How much money do you see yourself realistically making ten years from now?

[Special K]

Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

 

[Dessert Tears]

To answer the OP, hopefully around what I'm making now. My long-term plan includes moving and a substantial pay cut.

Originally posted by: gopunk
i'm not sure where this focus on accuracy comes in. the OP asked people to say how much they see themselves realistically making in 10 years, and that is what people have done. they might have a skewed perception of themselves, but so what? what do you want young people to do here, readjust their expectations to "typical"? neither you or they know whether or not they know where they will land with any degree of certainty. put in their shoes, wouldn't you rather be foolish for having aimed high and landing low than for aiming low when you could have landed high?

The premise of the thread, "how much money do you see yourself realistically making ten years from now," includes two antithetical requirements in the context of ATOT: "see yourself" and "realistically." Furthermore, the variance over ten years is substantial.

* This all assumes that posters are not using creative rounding or outright falsehood, which I believe occurs to some extent in these threads:
Those of you who are under 25 and making ~100k+
24 yo making $100K

I mostly agree with 91TTZ - I would prefer if the posters tempered their estimates with (my perception of) reality. Given the quality of many posts in ATOT, I would also prefer if the posters lowered their professional goals, as I would be less likely to come into contact with them. :evil:

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

 

[eits]

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos071.htm

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
making six figures puts you where? In the top 5% of income earners inthe country? I think it's funny how 90% of the people in this thread think theyre going to make that much.

How hard it that to believe. Do you think that the dumber 50% of this country visit Anandtech, learn about the stuff here, and then go to forums to debate hardware and such?

I doubt it.

Most of the people here, as playmaker has said, are going to be more motivated, educated, and driven to succeed.

Don't apply your seemingly apathetic lifestyle and goals to everybody else

In case you haven't noticed, most people here are nerdy, self-serving, and constantly trying to validate themselves.

They'll reply to threads and make the degree they're pursuing out to be the huge cash cow that it really isn't.

Others will come to their aid in threads, not because they know the guy or honestly believe that he knows what he's doing, but instead because that person is just like him, and by validating one person, they're trying to validate themselves.

Maybe I'm just older than the average forum poster and I can easily see the error of their young, inexperienced ways. Maybe I'm just more realistic.

I can tell that from my own experience, that a pretty large subset of the computer geek crowd is made up of the D&D playing pathetic loser crowd, which often does have an interest in computers but are known for being liars who aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack. Their life is pathetic and that's why they try to live their life in an alternate world such as D&D or WoW. These were the fat kids in school that brought in a picture they cut out from Playboy and claimed that it's their girlfriend, who lives in another town that nobody has heard of.

When I was in school, that crowd definitely was NOT the smart crowd, they were just the dork crowd. The smart crowd was more popular, head of their class, on various school clubs, etc. The dork crowd wanted to be smart, but generally weren't- they were just busy hiding in someone's basement on Friday night playing D&D.

I'm sure you are *partially* right. However, you are not completely right. In this thread I can tell you for a fact that we have one person who scored 93rd percentile on the LSAT and another person who scored 99 percentile. We have heard from others who are making money in real estate and accounting/banking.

So sure, a lot of ATOT is made up of fat "geeks" but a lot of ATOT (or at least this thread) includes some pretty smart people.

In my opinion, once you are 21-25, you have a pretty good idea of where you "stand" compared to the people around you. If you are the type who has gotten >90th percentile on every standardized test you have ever taken, and passed through a good college program, you ought to have *some* idea of where you will land in 10 yrs. Anything can happen, good or bad, but you have some idea.

I don't know what % of the ppl posting fit into this category, and who are "dreamers" but most ppl who have said "$100,000+" have at least given some explaination for it.

 

[bmx045]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: bmx045
I'm 21 now, starting my respiratory care associates degree this fall, by 23 est. salary for a no experience RT is 55-60k. Not bad at 23! Shietttt! I make pennies right now as an emt...hah

Ha!

Where? National average for starting RT's is $15-$20 in most clinical settings. Check your numbers. Call me speculative that even including cost of living you'd be making double that.

