<p>Planning on pursuing on doing a PhD in CFD for Aerospace areas.
Compared to other PhD graduates in the AE field, how is the salary and job outlook for someone doing CFD related work? Average, above average, below,etc...?
I don't plan on going into academia. I'll probably be looking into industry/gov lab positions.</p>
<p>If you are looking at a PhD, you shouldn’t worry about money. If that is your primary concern then stop at a MS. Otherwise, it would be difficult to say how CFD jobs compare in salary to other PhD-level jobs in the aerospace industry, largely because there are so relatively few PhD’s and so little data to support it. Suffice it to say you shouldn’t go hungry.</p>
<p>The same thing goes for job outlook relative to other PhD-level jobs. There just isn’t much data out there. That said, there is a large amount of CFD going on out in industry since it is generally cheaper than experiments, so they definitely seem to be constantly hiring CFD experts.</p>
<p>A technical PhD with minimal experience will come in 2 labor grades higher than a BS and one LG higher than an MS at Lockheed. The specific specialty doesn’t really enter into it other than if there is an opening in the first place.</p>