How much did you make straight out of college?

[spidey07]

51K

One would assume a college grad should be in the 55-70 range these days.

 

[Legend]

Computer Engineer
55k, basically free ride on insurance/medical
Austin TX (dirt cheap cost of living: Sales tax is only ~8% and food is exempt. No state income tax).

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Svnla
QFT, like I said in another thread, I call shens at some of the posts. Prove me wrong by post your last year W-2 form. Or if you are shy, PM me.

At least this thread is not so full of BS like the one about "how old you were when you make 100K or more". IIRC, over 30 posters said they made over 100K when they were in their early to mid 20s :disgust:

It could be that they live in large cities. I make $39K/yr in south Mississippi which is the equivalent of $86K in New York according to Yahoo.

 

[Chronoshock]

MIT Electrical Engineering/Computer science majors make around 70-80k starting

For the OP:
MIT Chem Eng made average 57k, high of 70k and low of 39k

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Graduating in June with a BS in Computer Engineering from UCSD. I've gotten 3 offers so far, all big name companies, that range from $60-75,000.

I think $70,000 is around what most of my classmates are seeing from companies in Northern California (Silicon Valley area).

 

[BriGy86]

just a bit over 35K This is my first real IT job after college

I got a 2 year AAS in computer networking.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: ed21x
~40k. I believe that is below average for an engineer though, but the upside is that I get to commute from home.

<~ Still on his first Job after graduating from Berkeley in 06.

Berkeley engineer and youre pulling 40k?

Unless you had like 1.8 GPA, youre being severely underpaid.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I worked as a bouncer for a massage parlor...

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Mentat
Just wondering...cuz I'm graduating from college. Want to get a gauge.

edit:
05 April 2007

I was wondering...are there any ChemE's out there? That is my major and I'd like to know what range is 'normal.'

http://www.salary.com/
Guestimate it

 

[exdeath]

Got lucky and landed 60k about a year into college with my 733t programming skills and dropped out of school. Made my money, had my fun, bought alot of toys, saved, pissed off alot of my 'upper class' peers that thought they were better than me in highschool, etc. There is nothing like being stuck with $4.75/hr fast food jobs in highschool when all your friends and peers are bragging about making $10+ standing around supervising an arcade or something 'cool' because they 'know somebody'. Then you turn around and totally school them entirely on your own based on your skills and not who you know Thats the best feeling in the world going from years of being jealous and on the bottom of the food chain to being envied by all those that used to brag and taunt you.

After the dot.com bust, decided I should probably get a degree as a measure of future security, so I decided to take up a lesser paying job that was more flexible so I could return to school full time but still make decent bank for being a college student. Also took advantage of the housing boom over the last few years, etc. Just the home I currently live in increased by $100k in the 27 months since it was built and since its been just over 2 years now, no capital gains tax Time to flip it and do it again.

I'm actually contemplating going unemployed for a year or two and living off my savings so I can just plow through school and live it up as a college student like I never could have the first time. That and I'd like to get through faster as its becoming quite a drag lately since I predicted I would be finished like 2 years ago. Triple major in CSC, ECE, and PHY, (and a 4.0 GPA =D) and the closer I get to the end, the harder it is to schedule classes.

 

[Rob9874]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: ed21x
~40k. I believe that is below average for an engineer though, but the upside is that I get to commute from home.

<~ Still on his first Job after graduating from Berkeley in 06.

Berkeley engineer and youre pulling 40k?

Unless you had like 1.8 GPA, youre being severely underpaid.

This is a very common problem. I think many times, people just don't know what they should be paid, or they're too lazy (or unconfident) to go after it. I was making $52k as an Industrial Engineer at Intel, after 7 year experience. I finally had enough, and left for a new job. Was offered $65k. Still think I'm underpaid, but it's better than I was making.

I think some people know little about salaries, except for what their friends and family tell them. They know their dad makes $40k, so starting at $40k sounds pretty good! Or if their friends are non-college educated, and make between $20k-$30k, then $40k sounds good. But without threads like this, or salary.com, you have no idea that you should be offered at least $50k-$60k. I assume most engineers are starting at that much, if not more.

 

[SpanishFry]

$22,000 - This was mid 2004. Has a BS in MIS. Worked for a really bad company doing IT Support and Sysadmin work
Got a raise to $25K from them a few months later.

Oct. 05 left there for a job with a good company doing Inside Sales for $32K. April 06 teamed with an experienced rep so I was getting Base + Commision. Last month got a raise on my commission rate. This will be a great year, especially considering my starting pay

 

[Mxylplyx]

33K as a software engineer in 2002. I've doubled that a few times by now, though I had to switch jobs alot and pick up an extra programming job to do it.

 

[thereaderrabbit]

Chem. Eng. Bachelors @ PSU to

Chem. Eng. Masters program @ URI
pay: $15-20k/year

Mat. Sci. Ph.D. @ PSU
pay: $17-30k/year

my first industry job (think semiconductors)
starting pay: ~$90k/year

 

[thraashman]

I have a BS in CS and my first job out of college paid me $25.6K. Unfortunately I'm in Atlanta which is an extremely flooded market right now. Most people I know who've just graduated are having real trouble getting anything decent. Some of the smartest people I know have settled for jobs around $30k. I don't know anyone with a CS degree who's breaking $50k. After a year and a half I'm at $37.4K, and I'm debating on staying with my company or not. Where I can increase my pay right now pretty good if I left, I could stay here and in a few years surpass what I would be making somewhere else in a few years. And right now I don't have to travel if I don't want to and the benefits are pretty good. Job security is nice too since the company I work for is the largest in the world in its field.