Boston, MA. The numbers I have are from past students now working full time, Boston city has 6 level 1 hospitals, they need RN's/RT's/RadTech's like crazy. The problem is, the schools aren't large enough to fulfill all the applying students. The waiting lists are growing, my RT program has a 1 year wait after application submission, and RN's its minimum 2 years, first come first serve basis.

I work as an EMT in boston city 40 hours a week, the hospitals are paying for peoples' RN and RT schooling w/ a 2 year employment contract...they've been blabbing about the shortages of RN's all over the news as well.

 

[Playmaker]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
making six figures puts you where? In the top 5% of income earners inthe country? I think it's funny how 90% of the people in this thread think theyre going to make that much.

How hard it that to believe. Do you think that the dumber 50% of this country visit Anandtech, learn about the stuff here, and then go to forums to debate hardware and such?

I doubt it.

Most of the people here, as playmaker has said, are going to be more motivated, educated, and driven to succeed.

Don't apply your seemingly apathetic lifestyle and goals to everybody else

In case you haven't noticed, most people here are nerdy, self-serving, and constantly trying to validate themselves.

They'll reply to threads and make the degree they're pursuing out to be the huge cash cow that it really isn't.

Others will come to their aid in threads, not because they know the guy or honestly believe that he knows what he's doing, but instead because that person is just like him, and by validating one person, they're trying to validate themselves.

Maybe I'm just older than the average forum poster and I can easily see the error of their young, inexperienced ways. Maybe I'm just more realistic.

I can tell that from my own experience, that a pretty large subset of the computer geek crowd is made up of the D&D playing pathetic loser crowd, which often does have an interest in computers but are known for being liars who aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack. Their life is pathetic and that's why they try to live their life in an alternate world such as D&D or WoW. These were the fat kids in school that brought in a picture they cut out from Playboy and claimed that it's their girlfriend, who lives in another town that nobody has heard of.

When I was in school, that crowd definitely was NOT the smart crowd, they were just the dork crowd. The smart crowd was more popular, head of their class, on various school clubs, etc. The dork crowd wanted to be smart, but generally weren't- they were just busy hiding in someone's basement on Friday night playing D&D.

Wow. I'm sorry if your life has been utter sh!t thus far, but no need to project onto people you don't know. My experience with the cross-section of ATOT posters that I know in real life has been very different than yours.

My salary expections are based on my current career path, one in which many of my colleagues are 5-8 years ahead of me.

I perfectly understand where you're coming from, however. If your academic background has never allowed you contact with successful, ambitious individuals in law or financial services, I can undertand your ignorant incredulity.

 

[JDrake]

hey guys how much do cops make? i was jw earlier

 

[bmx045]

www.salary.com

 

[kalster]

twice as much as I am making now, I am not too far from 100k (ofcourse this is california), I just turned 27

 

[ruffilb]

Originally posted by: DainBramaged
I'm hoping for around $100,000 in todays money.

 

[JinLien]

Originally posted by: joedrake
hey guys how much do cops make? i was jw earlier

Depends on where you work, rank, and type of job.

Entry level for cops in my area is around 50-55K. Entry IT (engineering) worker is anywhere between 30-45K , RN is 55K, Trade worker 50-75K (50-60K non union, 65-75K union).

[correction] Entry RN got a raised starting June of 2006 therefore they are getting $57K to start ++ $1 raise per year for 9 years pending any un-schedule changes may happen from now till 2015. RN wages currently is cap off at $70K ++ about 7K retirement benefit per annum (for a total of $77K). However many RNs take overtime that bring them up to around $90-100K, and there are a few greedy ones that clock in at $110-120K due to very attractive overtime pay.

 

[Slew Foot]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Don't apply your seemingly apathetic lifestyle and goals to everybody else

You worthless puke. I make >400K a year and Im 30 years old. Add on another 500K in investment gains this year and Im looking to break seven figures.


CRNAs(Nurse Anesthetists) make on average 120-150 starting out (in CA), it's more in other places in the country, but 250K is very high.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Slew Foot

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Don't apply your seemingly apathetic lifestyle and goals to everybody else

You worthless puke. I make >400K a year and Im 30 years old. Add on another 500K in investment gains this year and Im looking to break seven figures.


