• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Engineers in non-engineering positions, higher pay? (Consulting, Finance, Management, Patent Law, etc)

P

parikh26

Member
Hey guys,

Just wanted your thoughts if you're an engineer in a non-traditional role. Are you satisfied with your job and its respective salary? Did you migrate to your current position after working as an engineer or did you go straight into it? What was your motivation (eg higher pay, enjoy business/finance/consulting, didn't enjoy engineering, couldn't find an engineering position....). Are growth opportunities better on the "business ladder" or the "engineering ladder" at your company(if applicable)?

Did you go back for an MBA? Was the added salary worth the added expense?

Thanks!

My story....just finished my bachelors in EE and am starting my masters (1 year program) at the same institution. Didn't finish a double major (a couple of classes shy) in management cuz i thought it would increase my chances at getting into business school for an MBA...just a personal opinion. Most of my experience is in research labs at various schools and R&D firms. Have never held an engineering position that was not R&D related.

Recruiting season is approaching this fall and I'm still deciding on my interests: EE(aerospace, defense, semiconductor, tech, IT...), management consulting (bain, mckinsey, bcg...), technical consulting (accenture, ibm..), and finance. Ruled out patent law after working for firm for a while--not for me.

Torn between traditional engineering and mostly consulting. Both seem extremely interesting, but don't know which will present better growth opportunities (for example, more consultants start at much lower salaries than engineers from my school, but companies such as bain boast almost 80% acceptance into top mba programs)
 
I am doing IP (Patent Law) .. that is great. Pay is alot higher than anything else you can do short of starting your own business.
 
Master's canditate will receive lower salary (10-15k at least) for an entry level consultant position than an entry level engineering position. This is consistent with salary data from my school for past few years.

Not always true for Ph.D.'s, but their salary is highly variable anyway.
 
funny i'm reading the book "house of lies" right now which tells the story of a consultant. Sorry no relevance to your thread, just a coincedence
 
Originally posted by: parikh26
Master's canditate will receive lower salary (10-15k at least) for an entry level consultant position than an entry level engineering position. This is consisent with salary data from my school for past few years.
Click to expand...

QFT, if you want consulting to be in anyway profitable for you, you're gonna need years of experience, fresh out of school won't really cut it, plus maybe a Ph.D to boot depening what exactly you want to do.

--Mark


 
Originally posted by: SaturnX
Originally posted by: parikh26
Master's canditate will receive lower salary (10-15k at least) for an entry level consultant position than an entry level engineering position. This is consisent with salary data from my school for past few years.
Click to expand...

QFT, if you want consulting to be in anyway profitable for you, you're gonna need years of experience, fresh out of school won't really cut it, plus maybe a Ph.D to boot depening what exactly you want to do.

--Mark
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, Mark. Never really considered that aspect. All jobs require time to advance, but are you implying that there is a ceiling for consulting firms?

I was under the impression that the turnover was very high for consulting, because people move on to business school/other management positions once they had the experience of consulting. Does that explain why upper level positions are hard to come by....?
 
Originally posted by: SaturnX
Originally posted by: parikh26
Master's canditate will receive lower salary (10-15k at least) for an entry level consultant position than an entry level engineering position. This is consisent with salary data from my school for past few years.
Click to expand...

QFT, if you want consulting to be in anyway profitable for you, you're gonna need years of experience, fresh out of school won't really cut it, plus maybe a Ph.D to boot depening what exactly you want to do.

--Mark
Click to expand...

Not quite true....
 
Ok.... consulting salaries (for analyst level) are around 50-55k. Bonus depends on performance, and the firm's performance, and can range anywhere from 10k to 25k. Plus, most of your meals will be expensed.

The upside of consulting is not the money. If you want money, go into banking. The experience you gain working as a management consultant will help you down the road.... where the real payoff is.
 
Engineering sucks. I hate it (see username). I'm a software engineer by the way. Actually, I don't hate it. It's jsut that I've been doing web pages for about 2 years and I HATE WEB DEVELOPMENT. IT IS NOT SOFTWARE. And ... end rant. restart ... hwo the hell did I start in embedded systems for military apps and now do web dev ... at a defense contractor? ... end rant.

And yes, I have thought about an MBA. web dev is a dead end career. Talk about a useless trade ... trust me ... give technology 5-10 years. Secretaries will be making the web pages.

Anyways .... also considering a new field ... amybe even school. Who knows.

What was the question? Oh..get into management. That's the way to go.
 
I'm worried about getting burnt out with engineering. I love engineering, but could see myself getting very bored with it especially if the job got redundant. That's why I was considering consulting--new cases every few months, exposure to different types of problems, and very little repetition.

The downside, most analysts work very hard (50-60 hours..) but make great contacts in industry. Same i guess with banking, but lower liability =)

Engineers tend to work more normal hours and that streches the $/hour, but the work in my opinion is harder.
 
i hated engineering. i workd as one for a few years....then i started doing other stuff.

i love my job now...NOTHING at all to do with engineering. i just wish i got paid more. 🙂
 
Someone like me needs a job that they enjoy. I couldn't do some jobs even if they paid me a lot. I'd just be a rich lunatic.
 
Originally posted by: parikh26
Originally posted by: SaturnX
Originally posted by: parikh26
Master's canditate will receive lower salary (10-15k at least) for an entry level consultant position than an entry level engineering position. This is consisent with salary data from my school for past few years.
Click to expand...

QFT, if you want consulting to be in anyway profitable for you, you're gonna need years of experience, fresh out of school won't really cut it, plus maybe a Ph.D to boot depening what exactly you want to do.

--Mark
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, Mark. Never really considered that aspect. All jobs require time to advance, but are you implying that there is a ceiling for consulting firms?

