Pay Estimate for New Grad EE

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi gents,</p>

<p>I am getting a job as an engineer in the next month at a place that I've been interning for over a year, and I need to prepare for salary negotiations.</p>

<p>It's a research/design job in the Antenna/RF field. I have 2 years of relevant intern experience, a secret clearance, and proven abilities at my current workplace. The position is for a defense company in San Diego California. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA from UCSD and will be attending grad school there while employed.</p>

<p>So far my best guess is 70-80 thousand from what I've seen on pay scale sites and from what I've gathered from fellow antenna guys.</p>

<p>Any help is appreciated!</p>

<p>Thanks,
Peter</p>

2

<p>If it helps, the average for a San Diego entry EE is 65K/year</p>

3

<p>I’ve heard that starting salaries for entry level engineers have started going back up again in the last 2 years, and my company has actually responded by raising salaries for level I engineers across the board.</p>

<p>That said, I think 70-80 sounds about right.</p>

4

<p>Thanks Mokonon. Is it normal to request a signing bonus? Especially if the salary is more on the 70k range?</p>

5

<p>UCSD has a career survey, but it does not appear to have the level of detail you want:
[Survey</a> of Recent Grads](<a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/alumni/alumni-survey/index.html]Survey”>Alumni)</p>

<p>Cal Poly SLO has a more detailed career survey by major:
<a href=“https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php?yr=2010%20-%202011[/url]”>https://www.careers.calpoly.edu/search.php?yr=2010%20-%202011&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So does Berkeley, although EE and CS are a combined EECS major, so it is hard to tell EE-only averages:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Of course, the career surveys do not go down to specialty areas of EE, or such aspects of graduates like security clearances.</p>

6

<p>@ucbalumnus</p>

<p>Ya, the problem with these kind of surveys is the lack of detail. I also assume that Berkeley grads generally get paid more than UCSD grads fresh out of college. </p>

<p>Thanks for the input though!</p>

7

<p>I honestly don’t know if it’s typical to ask for a signing bonus. I was given one when I started my current job but I didn’t ask for it.</p>