helped</p>
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If you like averages, ie, the average guy at an average university with an average job in an average place... then engineering is the clear winner. On average, you do pretty well. But what if you're better than the average, or if you want to keep advancing.
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<p>But the 'average engineer' is not equivalent to the average person in society. The average person in society will not survive higher level math/physics courses and won't be capable of handling engineering work. Those that enter into engineering and succeed are already a self selected bunch that have a mixed combination of higher intelligence and a strong work ethic. Is it bad to be considered average among such people?</p>
<p>As far as money goes, it's true that many job salaries catch up to or surpass engineering 15-20 years in after advancement has been made in the career. But advancement is not something that one can simply wake up one day and choose to accomplish. "This year i'm going to get a promotion." I know that in the real world, it does not always work that way, regardless of how hard of a worker or how ambitious you are. Decent salaries in engineering are basically a guarantee, though, even if little if no advancement is made.</p>