Starting salaries

DS just got his first job offer (major aerospace company). How does one know if the salary is competitive?

Congrats!!

Try Payscale. Also, his school may do post graduation surveys that includes salary info (in ranges).

One place to start might be looking at salaries for similar jobs/job titles for the company and the area on a site like Glassdoor.

Yes, Payscale, Glassdoor and post grad surveys are all good resources. Don’t forget to look at info re: signing bonuses too, which hopefully will be part of what he is also offered. Congratulations!

Chardo, my son is an EE graduating in May and has had two offers so far that were $12,000 apart if that helps. Based on what you’ve posted before, I believe my son interned at the same company that your son did (not in Maryland, though).

Just curious (I’m an AE major), approximately what is the salary and for what company?

Most companies pay based on location. So that should be factored in before assuming something is high or low. If someone was accepting a job in Texas vs California, I would expect to see at least 15-20k difference in beginner salaries or about 20-25% difference. Getting paid 100k in Palo Alto but living in a tent on a field is not fun…

Location is a huge factor.

When DS was looking at job offers last year, I got curious and ran some COL (cost of living) calculators. Since we are in CO, I used Denver as baseline. Boston was 130% of Denver. CA/SF was more than 150% (with most difference in housing costs).

I know location is a huge factor. The salary seems good in comparison to other areas. My question is how do we know if it’s good compared to other companies in the same area? The major aerospace/defense companies typically have large facilities in the same areas. Do they pay their entry level engineers the same as their neighboring peers?

I’ll hazard a guess that starting pay for Boeing Seattle is greater than the starting pay at Boeing Wichita Similarly, the pay at UTC Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut is likely much higher than what UTC pays new hires in Syracuse, NY. Finally, Boeing built a new facility in South Carolina for one reason and one reason only; lower labor costs; a huge subsidy from the SC state government didn’t hurt, either.

Yes, but is starting pay at Boeing Seattle comparable to starting pay at Lockheed Seattle or Northrop Seattle? (or SoCal, TX, etc.)

Within the same location, the pay for similar engineering positions should be about equal. Every company knows what the compensation level is by locality (they use the same data sources).

And in general, how does pay compare from the giants (Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop,Raytheon, etc.) to the next tier in size (BAE, Harris, Textron, etc.)?

They’re virtually the same as they fight for the same people from the same talent pool. The big companies can be quite stingy with benefits compared to some of the smaller companies.

But I think it’s better to start a career at a big company, then move if desired once you have experience.

There are pluses and minuses for both big and small. At small you get more responsibility faster and less bureaucracy Big can give you more exposure to different types of business.

There are all kinds of surveys, but really the only way to know and have any leverage is to get other offers too.

The most important aspect of the first job is the opportunity to learn and grow, so it’s often worth not taking the highest offer.

Asking a company to up an offer is risky, but I had a guy in the last few years come to me and say that he has gotten several significantly higher offers, but that he really liked us the best. If we could up the offer by 5K, he would accept immediately.

The number was 2K more than we’d ever paid a new grad. HR wanted to increase his $3K, but not by as much as he asked. I disagreed and said no. This was a counter offer, and he’s saying that if we meet this number than he will indeed come work here, and that this is the most accurate market information we have. I prevailed and we hired him. He’s been tremendous.

If your S has multiple offers, and is willing to risk losing the job he likes the best to go for the money, I think that an honest counter offer with his bottom line to the company whose work he thinks that he’d enjoy the most is the way to go.

Congrats to your son.

“it’s often worth not taking the highest offer.” One of my sons had narrowed it down to two offers and took the lower one. It was just more of a fit, more of the kind of opportunities he was looking for. Always good to look at the big picture in terms of not only salary and benefits but also fit, location , opportunities, etc.

Usually, the career center of the university will publish average salaries for graduates holding a bachelors or masters degree. At umich, the average aerospace engineering graduate starts with a base salary of $64,000 with a bachelors and $69,000 with a masters.

Absolutely. These are engineers. It’s going to be a nice starting salary no matter what. I have always advised to go where the work is interesting and the opportunities are attractive. The rest is adaptable.