I was under the impression that the turnover was very high for consulting, because people move on to business school/other management positions once they had the experience of consulting. Does that explain why upper level positions are hard to come by....?
Click to expand...


Actually Mark is right, usually the best consultants have a lot of years of experience under their belts, in some cases those consultants actually head their own firms for advancement. So, there is some change indeed as a consultant, and definetely the chance for higher pay and more satisfying work.
 
i'm engineering and i keep hearing about all these easy jobs that pay way more than engineers ever get. why do doctors get so much? all the premeds at my school are tards and the engineers are the smart ones.
That and investment banking or management or finance...these are way easier, at least where I go, and it sems like they make more when they graduate
 
Originally posted by: iwantanewcomputer
i'm engineering and i keep hearing about all these easy jobs that pay way more than engineers ever get. why do doctors get so much? all the premeds at my school are tards and the engineers are the smart ones.
That and investment banking or management or finance...these are way easier, at least where I go, and it sems like they make more when they graduate
Click to expand...

You consider advising the CEO of Fortune 100 companies about large-scale issues easier than engineering? Think again....
 
Originally posted by: parikh26
Hey guys,
Torn between traditional engineering and mostly consulting. .. but don't know which will present better growth opportunities
Click to expand...

Engineering will pay you more at first and will provide you with raises quickly. However, that means you will hit a plateau much faster.

Consulting pay and opportunites are based on your ability. Traditionally, consulting (same w/ Military) operates on a "Up or Out" philosophy. so if you think that you have what it takes to do consulting then you will do well. If not, you will probably drop out of consulting earlier and find another path.

I caution you that salary and opportunity are not the only factors you should be thinking about. IMHO, you cannot pay me enough to do work I do not like to do.


 
I've been in engineering for about 10 years now (EE). If you're chasing a salary and want big pay, engineering IS NOT IT! Your starting salary is much higher than your typical finance/liberal arts/business major, but you quickly top out unless you want to go in to middle/upper management, meaning project management, engineering manager, etc. Senior level engineers that do make some big bucks will need a PhD. I've worked in both the commercial and defense/govt (currently) field and even though I'm considered a Sr. Engineer, that's a title only. The real engineers who want to stay engineers and dink around in the lab and make some money all have PhD's at the company's I've worked for.

If you're looking for something intersting, engineering may be it, it may not. I've found that designing circuits at the start was very challenging, but now after 10 years, I can look at a circuit and know exactly what to do with it, how to manufacture it, how to lay it out, etc. It's become rote.

I'm currently getting my MBA (woohooo, only 2 more semesters after summer is done!) and have been thinking about getting in to consulting. I don't necessarily feel that I've got much more upward mobility at my current company. There are plusses and minusses to consulting. One of the big positives I can think of is you don't get embroiled in the office politics of an organization. You go in, tell them how to fix it, and leave. It's up to them to think if you're full of it or not. One of the negatives for me is that my wife and I are considering starting a family soon and in general consulting involves travel, and I'm not necessarily willing to travel 3 weeks out of the month and miss what I consider the important things in life. So...as with all things in life, it's a tradeoff, and I'm currently debating what I want to do when I grow up.

/ends meandering ramble
 
Originally posted by: UTmtnbiker
I've been in engineering for about 10 years now (EE). If you're chasing a salary and want big pay, engineering IS NOT IT! Your starting salary is much higher than your typical finance/liberal arts/business major, but you quickly top out unless you want to go in to middle/upper management, meaning project management, engineering manager, etc. Senior level engineers that do make some big bucks will need a PhD. I've worked in both the commercial and defense/govt (currently) field and even though I'm considered a Sr. Engineer, that's a title only. The real engineers who want to stay engineers and dink around in the lab and make some money all have PhD's at the company's I've worked for.

If you're looking for something intersting, engineering may be it, it may not. I've found that designing circuits at the start was very challenging, but now after 10 years, I can look at a circuit and know exactly what to do with it, how to manufacture it, how to lay it out, etc. It's become rote.

I'm currently getting my MBA (woohooo, only 2 more semesters after summer is done!) and have been thinking about getting in to consulting. I don't necessarily feel that I've got much more upward mobility at my current company. There are plusses and minusses to consulting. One of the big positives I can think of is you don't get embroiled in the office politics of an organization. You go in, tell them how to fix it, and leave. It's up to them to think if you're full of it or not. One of the negatives for me is that my wife and I are considering starting a family soon and in general consulting involves travel, and I'm not necessarily willing to travel 3 weeks out of the month and miss what I consider the important things in life. So...as with all things in life, it's a tradeoff, and I'm currently debating what I want to do when I grow up.

/ends meandering ramble
Click to expand...


Depending on what firm you go to, traveling is usually 4 days out of the week, and Friday you're back at your office
 
Let me throw my experience into the mix and you can decide what to make of it.
I got a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering in 2002. I took a decent job right out of college that most people would consider to be a good job. I got bored with it within two weeks. Two months later, I started on a masters degree in engineering because I was so bored. The job responsibilities eventually ramped up, but the work never got more interesting. I stuck it out for two years, and then moved to another company. I got about about 15% pay raise and I thought that the work would have been more interesting. They brought me onboard because I had a couple years of experience and this company was just developing its R&D department. It didn't take long for me to realize that it isn't the companies that I hate, it is the job. Engineering has to be one of the most boring careers. It is a constant battle of "my reasoning is better than yours" and spending huge amounts of time to cover your ass. It is a cut throat industry where every one tries to prove that the other person made the mistake.

To add insult to injury, I finished my masters degree in engineering last month, and my employer told me that they were not going to increase my salary. I have just over 3 years of experience, and I am one of the most experienced and well-versed in the room doing this work. I make 55k/year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top