/sci/ - Science & Math

>>6807886
Dude keep doing what you enjoy.
If you really love engineering like you do then you're gonna achieve great things.
Not everyone does what they really enjoy and follow everyone else but you gotta do your own thing.
Others dont matter and never will.

>>6807886
everybody wants a big salary.
they just want to get the money in the way that they would love it .

>>6807899
Yeah exactly.
When you stick to something you love doing you will be much more productive and efficient and basicly live a happy life.
The money will come in automatically.

>>6807886
dude don't worry, most of them will realize something very soon : having to be at work at 6:30 and coming back at 10 won't allow you to have time for yourself, to have a family, to even have true friends.

Also you won't even save up as much money as you think you can save, since your lifestyle will go along with your job.

I wanted to work this kind of job at first, until I realized I don't want to sell my time for a given price, but rather do what I like (with a nice salary) and make my money work for me.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. But although engineering grads are relatively well paid compared to grads from other fields, it pales in comparison to those in finance.

It's just so depressing that half the people on the course are using engineering as a vehicle to become a banker.

If I were to head into work as an engineer, how would I distinguish myself as someone who is good at what they do? It seems impossible to do this when every engineering task is basically a large group project. Bankers can just show their weekly profits and the cream will rise to the top. It just feels like a missed opportunity if I don't seize the chance to take the money and instead drain away in a "together everyone achieves more" system with mediocre pay.

I understand what you're going through anon. In fact I used to be one of the people you described. However, what you're describing here >>6807936 is quite inaccurate. First of all, the burnout rates in roles like investment banking at the big finance companies are incredibly high. Most people leave as soon as their contract's over. Second of all, the culture of the company you work for will decide whether or not you're able to stand out. May I ask what specific major you're in? I know for a fact that at companies like Facebook or Apple, it's much easier to stand out if you're willing to put your life into your work. It really depends on the team you're in though. Also, something you don't seem to realize is that if you're good at networking, you can make huge sums of money comparable to what IBankers make at huge investment companies. If money really is that much of a motivating factor for you, then you can either try to go for the upper managerial route in your respective company (you can make easily over 500k/year), or you could even try to create your own startup after a couple years of experience. The startup route is definitely much riskier though, and you'll definitely have to get used to failure.

Just apply to several companies, try to join one that recognizes outstanding/hardworking individuals. Either move up within the company into management positions or leave and do your own thing. The majority of the engineering majors who aspire to to become bankers don't know shit about what bankers even do. Every job has a different set of perks.

Fyi, most tech companies don't hire people leaving Wall Street. They fear that most of these people won't remain as engineers, and will try to move as quickly as they can into management.

>>6807886
Don't worry. There's everything out there. If you're in it for the money, you'll find a field. If you're in it for the engineering, go and look for interesting projects and people. If you're in it for science, go look for research groups and opportunities.

Stay in your own path and be brave. Work hard, and seize the chances you come across. You don't have to be something you don't want to.

It's the exact same in physics. If I recall correctly, 60% of my coursemates have gone either in finance or business. About a fifth went on to do an MSc or a PhD. I imagine they wouldn't have had too much of a problem getting a job, so why didn't they do it? Because they either planned to get even more qualifications to get an even better paying job (a majority, I wager) or because they loved the shit out of physics (especially the ones that do a PhD that pays fuck-all).

For once, "just b urself" makes sense in academia. If you don't follow that advice, you'll be miserable throughout your career.

>>6807886
protip: it doesn't matter what you do, if you are good enough at it, the money will come.

>>6808962
Thanks for the advice. I'm doing aeronautical engineering. What do you mean when you refer to networking? As a graduate, it seems impossible to be able to "network" yourself into a better paying role.

What's the pay progression like for an engineering job? Am I doomed to earn mediocre amounts if I don't make team leader or take a management role?

>>6809025
I know. We all keep getting told there's engineering jobs out there if we want them and that's extremely true. My campus is just littered with companies doing their best impression of charity muggers trying to get you to apply for internships. We've even for a F1 team sponsoring our engineering society (which is infamous for its pub crawls), which just goes to show how desperate engineering companies are.

>>6807886
I was fortunate enough to somehow land in a school/major/class that didn't talk about money or getting rich.

After I graduated, I went to get a job in engineering with a modest pay. My friends keep telling me to go into some financial analyst jobs since they think I have the smarts and that it will make way more money. I don't want that.

>>6807886
Also, fuck those guys. If those guys are smart enough to be engineers but are majoring in engineering for the money, then they chose the wrong major.

>>6807936
Why do you care what they do?

>>6807886
>major in Engineering
>work in Calgary, Canada in Oil&gas
>huge demand for engineers in the region, high job security, low unemployment
>get every second friday off
>can wear jeans and a polo to work
>rarely have to work after hours
>great casual work environment
>http://www.mtv.com/news/1937526/calgary-world-record-batman/
>200k starting

>>6809025
Well to defend them. Where i live you get basically nothing for staying in physics after having a degree.
The salary usually is way worse than what you would get with most other degrees when not going into business.
The worst of all is that no company even hires a BSc in physics, so you will end up working in some supermarket while doing tutoring as a part time job if you have no MSc.
So actually wanting a high salary for the hard work and risks you take is somewhat understandable.

Math here.

I thought mathematicians are in finance not engineers.

Since when did majoring in engineering equate to pursuing finance?

>>6809133
I'm not sure about the job market for aerospace engineering, but I think I can give an estimate.

Your starting salary should be somewhere between 55 - 75k a year, depending on where you live really. It's usually negotiable. After that, you keep getting experience and after a several years you'll become a senior engineer, making somewhere around 90,000 - $120, 000. This is assuming you stay away from a management position. During this time you should be talking to everyone around you, and you generally need a circle of co-workers that want you to make it. At this point you can either go into technical management, in which you'll still be doing the work of an engineer, just a lot of leadership, or you can go into upper management, where you won't do any engineering work and your job will pretty much just involve using the network you've established. A technical management position typically pays north of $150,000, but I don't think it's possible to make more than $250k. An upper management position usually requires an MBA, but there are probably exceptions. With a couple years in upper management, I've heard several cases of people making around $700k/year.

Honestly, I just recommend you go into the job industry and see if you think you have a future at your engineering company. If you feel you have the ambition, you can try to create a startup. If you get tired of engineering and just want to go for the money, you can always go back to school and get your MBA at a top 10 business school. It's significantly easier to get into B-school as an engineer, and financial firms heavily recruit from business schools all the time, so it's not like you'll be missing out on anything. With whatever you choose, good luck.

>>6807886
Why do engineering students try to get into Finance? Why not just take Finance? That's what I do.

>>6809539
Majoring in engineering doesn't really equate to pursuing finance, it's really more like engineering being a safe cushion if you're not able to land a job in finance.

>>6807886
People like that filter out over time. You'll find like minded people once you get to start working on various optional projects.

>>6809547
Because finance jobs are significantly more difficult to obtain than engineering jobs. Also, the quantitative skills STEM majors get are highly valued by recruiters.

>>6809543
If any company faces layoffs, usually the first to go are the managers.

>>6807910
This. I'm considering 4-6 hours work a day as a consultant. Would make me enough money for what I need and lots of time and freedom.

Money is very nice when you're a poor last years student. But as you start working as a reasonably well paid engineer your time and energy usually ends up being the bottleneck. And then I don't even have wife or kids yet. Could only imagine how much more stressful that would be on a 40+ hours work week.