Entry Level Engineering Salary

[Justin218]

So how much should an entry level electrical engineer really make a year? I've heard sub-40k and I've also heard 60k... That's quite the range there. At sub-40k is it even really worth it?

 

[vjyper]

Here you go: http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/index.php?id=6864

 

[Born2bwire]

$60K I would have reserved that for MS. Though now that I think about it, a few years ago it was $55K for me. I think though that the variance could easily be explained away by living costs of where the company is located. $40K out in the boonies versus $60K in Santa Clara for example. I haven't looked in a while but I would still rate a BS EE entry position at around $50K for a good job, varying for living costs. But I haven't tried looking for a job after the recent downturn.

 

[JohnCU]

i started at $54k in 2007.

 

[DanDaManJC]

how about the work itself?

say you get a standard, but complete, four year EE, CSE or CS degree and get decent grades at a respectable school (3.3+) for your ugrad. are there a good amount of "actual" engineering roles outside IT, sales and a meld of business operations kinda stuff?

That is... does the average, employed, EE who does pretty well in school... and cares enough to want a "real" EE job, actually get said job? I mean I understand project planning, meetings with the customer and so on are all vital parts of engineering -- but what I'm asking is once it gets down to the engineering or design part of the project, are most EEs only NCEs for Cisco (or similar positions) or do they actually do the stuff they did in lab/school? Using orcad... building circuits, using math to figure out transfer functions and this and that.

 

[YoungGun21]

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#earnings

This should help.

 

[Jeff7]

It depends in part on the intangibles of the specific job.
Back in January of last year...geez, a year already?...I got an internship at a small company, and had a chance to get a feel for the place. The owner actually gives a damn about his employees, and his ideals in that respect are accordingly filtered down through upper management.
They don't work the employees to death like some large corporations. The GE plant nearby has a word I hear frequently associated with it: "burnout." Long workweeks, long hours, weekend workdays, etc.

Where I'm at, assuming everything's getting done on time, me and a few of the other engineers will still be in the office at 5:00 on a Friday, and the company president will stop in to just do his usual deadpan delivery of, "It's 5'o'clock. Friday. Go home. Have fun. Do something else."
Problem is....I rather enjoy the work, most of the time. It's kind of like doing my hobbies, except with some deadlines here and there, but with a considerably larger budget than I have, and useful, practical goals for the projects (again, most of the time).

I don't know if you'll be afforded such a luxury of a good preview of the work environment at a prospective employer, but just from someone who's worked not only at retail and temp jobs, where workers are usually viewed as disposable annoyances, this is a drastic change. And nothing beats having a job where quitting time comes and you think, "Oh darn it...ffffffine, I guess I'll go home," just because the work is entertaining or interesting. (I've heard rumors that a "girlfriend" of some sort might provide some substantial motivation to leave said interesting job on time, but I have yet to confirm this with real-world test data.)

So anyway, the pay here is not top-notch. It's on the lower end, if anything. But we've got a nice benefits package, an owner who pushes for more and more employee benefits, usually to the point of making the CFO huddle in a corner, shivering and crying, and generally a decent, relaxed work environment.
Those retail and temp jobs, I was usually thinking, "Is it quitting time yet?" as I was clocking in for the day. And I'd end the day stressed and tired. The only part of going to work that I dread now is the fact that it starts at 8am.


Oh, and there are random days when free pizza or donuts will appear in the breakroom.

 

[vshah]

i majored in computer & electrical engineering, but I went into development/infrastructure, not hardcore EE/CE. I had 3 60k +10k bonus offers last december. NY, DC, and Columbus Ohio


edit: i hate my job though

 

[HardcoreRobot]

55k in dc, 2004

 

[spidey07]

I started at 55K in 1993. Don't sell yourself short, your starting salary will dictate your entire career path. Read the book "how to make 1000 bucks an hour" to guide your negotations. And use salary.com to figure out what you're really worth.

-edit-
http://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-Y...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263526540&sr=8-1

 

[CanOWorms]

It depends on the industry, position, and location.

Semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley starts out a BS at $70k, MS at $80k +/- perhaps $5k. Additional bumps for internships that are directly related to the position at hand, graduate work directly related, etc. also come to play.

 

[iGas]

Average salary pending location, type of engineering, type of work (maintenance, sales, research, development, etc...), and employer.

 

[iGas]

how about the work itself?

say you get a standard, but complete, four year EE, CSE or CS degree and get decent grades at a respectable school (3.3+) for your ugrad. are there a good amount of "actual" engineering roles outside IT, sales and a meld of business operations kinda stuff?

That is... does the average, employed, EE who does pretty well in school... and cares enough to want a "real" EE job, actually get said job? I mean I understand project planning, meetings with the customer and so on are all vital parts of engineering -- but what I'm asking is once it gets down to the engineering or design part of the project, are most EEs only NCEs for Cisco (or similar positions) or do they actually do the stuff they did in lab/school? Using orcad... building circuits, using math to figure out transfer functions and this and that.

Depends on the sector that you are in, and I dare say that less than 25% of what you learn from school apply to the actual job.

 

[spidey07]

Average salary pending location, type of engineering, type of work (maintenance, sales, research, development, etc...), and employer.

And I can't say this enough. Engineers sell themselves short. They're grunts, the work dogs, you give them a bone and they happily wag their tail all the way home. Engineers are purely the grunts and will accept their bone because they are happy chewing on it.

I know what you do, you can and should make a pretty penny. Engineers should lead the grunts, not be them.

 

[AreaCode707]

Average salary pending location, type of engineering, type of work (maintenance, sales, research, development, etc...), and employer.

This.

 

[Bignate603]

Here you go: http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/index.php?id=6864

Beware of those kind of things, they get their information from former students and the one that respond aren't necessarily the best representation of the true incomes, or telling the truth for that matter.

 

[Hacp]

http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/index.php?id=6864

Haha, thats pretty scary. I've talked to recent grads I know and they all had problems finding work.

 

[Aluvus]

About $55k in 2008.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/engineers-are-doing-well-by-doing-good

Below $40k generally means a non-engineering job (technician) or government.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

You should keep an eye out for a job in Field Service for a manufacturer of some kind of installable equipment. That's what I do. My starting "salary" was 50K, but I'm hourly, non-exempt so I get paid overtime. My W2 will likely say that I brought in around 65K-70K, but it feels more like 85K after perks (phone/internet, car, fuel, insurance, and expenses).