 

[Alphathree33]

You guys have made me feel a lot better about my out-of-college starting salary of $60k.

When I read some of the other salary threads it sounded like everyone and their uncle made $182,024.00 a year plus benefits.

I felt kinda lame, especially since my girlfriend is in optometry and will probably start at like $90k =)

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: thraashman
I have a BS in CS and my first job out of college paid me $25.6K. Unfortunately I'm in Atlanta which is an extremely flooded market right now. Most people I know who've just graduated are having real trouble getting anything decent. Some of the smartest people I know have settled for jobs around $30k. I don't know anyone with a CS degree who's breaking $50k. After a year and a half I'm at $37.4K, and I'm debating on staying with my company or not. Where I can increase my pay right now pretty good if I left, I could stay here and in a few years surpass what I would be making somewhere else in a few years. And right now I don't have to travel if I don't want to and the benefits are pretty good. Job security is nice too since the company I work for is the largest in the world in its field.

Get CS and EE both, then you can be in a high level lead design or management/architect position where you get paid over $100k to colaborate and manage a bunch of engineers and programmers making $30k.

Especially considering how many courses overlap. You can get CS with 120 units or EE with 127 units, but if you get both its like 160 units or something like that.

 

[Rob9874]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
You guys have made me feel a lot better about my out-of-college starting salary of $60k.

When I read some of the other salary threads it sounded like everyone and their uncle made $182,024.00 a year plus benefits.

I felt kinda lame, especially since my girlfriend is in optometry and will probably start at like $90k =)

There is NOTHING wrong with starting at $60k! I have 8 years experience as an industrial engineer, and am proud of my $65k salary (even though it's on the low side). You can't compare yourself to people who make more. Just remember, you're in something like the top 10% of wage earners. (Would like to see actual statistics on that.) $60k is awesome!

 

[exdeath]

Originally posted by: Rob9874

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
You guys have made me feel a lot better about my out-of-college starting salary of $60k.

When I read some of the other salary threads it sounded like everyone and their uncle made $182,024.00 a year plus benefits.

I felt kinda lame, especially since my girlfriend is in optometry and will probably start at like $90k =)

There is NOTHING wrong with starting at $60k! I have 8 years experience as an industrial engineer, and am proud of my $65k salary (even though it's on the low side). You can't compare yourself to people who make more. Just remember, you're in something like the top 10% of wage earners. (Would like to see actual statistics on that.) $60k is awesome!

No kidding. Starting at $60k? I think most people here would be happy to be making $60k PERIOD.

BTW notice how the people on ATOT who always have the latest and greatest in their daily updated sigs like quad video cards and dual 30" displays, a brand new corvette every 3 months, etc, never post in the 'how much do you make?' threads? Don't be put down by the BS. The difference between saying you make 60k or 600k is just one more key to press.

 

[chiwawa626]

$76k + great benefits, Software Engineer
Graduating in June 07 from UCSD

 

[Svnla]

Originally posted by: exdeath

Originally posted by: Rob9874

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
You guys have made me feel a lot better about my out-of-college starting salary of $60k.

When I read some of the other salary threads it sounded like everyone and their uncle made $182,024.00 a year plus benefits.

I felt kinda lame, especially since my girlfriend is in optometry and will probably start at like $90k =)

There is NOTHING wrong with starting at $60k! I have 8 years experience as an industrial engineer, and am proud of my $65k salary (even though it's on the low side). You can't compare yourself to people who make more. Just remember, you're in something like the top 10% of wage earners. (Would like to see actual statistics on that.) $60k is awesome!

No kidding. Starting at $60k? I think most people here would be happy to be making $60k PERIOD.

BTW notice how the people on ATOT who always have the latest and greatest in their daily updated sigs like quad video cards and dual 30" displays, a brand new corvette every 3 months, etc, never post in the 'how much do you make?' threads? Don't be put down by the BS. The difference between saying you make 60k or 600k is just one more key to press.

Look like I am not the only one who is tired of all the BS.

OP, here is a link for you.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/04/pf/college/grads_salaries/index.htm?cnn=yes

You can go to salary.com and other websites. Keep it mind the number depends greatly on where you live and other factors. Don't take the information as gospel.

For some of you that read this whole thread, I was refered to this thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=2020496&enterthread=y

You decide whether it is hard to believe or not, especially the ones that make over 100K before they were even 20 years old. Must be somekind of Doogie Howser, M.D.

BTW, look at my post in that thread, I never said none of that were true, but I seriously doubted the numbers in the poll. As of right now, no one PM me of how they got so well compensated in such an early age.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

54.5, 2004, CS

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Originally posted by: chiwawa626
$76k + great benefits, Software Engineer
Graduating in June 07 from UCSD

Where are you working at? If you don't mind me asking......

 

[LS20]

id tell you, only if it was anonymous...

 

[Orsorum]

Masters in Tax Accounting, Northwest, pulling in $5X,XXX in salary plus benefits.