posted
Also, in the area in which I live, the cost to purchase a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, is so expensive, that it basically takes two engineering incomes to afford it, and we don't have oodles left over either.
While I could afford to show my dog for a while, I couldn't imagine how we'd afford the additional cost a kid would be. Probably more than double the dog, and it woudn't go away when I decided to stop showing the dog. Plus, I couldn't leave it alone during the day. It would be even more expensive to own a house if I lived closer to where I work.
posted
A response from a fellow Chem E. I posted a link from this thread...
quote:I'm an engineer, work 12-hour days, high stress situations, always too much stuff to get done, on a pager/cellphone leash 24/7 (is 34/7 possible? that's what I typed at first), my decisions are potentially very hazardous (ever seen a fire at a refinery?). I call my console at midnight, I think about problems while sleeping, it doesn't go away on vacation.
Granted, I love it but it's not what's she's thinking, unless you don't really want to be an engineer with your degree. It's about responsibility and problem solving things others can't
Again, I'm glad you have your job Bao, but it's certainly out of the norm from my other female engineering friends. Now we've only been in industry 3-5 years, so maybe it's different for you.
posted
I'm an EE, working a 40-hour/week desk job that I find imensely fulfilling and allows me plenty of time with my family. We live in a high real estate market, but manage to make ends meet on a single salary with a child. And we're looking at buying a house within 10 miles of work (about 30 min. commute).
There aren't a lot of women working here (EE is one of the lowest disciplines when it comes to female representation, from what I remember).
This wasn't intended to prove any point, it was just FYI that BQT is NAA (not all alone).
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posted
I'm a chemical engineer and make sure to keep roughly a 40-hour week as well. While I do have to be available if something goes wrong and have to arrange coverage if I won't be available, I'm not in outside of work hours very often. My commute is a bit less than 10 minutes, but I don't live in a big town (about 80,000 people). Actually, the town is the only major area of dissatisfaction for me at the moment, because while the short commute is convenient, the town is uninteresting.
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posted
This is funny because just last night we were talking about engineers at home and it was about people with engineering degrees who took jobs outside engineering because they couldn't make enough money as an engineer.
Specifically, there are three counter guys at the local plumbing supply house where my husband gets his supplies that have engineering degrees (one from Georgia Tech, even) and none of them could find work in the engineering field that didn't start out in the low 20's. That wasn't enough to live on so they took jobs with a plumbing supply house, making easily twice that much.
Maybe there's just a glut of engineers around here?
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Yeah... it's interesting. It's just what Bao described was so outside my own paradigm of engineering I was shocked.
Maybe it is different for EEs. And twinky you are in Canada, I think labor laws are different there, as well as perhaps some expectations. I am in one of the higher priced real estate areas, in the Chicago suburbs, but it's nowhere near as bad as CA.
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I was going to ask you if you lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco) Banna, since I have heard stories of them working engineers to death there. I guess I never realized how good we have it.
Belle- That's bizarre. All my electrical engineering friends who graduated with me (from Utah State) took jobs in the Utah/Nevada/Arizona areas for 48-57K a year, and all but 2 (6 out of 8) had job offers a couple months before graduating. I'll definately stay away from where you are if they're only offering them 20K a year. What a joke.
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That's really an anomaly Belle, the average starting salaries for entry level Electrical Engineers in the US in 2005 was $51,113.
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I know - it's weird. I always thought engineers made good money, too. But it's been verified more than once. Not only are there the guys my husband knows personally, but my sister in law was a CPA for a large firm that employed mechanical engineers and they only started them out in the 20's. She herself was an EE major before switching to accounting and the reason she did so was job availability and starting salary. She knew she could do better as a CPA and she certainly has.
Could be a factor of our local economy.
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Edited to add: Looks like it sends results to email, just in case anyone was interested. I've plugged in a few different variables, just for curiosity's sake.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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Belle, I find the situation you report very very strange. Most large companies recruit engineers regionally if not nationally so there isn't a whole lot of variation in engineers salaries from place to place. Even in Montana were engineering jobs were fairly scarce, the salaries were only a little bit below the national average. What you are reporting are salaries that are less than half the national average? Its hard to imagine that persisting for very long. Very few Americans are so committed to living in one place that they would be willing to accept a job for less than half the pay. Did these friends of your husbands look for job in neighboring cities and states?
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posted
I'm an Electrical Engineer, and this thing about Electrical Engineering being low-stress, I don't know where that comes from. It's not that way in any job I've been in.
Bao, are you male or female? I think I read all your posts in this thread and I can't tell.
I'm in Birmingham, AL and the last starting EE salary I heard here was 50k, and that was a few years ago. I don't know why the anomaly, but starting EEs made more than $20k even back when I graduated.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Hehe, I'm male. So is that good or bad that it doesn't show?
I don't know what the reason for my low stress is. It could be that my job is truly low stress...none of my co-workers have any burnout symptoms. Also, it could be that I have so many other things in my life that cause unbelievable amounts of stress that work challenges seems like nothing. It could be that between being a full-time (i.e. 17 engineering credits) student and working was pretty stressful. I also have a great manager here. I'm not really sure, it could be a combination of all of the above. I work in a place that is both a manufacturing plant and design. We design our own products, manufacture them here, test them, and then ship them directly to the customers.
There are undoubtably stressful days, but no more so than any other job I've worked.
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It's not that way in any job I've been in.
