<p>I was looking into IE jobs today, and it surprised me how little (on avg) they make compared to other engineers, such as electrical, aerospace, and computer. Why is that? Is it because the surveys don't count the ones that transition to management, or is there another underlying reason.</p>
<p>I appreciate any answers I can get. Thanks.</p>
<p>Then you are looking at bad data. Here: [Undergraduate</a> Engineering Degrees at NC State University](<a href=“Degrees and Academic Programs | College of Engineering”>Degrees and Academic Programs | College of Engineering)</p>
<p>That compares the starting salaries of all the majors…all within a few thousand of each.</p>
<p>I was looking at the BLS… I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s done by the US census</p>
<p>Surprised to see paper science and engineering at the top, though… never heard of the field.</p>
<p>Small field. Lots of money in the Paper Industry if you like Chemistry. Not for me. I’m pretty happy with my IE prospects though.</p>
<p>
The data is probably as accurate as any you’ll get anywhere.</p>
<p>That said, the BLS reports on employment categories, not education categories. It’s possible that many IE graduates pursue careers in fields other than IE, in which they may make much more money (software, management, etc.) The BLS is probably not the right place to look for that kind of information.</p>
<p>At my school, Industrial Engineers actually have the second highest median starting salaries and 2nd highest median signing bonuses. I don’t know many who have gotten jobs where they are called “industrial engineers,” though. Many of them end up in all sorts of jobs because their roles are not clearly defined. If they actually have the word “engineer” in their job title, it’s usually something like supply chain engineer or manufacturing engineer. A big chunk of them end up in consulting, many get specialized programming jobs related to data and optimization, some end up working as actuaries, and the list goes on.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, I’ve never actually known someone who has gotten a job as an “industrial engineer” and I’m a senior in industrial engineering!</p>
<p>In a lot of places that make stuff IE’s may be counted as part of manufacturing or operations which tends to pay lower than the more ‘cool’ types of engineering like product design and the like. </p>
<p>A number of IE’s also end up in jobs like IT or supply chain and the like. Definitely not a clipboard and stopwatch type job.</p>
<p>Depending on where you go to school IE may also include human factors engineering (at Purdue for example depending on degree plan etc)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078</a></p>
<p>A few of the career surveys (e.g. Berkeley, Cal Poly, CMU, MIT, and Virginia Tech) list employers and/or job titles.</p>