I've worked for a couple of companies that hire engineers as sales intentionally.
I'll ask again when I get a chance. If I am not mistaken, there are guys with my son's tech specialty in the Air Force who have joined aircraft companies with 5-8 years experience who got more than $60,000. He's a propulsion mechanic on the B-2 bomber. That's possible based on demand... just difficult to believe. For that matter, I have guys in my control room with under 3 years experience in our industry and no post HS education making close to that much. I have a friend who owns a business laying fiber. I think his guys after about 2 years make $25/hr or more. I guess that points to some Mike Rowe wisdom....
Not questioning your honesty at all. Just shocking if the entry pay is that low for someone with an engineering degree.
To put things into perspective, when I graduated the first time (late 90's) from GT and were beginning the interview process, we were given the average job offers for the previous years class as a tool to use in our negotiations. Mind you, this would have been job offers that were as a result of on campus interviews arranged via career services. Of course, some beat the bushes and got jobs without the school being involved, so their starting salaries would not be reflected so those could have been higher (or lower).
For AEs, average starting salary was around $37K.
ChemEs, average starting salary was around $47 K
MEs and EEs would have been around $45K
IEs and CivEs about $42K
For some reason I also remember textile engineers being way low, like $32K or something like thar
I exceeded the average by one or two grand and my other graduating buddies thought I was Scrooge McDuck.
You can look at inflation charts and pretty much go from there.
Also FYI I have been out of the " salary game" for about 4-5 years so things could have changed. Lord knows they have a habit of doing so. I can only speak intelligently for the period between maybe 1998 and 2017 or so.
You (or another poster) also brought up SpaceX, etc and you have a very valid point there. Perhaps that spiked the need for AEs and salaries as a result. On the other hand, I am familiar enough with the business dealings of Elon Musk (and Jeff Bezos) to know that they in most cases pay pennies on the dollar and work you to death. They sell entry level folks on the dream of working on the cutting edge, as long as you are not particularly concerned with the size of your check or having a life outside work. Now, if you survive and advance within those organizations-then yes, you can make a boatload of cash. Spoiler-most don't make it and burn out pretty quickly and get as far away as they can for their next job opportunity as they want to have, you know-a life..