CRNAs(Nurse Anesthetists) make on average 120-150 starting out (in CA), it's more in other places in the country, but 250K is very high.

what do you do for a living? or was that was the stuff about nurse anesthetist?

 

[voodoodrul]

You are all completely out of touch with more than 99.9999% of the world and you're only talking about the upper 1% of the US population.

This thread is hyper-inflated BS.

Most people will never see $1 million dollars in their entire lifetime. That's how reality works. Most people will make between $30-50k. You can't even make the $30k unless you have a respectable experience background where I live. Respectible background does not mean a degree. 2-3 years work experience means more a 4 year degree.

I, for one, will be happy to even qualify to own a house. Right now, I couldn't even make the payments on a $160,000 house on a 30 year term.

If you make more than $100k/year or have more than $1000/mo disposable income, please quit comparing yourself to others and live life. It's not about the money when you make MUCH more than you need to survive.

Anyway, try working hard for many years in a "good" field and then find yourself with no health insurance (because of cost) and no retirement savings.

Call me jealous all you want, but if it were so simple to make that much without getting a hand-out from your daddy's friends at work, we'd all be making the big dollars.

/rant

 

[JinLien]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

LOL, I envy those people that do much better than I who have much less education; however the environment that I live in is much nicer than many larger cities.

On the positive side is that I?m better off than many of my friends & siblings who are struggling and hold PHDs in sciences. I have a sister that hold a PHD in Asian language/education who can?t find work here in Canada, and the best deal for her is working in Osaka. I also have a sister that barely work because her master in ESL/English education isn?t a demand degree around here. My oldest sister is currently working at a pizza joint as a waitress after working as a medical researcher for 8 years, and her master of Biochem isn?t needed at any facility here in Canada.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

That sounds high to me - my company has a reputation for paying very well for the aerospace industry. I've seen scatter charts of the salaries of our entire technical staff and saw very few in that range. And most of our staff is in high cost of living areas. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

If you define your happiness by how much money you make, you'll never be happy. Some of the happiest and most succesful people I've known were dirt poor.

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

Does the sun rise in the east in your world also?

Seriously - you need a reality check. The median income in the US is about $40K. Describing less then $500K as "low" income is just absurd.

 

[yobarman]

"Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

 

[aswedc]

Originally posted by: voodoodrul
Most people will never see $1 million dollars in their entire lifetime. That's how reality works. Most people will make between $30-50k. You can't even make the $30k unless you have a respectable experience background where I live. Respectible background does not mean a degree. 2-3 years work experience means more a 4 year degree.

Are you sure you live in America? I suggest you refer to the well published salary averages for college graduates which show all marketable majors above 40k and several above 50k.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

That sounds high to me - my company has a reputation for paying very well for the aerospace industry. I've seen scatter charts of the salaries of our entire technical staff and saw very few in that range. And most of our staff is in high cost of living areas. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

If you define your happiness by how much money you make, you'll never be happy. Some of the happiest and most succesful people I've known were dirt poor.

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

Does the sun rise in the east in your world also?

Seriously - you need a reality check. The median income in the US is about $40K. Describing less then $500K as "low" income is just absurd.

It seems to be the median on these boards. I guess I buy too much into what people are saying. Everyone on here thinks they are going to make one investement, or start a business that is going to make them a millionaire before they are 30. I wanted to work in EE and checked the numbers on salary.com, come onto AT and read threads like this, and think to myself "where did I go wrong"?

 

[voodoodrul]

Originally posted by: aswedc

Originally posted by: voodoodrul
Most people will never see $1 million dollars in their entire lifetime. That's how reality works. Most people will make between $30-50k. You can't even make the $30k unless you have a respectable experience background where I live. Respectible background does not mean a degree. 2-3 years work experience means more a 4 year degree.

Are you sure you live in America? I suggest you refer to the well published salary averages for college graduates which show all marketable majors above 40k and several above 50k.

I live in Montana, which is by *far* under the national average for even median income. National average is $36k/year. Our state is $26k/year. Lets just say that I'm considered "well paid" by a lot of friends who have had to work in this economy here and I don't make much more than $30k including overtime and on-call work. College students hear the salaries of $80k/year in other places and assume the will make that here. What a reality check when that doesn't happen..

