Do engineers make good money (relatively speaking)?

This is data from my school: http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/pdf/cive-post-grad-handout-2010.pdf http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/pdf/BA.pdf Mind you, we have some of the best civil engineering and business programs in the US. Civil engineering salaries are skewed toward the lower end of the general engineering salaries. As you can tell by this: http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/pdf/cit-salary-stats-for-web-2010-bs-ms-phd-2.pdf Of course, salaries vary by location and the quality of the school you attend. I personally am in the finance program here and we get very good offers after graduation. However, I am passionate about finance and business in general. I would not switch my major to finance just because of the money.

Go to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Dept. of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/oco/

Electrical engineer been working for over 10yrs in silicon valley and is pretty happy with the pay and flexible working hour.

Engineers need cash to progress with their investment plans. If a bank offers you less overdraft but more trade related products take it for the start. Otherwise you may have to put on hold your investment missions. You may also miss the boat and in the end make less profit.

It would depend on which part of the world you live I guess. In a third world country like the Philippines for example where government is corrupt, civil engineers make good money working for the Department of Public Works and Highways through kickbacks and grease money. Most live comfortably enough, although they would have to pray a major earthquake or disaster doesn't reduce the project they cut corners on to rubble.and expose what they did. I've also noticed that Safety officers do make a lot more money over here. Workload is bearable and barring a coup d'etat that replaces the present government with a more reform oriented one, I'd say the industry is pretty stable.

As someone who is aiming to enter finance, I can say that the salaries I've studied for the 'top' jobs (although I'm not expecting to necessarily get there myself) are far higher than any other industry clearly because of the financial backing of the firms in question. However, studying the league tables for graduate starting salaries, engineering sits high with economics, and higher than business. I believe engineering will require more work and effort in the sense of physical labour and demand for accuracy, but I would say the ability to reach a salary that matches that of a business graduate will be fairly easy, given you land a position at the right company - one that allows you access to promotions and opportunities, that is.

Yes, engineers make better money on average than the business majors do, sadly. Your buddies are being a bit unrealistic about their own prospects, as is common. SOME business majors will go on to successful big-money careers of course, but so also with engineers. That doesn't happen to most, just to the few with the right combination of talents and luck. Not every finance major becomes a Wall Street millionaire, just as not every engineer founds a tech company or becomes a high-paid consultant or executive. An advantage to being an engineer, you can later go get an MBA, and then you have just as credible business credentials as any of your B-school pals. OTOH they won't be able to go back and develop engineering credentials without starting over. Ultimately if you want to make BIG money, it won't be as a staff engineer. But if you have the right talents you may work your way up to an executive position or decide you can start your own company. The BIG money is in equity -- owning your own firm or getting lots of stock options in a public company. Any business major would be needing to do the same sort of thing to make lots of money.