I want to major in Engineering (specifically mechanical engineering and then go onto grad school part-time to get BME degre) and design/build medical devices and prosthesis. I know managerial positions make the most ( I may consider trying to get into managerial positions but obvious not right away) and obvious getting a PhD(probably not going to pursue a PhD). Can engineers make 100k? Im asking not because all I care about is the money, but I know an engineering degree is grueling and I want it to pay off for all the hard work. My plan isnt to be rich, but have a good amount of money, just a little above comfortable in terms of money.
BTW Im not expecting to make 6 figures starting out, Im talking about salary after 10-15 years of experience .
Many factors play into maximum salary, not the least of which is locality. An engineer working in the California Bay Area could easily max out over $200k in his/her career, while an engineer in New Mexico may max out at “only” $130k (assuming the two engineers had equal qualifications).
You should always consider locality when looking at salaries for any job. A “6 figure” income in the Bay Area is equivalent to ~$60k in other parts of the country when you factor in the cost of living.
But to answer your question, yes, engineers can make over $100k in their careers.
These are probably most useful for the relative amounts which puts most engineering fields very near the top. Like other people have said, salaries will vary substantially from one geographic area to another. And they will vary greatly on an individual level based on promotions even remaining in technical positions.
It used to be that engineer’s salaries topped out at a lower pay than low to mid managers. May still be the case for some companies. But where I worked they figured a while ago a few things that changed that; 1) that your best engineers didn’t always make the best managers, 2) why take your best engineer and, by moving him/her into management, have them stop doing engineering and 3) there are some very good managers that are middling engineers. The company went from a separate pay scale for managers to one that combined engineers with the first and second level manager. Management above the second level was considered “executive” level and did have a totally separate pay (and benefit) scale. After a number of years under such a system, there were more engineers in the top pay grade than managers.
Since executive positions were not the easiest to come by, the opposite of your thinking was actually true. For most people, the best path to the higher pay was actually in engineering.
I would venture to say that every one of the engineers that my husband works with having greater than 15 years experience and that are ranked in the upper 1/3 of the pay grade makes well over $100K if not closer to $200K and over (not in the bay area either). @hpuck35 description is rather accurate (in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t work for the same company as my DH). DH definitely makes more than his immediate “manager/boss” in his technical role. Also there may be compensation in the way of stock options etc. that are tied into your personal performance reviews and rank that can add quite a bit of income.
According to http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html , the range of mid-career pay for graduates of almost any major is such that the top 10% (90th percentile) paid people make over $100,000 per year (often well over). The top 25% (75th percentile) paid people in many majors make over $100,000 per year, and all of them make a reasonably comfortable living mid-career ($70,500 was the lowest 75th percentile shown for any major’s graduates). For median pay, engineering graduates are around $90,500 to $107,000 for mid-career pay. At the low end (10th percentile), engineering graduates are around $57,100 to $71,900 for mid-career pay.
Of course, some of the people with the given degree may be working in some other type of job besides an engineering job (management, technical marketing, etc.).
To be fair, it is much easier to gain ranks in management and rise above the “management” scale than it is to climb the engineering ladder because there is much more you have to prove as an engineer. Usually engineers on any given rung on the pay scale will get a higher salary, but it’s harder for any given person to reach that point on the engineer scale than on the management scale.
Still, life isn’t all about money, and if you like engineering more then it is still a very reasonable boost in pay. If you’re especially good at something that is in high demand, you will get people to pay well because highly skilled engineers are worth a premium.
As with far too many things in life, the simple answer is that “it’s what you make of it.” If your experience in college justifies that degree program, it’s a huge plus. If it just looks like two unrelated majors tossed together, it’s not particularly useful.
Management verses engineering is always an interesting career decision. It comes down to what are your skills and your interests. Yes, you can make a ton more money going up the management ladder into the executive positions. However, in many companies there are only a few of even the executive positions that get up to the 7 figures and lots of competition for those positions.
Do you have the drive to make it that far is a good question to ask yourself. I have two good friends that went that route. Neither made it to the 7 figures but both did make more money than I. Their work / family balance was in a place that I would never want to be. Wasn’t worth it in my book.
I’ll answer the question from another point of view, as a guy roughly mid-career. Generally, engineers will make “enough” money. Sounds simplistic, but it’s true. So what is “enough money”? I live in an area that is slightly above average cost of living, live in a house above the median price, can take at least one nice family vacation a year, and currently have two kids in college. Financially, I really worry too much. Not going to retire early or anything, but that’s OK with me.
While I won’t give out numbers for myself, if I look at the payscale.com data, I feel I am accurately represented there. I will also add, that I am no longer in a pure engineering role, but 10+ years of engineering experience is required for my current job.
Everything else posted above is good data to consider for actual $$$.
I think DecideSomeHow’s post hit the bullseye here. You will make enough to be comfortable - you will not have a bevy of Lamborghini’s to pick from each morning, nor will you be found haggling with the food cart guy for raising his price by 50 cents.
‘I meant what kind of jobs I could do.’ That’s a very different question than the title of the thread. tAnd the answer is very general - just about anything while working for a company that values/hires engineers. Sure, there are stories of engineers on Wall Street, but those are outliers. I work for a large (10,000+ employees) company where I would be given fair consideration for just about any job opening outside of finance/HR/accounting. This would include engineering, project management, engineering management, quality, purchasing, manufacturing, and so on.