So anyway, short story, Montana isn't really America when it comes to money. I believe we are dead last in income and quite high in cost of living compared to national averages.

To put it another way, I don't have a single friend who makes more than $30k/year.. many have degrees. Most would rather they never went to school and saved themselves the pain of paying back a student loan.

 

[JinLien]

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

That sounds high to me - my company has a reputation for paying very well for the aerospace industry. I've seen scatter charts of the salaries of our entire technical staff and saw very few in that range. And most of our staff is in high cost of living areas. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

If you define your happiness by how much money you make, you'll never be happy. Some of the happiest and most succesful people I've known were dirt poor.

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

Does the sun rise in the east in your world also?

Seriously - you need a reality check. The median income in the US is about $40K. Describing less then $500K as "low" income is just absurd.

One of my friend make $91K per annum (in 2000) as a composite consultant/engineer contractor for Boeing in Seattle (don?t know what he is making now because we haven?t talked much since his relationship with my sister didn?t turn out).

 

[judasmachine]

Me... 10 Years...

I'm gonna say at least 60k if I stay here where it's cheap or add another 25k if I'm somewhere it's more expensive to live.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Armitage

Originally posted by: Special K
Are there ANY other engineers posting in this thread? If so, do ANY of them that see any possible way to make big $$? Argh, I think reality hit me in the face much sooner than my other college friends. I knew a guy with an english major who was convinced he would be able to get a job soon after graduation paying $200k because his uncle's friends son did or some other BS.

Depends on what you mean by big $$
If you mean well above the national average and generally considered well off - then yes, it's very possible, and even likely.

If you mean being a millionaire or even breaking 6 figures/year before you hit 30, then no, it's not very likely. It can happen - particularly if you choose the right specialization in the right market, etc. But not likely.

FWIW I broke 6 figures about 12 years after finishing my masters - that's in the aerospace industry with an m.s. and a security clearance in an area with a moderate cost of living (Colorado Springs) and alot of competition for people with my skills. The downside is there are probably only about 6 or 8 areas of the country where I could hope to get a good job in my area of expertise - maybe fewer. At my company, with about 90% of our people in high cost of living areas, the pay seems to level off around $150K - that will likely go up at about the rate of inflation. Across all engineering disciplines, I would guess I'm in the top 10% of my undergrad class.

I have no doubt I could pass $100k as an engineer. I am familiar with the pay scales at a couple of big engineering companies, and they cap out at $170k and $200k. I don't know how representative that is of the industry as a whole, but I would imagine the companies stay relatively close to their competitors in terms of salary and benefits.

That sounds high to me - my company has a reputation for paying very well for the aerospace industry. I've seen scatter charts of the salaries of our entire technical staff and saw very few in that range. And most of our staff is in high cost of living areas. I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

I guess the more interesting question raised by this thread, at least for me anyway, is how much money is required for happiness? I have been a student my whole life so far so I really have no idea how much it would take. Would I be 4x happier with $400k/year than with $100k?

If you define your happiness by how much money you make, you'll never be happy. Some of the happiest and most succesful people I've known were dirt poor.

All I know is I get EXTREMELY bitter when people start talking about money, particularly when it's people in fields that traditionally make more than mine.

Honestly I think I'd find something to bitch about no matter what field I had gone into. If I weren't complaining about the "low" pay (i.e. < $500k), then I would be complaining about the long hours and/or how boring the job is.

Does the sun rise in the east in your world also?

Seriously - you need a reality check. The median income in the US is about $40K. Describing less then $500K as "low" income is just absurd.

It seems to be the median on these boards. I guess I buy too much into what people are saying. Everyone on here thinks they are going to make one investement, or start a business that is going to make them a millionaire before they are 30. I wanted to work in EE and checked the numbers on salary.com, come onto AT and read threads like this, and think to myself "where did I go wrong"?

As many people have pointd out, either alot of people in this thread are full of sh|t/delusional. Or we have an extraordinary collection of talent and ambition on here - many of whom still manage to have enough spare time from their high pressure careers and wildly succesful love life post lifer in 2 or 3 years

Do what you're happy doing. The money is what it is.