<p>I'm interested in pursuing an engineering major, but I'd like that to someday become a business career. I understand that the engineer ----> MBA route is quite common these days. But how are the exit opportunities in the various engineering careers? And is an engineering degree good to have in the business world?</p>
<p>It’s whatever you make of it. Many engineers can be successful elsewhere, but it’s the people themselves, not the degree, that takes them there.
But I can tell you that an engineering education is quite miserable if you don’t actually plan on becoming an engineer. Not a good enough safety net to make it worth your while either.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. Is the engineering lifestyle comfortable? If you are one, do you feel like you make enough money to live the lifestyle you want?</p>
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<p>That is quite subjective, but I find it to be very comfortable. My GF and I are actually both engineers so our combined income (and low cost of living where we are) give us a very comfortable situation given the fact that we’re only 27 years old making ~$140k combined. </p>
<p>To give you a general idea, we have roughly 55% of our income going directly to savings (untouched money). The rest goes to expenditures: no kids, going out to lunch about 4 days a week, eating out 2 days during the weekend, rent ($225 a month per person, LOL), utilities, gas, insurance, and one of us owning a late model year car. </p>
<p>No complaints here. I find it to be a very comfortable lifestyle. But YMMV. :)</p>
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<p>I would accept that in the future. 
but I don’t understand the Untouched money case ,what do you mean by that??
how much money do you receive in the end of the month?? is it around 5 K without the untouched money??
I know that most engineers make around 60-70 K a year , does that include the untouched money you talked about??</p>
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Job conditions are mostly reasonable, and you get a standard middle class salary. Job security is neither awful nor great - you’re not a disposable worker, but you may get fired on a whim (read: H1B workers take your job for 1/5 pay) and find yourself to be too expensive to hire at 40-50 (often, more than 10 years experience is actually a downside in engineering).
Overall: not bad, but it’s not good enough to go for unless you actually want to work as an engineer. For every other benefit of engineering, there are greener pastures.</p>
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<p>Money put away for long-term savings.</p>
<p>So, basically, the salary potential isn’t great? What about specific areas of engineering - isn’t petroleum engineering growing fast, along with the salary potential in that field?</p>
<p>Petroleum engineering is a landmine - I’d steer clear. I’ll explain if you really want me to.
Salary potential is not bad, nor is it anything special. If $50-70k sounds like a lot of money to you, then engineering is fine. If not, then not.</p>
<p>Yeah, 50-75k is definitely not what I’m looking for haha. Is there really no chance of making significantly more than that in engineering? Say, in the 100-200k range? </p>
<p>And if you don’t mind, I would be interested in hearing why petroleum engineering is a landmine.</p>
<p>$50k-75k is a starting range…</p>
<p>You could expect to be making ~$80-90k mid-career and anywhere from $100k to 150k at the senior engineer or SME level.</p>
<p>Is experience in the Petroleum field, field work or drilling ( as in traveling ), or is it just plain work (As in a office)?</p>
<p>how about bioengineering? i am interested in it’s prospects…</p>