Posted on 06/17/2021 7:26:41 AM PDT by fireman15
Sometimes, when deciding on a career path, it can be difficult to know how your chosen industry will fare in the future. Are wages likely to increase? Will jobs be hard to come by? Much can feel unknown. To put your mind at ease, NewEngineer is here to help, crystal ball in hand. In the field of engineering it's clear that the current trend is towards information technology and automation, and this is set to remain the case for the foreseeable future – entering these sectors is as safe a bet as you could hope for. While traditional fields such as civil and petroleum engineering are still in high demand, the fastest growing fields are clearly those in the IT sphere. So, without further ado, here are 2021’s most in-demand engineering jobs and the salary potential one should expect from each.
(Excerpt) Read more at newengineer.com ...
It is amazing how well versed in energy and transmission technologies that she is. She like so many young people in the past has been hoping to change the world.
Good for her! Adding the PE will move her to the top end of the salary range quicker and now’s the time, while she’s still in student mode.
I would be careful on recommending engineering to a young person.
I have had a great career, but in any down turn the wages are the first to be frozen, and the first let go.
Then there is the H1B issue. Stay away from computers or programming.
Be willing to live in places most don’t want to, like the mountain west or rural midwest, and you will be employed.
But I know many that have burned out.
Pleasantly surprised that these weren’t on the list:
Racial engineering
Social engineering
Gender engineering
Election engineering
My oldest daughter’s strong suit math. As a Civil Engineer myself, I’m hoping to steer her in that direction. It’s a very solid and high demand and good paying field that doesn’t look to be going away any time soon.
Software Engineers are worth their weight in Gold right now - All of the Management Systems - WMS -TMS-etc are desperate for engineers.
—not surprising that mining engineering is on the list as the number of grads is in the tens, rather than a higher number-—
1. Mechanical Engineer
Average starting salary: $82,000
Average mid-level salary: $92,000
Average late career salary: $127,000
2. Data Science & Machine Learning
Average starting salary: $89,000
Average mid-level salary: $107,000
Average late career salary: $120,000
3. Mining Engineer
Average starting salary: $68,000
Average mid-level Salary: $89,000
Average late career salary: $109,000
4. Project Engineer
Average starting salary: $71,000
Average mid-level salary: $89,000
Average late career salary: $100,000
5. Automation & Robotics Engineer
Average starting salary: $77,000
Average mid-level salary: $92,000
Average late career salary: $99,000
6. Civil Engineer
Average starting salary: $59,000
Average mid-level salary: $72,000
Average late career salary: $96,000
7. Electrical Engineer
Average starting salary: $67,000
Average mid-level salary: $82,000
Average late career salary: $96,000
8. Alternative Energy Engineer
Average starting salary: $65,000
Average mid-level salary: $82,000
Average late career salary: $91,000
Like "clean energy" stay away from this and learn a real engineering discipline.
“…It is amazing how well versed in energy and transmission technologies that she is. She like so many young people in the past has been hoping to change the world.”
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She obviously neglected her Social Justice Warrior and Critical Race Theory studies! 😄
My son experienced the same when he got his PhD in physics. It took me a while to figure out why it was mostly American defense contractors pursuing him.
Mostly foreigners are getting American PhD's in this country, not Americans. My son was/is a red-blooded American with a sought after degree that could pass all 'top-secret' requirements.(foreigners can't)
That was 21 years ago. He is still working for that large defense contractor in the LA area today.
I am more than a little shocked that upon graduating that she was immediately inundated with job offers from all across the country. During my last assignment as a Hazmat team leader I had several engineers turned firefighter working with me. This was because of exactly the issues that you mentioned. I was pursuing an engineering degree myself when I became sidetracked by scoring well on a civil service test.
When I was hired by a big city fire department I told all of my friends that I was going to use the position to work my way through school. But one of my first mentors on the department was a chemical engineer that I worked with for decades. He advised that the career that I had ahead of me on the fire department would be as rewarding as that of an engineer. It was surprising but I believe that it was good advice.
I was surprised to not see Petroleum Engineering on the list.
Our son has a computer science degree and named his price when he graduated.
More folks are joining this trade but there is still strong demand.
“He advised that the career that I had ahead of me on the fire department would be as rewarding as that of an engineer. It was surprising but I believe that it was good advice.”
As a career engineer, I can say that he was right. There are many, many more careers that make every bit the money an engineer does but are more rewarding.
Clearly it depends on the list you look at !
https://typesofengineeringdegrees.org/highest-paid-engineering-jobs/
Did some math.
Graduated in ChemE in 1998
Adjusted for inflation, those numbers are lower in purchasing power (and in some cases dollars) than the published numbers when I graduated.
2008 to 2013 derailed a lot of careers.
My youngest daughter is just turning 40. She was also very strong in math. After initially wanting to be a nurse like my wife, she got an accounting degree and has never had any difficulty finding a job. Although it is a bit of a mystery to me that for the last several years she has been working as a personnel director at a hospital. She never was much of a people person.
Also the OPT foreign student work visa issue.
OPT visas are automatically attached to every foreign student visa.
OPT student workers reached 225,000 in 2019, before COVID slowed it down.
An OPT STEM visa is good for 36 months.
Many foreign graduates work an OPT job for 3 years and then roll straight into a H-1B visa.
My advice to USA citizen students - unless you have elite math or engineering skills, major in business management, accounting, or finance.
The USA wage scale for "average" engineers has been crushed by 1 million OPT and H-1B foreigners.
Problem is that the supply and demand curves are shifted by four years. .Basically the best paying specialties today will have ample supply of engineers when todays HS graduates finish colleges. So if you want to do engineering, do what you like the best, not what is the best paying right now.
Anyway, engineering surfers from H1B problems. Basically catch 22. Since there are not enough engineers, government imports a lot of foreigners, who then depress the wages and so create shortages of young people going to engineering schools.
But, still, engineering is good way to earn money!
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