Is Aerospace Engineer a good career path?

What career path should one choose between Quality Control Engineer and Planning Engineer?

• I am a civil engineer with 8 years experience in quality control of ready-mix design and international standards, and I receive relatively low salary compared to my peers, recently I got a job offer to work at Gas turbines company to work as a planning engineer in which my experience is nothing compared to quality control experience, however the pay is way higher than my current salary. It's unlikely that I will receive a new job offer in quality control during these tough economic times(in my country), I learn fast, my question is about what futuristic outlook those too different paths have in regard to pay, promotion and demand?

• Answer:

  An Ideal answer would to do what your heart really wants. Now that the formalities are over. A QC guy is paid very decent in Gulf/ Western World. So I am assuming you project is not there, If it is there, work become an expert and go for consultancy. Now, assuming you are in the 'more interesting' part of the world, here is why I advocate Planning (& I ain't no expert) Planning is the most important part of a project. (quality is ummm). Guess who rises? Better Pay Complete overview of the entire project. Control/knowledge over finance projections and execution. Better work environment, in terms of time spent on site and hopefully no night shifts. You dont need to be an experienced planner, you need to be an experienced guy with insight to plan. Otherwise its just data entry in the software. Its your ability to forecast, visualize, plan, predict that makes you a planner. I don't know if you enjoy planning, I really do. "Planning is like playing a symphony, you instruct which instrument to sound and how loud". So you figure out, what to execute after what, how much labour, material, when to order etc. A good planner is paid well, abused less, is in demand and has amble opportunity to grow in a project/ organization. Ps. I suggest you look up what software they use and learn that one before hand (and also learn Primavera) Or do a 6 month diploma distance learning course in planning. Happy to clarify. :)