I graduated in 1998 with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. The best job I could find for a year and a half paid about $19K, and I was lucky to get it.
That's nuts man. I started in ChemE at Texas Tech, but didn't like it much.
What school did you go to? I work in environmental consulting, what industry are you in?
Seems you did not look hard enough. I'm in the utility biz and they've been paying starting salaries of $30000+ for 5 years or more.
Really?
I graduated in the fall of 98, and started at $49K. Granted, I had to work hard to get that job.
What type of work were you looking into?
My kid is about to finish up his AA at a community college and transfer to an engineering program at our local State University. We've been told that a MBA or a Masters in his chosen engineering field will probably give him the best chance of a good job (he's starting young, so he should have plenty of time to fit it in).
However, my niece graduated with a degree in Structural Engineering (no Masters) and landed a $55,000 job one month after she graduated.
Guess a lot depends on the area, and the economic situation at the time...our area is in a building boom, so I think that made her degree more marketable
**I graduated in 1998 with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. The best job I could find for a year and a half paid about $19K, and I was lucky to get it.**
I graduated in 1985 with an accounting degree from the University of Oklahoma, not a top tier school by any means and receiving offers of $ 20,000 to $ 24,000 a year while the state economy was in a severe recession. The engineers , regardless of specialty, were getting offers of a minimum of $ 30,000 a year. I recall some getting mid to high 30s.
Getting offers of $ 19,000 a year today with an engineering degree must be really tough!
I find that very strange.