Starting Salary

[supton]

It doesn't matter. Overpaid is overpaid, period. That's almost double the national average.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ave...512i650l4.22108j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

But he is in a high cost of living area--pay has to follow the area.

To put salary inflation in some sort of perspective, my father in law, RIP, graduated from Cal Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering and went to work for IBM. It was the only job he ever had and as he approached retirement they were hiring new grads for more than he was making after close to 30 years.

I could see that--if you stay too long in one spot, they may not have great incentive to be competitive on pay. There's a reason why it's normal to job hop. Pay and title increases with each hop. Management has to be really on the ball to reward talent enough to keep them from looking--today, it is as if no one really cares about retention. It's just expected, 5 and done, normal turnover.

I was a bit dismayed when I sat down and inflation adjusted my pay over the years. It's gone up but nothing "massive". Thing is... I don't really want to job hop and go into who knows what new company's quagmire of management woes. The grass is rarely greener elsewhere, just a different shade. So I accept the pay for what it is, bills get paid and all.

 

[Chris142]

Had a guy fresh out of automotive school apply where I'm at.
He made some requests that had to be met before he would work for my boss if hired..

Epoxy the floor in his bay.

He wanted a wall built between him and the other techs in the shop..

He wanted a weekly tool allowance to spend as he wished on the tool truck.

The beginning pay he wanted ($75/hr) was way more than anyone else gets even after several years .

Needles to say he was not hired . I do wonder where he got those ideas.

 

[nickaluch]

There is no such thing.

For me it is

 

[nickaluch]

It doesn't matter. Overpaid is overpaid, period. That's almost double the national average.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ave...512i650l4.22108j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I'm double lucky I'm enjoying being overpaid

 

[nickaluch]

$100 grand a year for a janitor. Plus a full pension. And they wonder why NYC, along with that whole state, is broke and billions in debt.

You forgot free health insurance

 

[nickaluch]

You ever done the work? There’s a difference between a janitor and head custodian. You’re responsible for the entirety of the buildings operation.

Very much true. I have a 177k Sq foot building with 2 steam boiler's to maintain. Crew 9 guy's to keep a eye on. That's only the tip of the iceberg. Still learning after 8 years

 

[nickaluch]

That’s what I’m talking about I’ll run a 60 down the hallway all day long

Hysterical only we get it. I just received my drag mop delivery with two new stick's had to bribe the guy with a hot school pizza pie for the sticks

 

[Ranger83]

The smartest engineers go to the school up the street from Harvard - MIT.

Harvard hasn’t been higher than third (behind Princeton and MIT) in the U.S. News rankings for years. They are well down the list for Computer Science and Engineering.

Not sure about the engineering disciplines but MIT Computer Science grads make more than Princeton Computer Science grads.

According to the comprehensive Georgetown study of ROI for four year degrees, the top 40 year ROI schools (excluding Pharmacy schools) are:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd
Bentley University
Babson College
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon

https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/roi2022/#tool-01

 

[SC Maintenance]

Harvard hasn’t been higher than third (behind Princeton and MIT) in the U.S. News rankings for years. They are well down the list for Computer Science and Engineering.

Not sure about the engineering disciplines but MIT Computer Science grads make more than Princeton Computer Science grads.

According to the comprehensive Georgetown study of ROI for four year degrees, the top 40 year ROI schools (excluding Pharmacy schools) are:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd
Bentley University
Babson College
University of Pennsylvania
Stanford University
Princeton University
Carnegie Mellon

https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/roi2022/#tool-01

Interesting list, but ROI doesn't define the best - it simply defines relative to cost which is the best income return.

I did work with a girl at my first job who was an Engineer from Berkley. She was very, very smart.

MIT is consistently ranked as the "best" Engineering school on earth. I believe it, the smartest technical person I know has a EE masters from there. While being very smart, he is a poor judge of character because he always takes my call and answers my stupid questions. He is also one of the nicest people I know, and I would do anything for him. Sadly I likely add little value, but I am optimistic some day I can return the favor.

 

[billt460]

Needles to say he was not hired . I do wonder where he got those ideas.

Maybe he's a member here.

 

[tcp71]

Depending on what the project is and where it is located, this is pretty much a reality for salary in any completive Tech market. I have been in the Tech industry for over 25 years and I interview Technical professionals pretty regularly right now. I am currently a Director for a Medical Device manufacturing facility on the East Coast and we are gearing up to resume manufacturing within a 13485 environment, its hard to find Talent in this area right now. I am pulling from the Harrisburg PA area and we try to start guys at $120k but will go up to $150k for the right talent. Even in this area which is not a comparable economy to many cities in the US where Tech people are pulled from, I can see us having to start people at $150 by next year or so, that puts the same type of scenario at close to or over $200k on the West Coast.

Most people without having been in technical positions fail to understand what an engineers work day really looks like and how heavy that work load really is in a regulated environment.

Having spent a few years developing medical xray imaging technology, just dealing with the week long BSI ISO13485:2016 audits as well as the FDA/Health Canada/Industry Canada/CSA/UL audits and making sure development (and documentation) is compliant was more than a full time job.

 

[wsar10]

Having spent a few years developing medical xray imaging technology, just dealing with the week long BSI ISO13485:2016 audits as well as the FDA/Health Canada/Industry Canada/CSA/UL audits and making sure development (and documentation) is compliant was more than a full time job.

I see you CLEARLY have experience in a regulated industry! Everything you mentioned is dead on....
Dealing with Industry CA is still a night mare, but still easier than EU and South America. We also deal with a CM up in Canada, Star-Fish. They have been pretty decent to work with.


With the cyber security crack downs coming down the pipe from now until 2027, even a Class 1 device has a nightmarish CE approval process. We currently were just granted FDA approval on one of our 510K submissions in the US, and are currently going through a rebranding project on our other 2 devices, one of which will require CE marking. This is all WHILE supporting existing customer devices in the same building where we are in parallel operating under a CAPA for a manufacturing readiness plan in preparation for the completion of the rebranding projects.

We actually just completed an internal audit last week in preparation for a DMR/DHF audit in August. Thankfully Quality is in that room, not me...

So yeah... When I see someone not understanding why an Engineer should start at 150-175.... I just sort shake my head, because as you know nothing above has even mentioned physical hands on engineering work, the above is just getting through the morning!!! LOL

But all things are relative, I always have to remember that there is probably something within their area of expertise that I would be able to wrap my head around either.

 

[tcp71]

I see you CLEARLY have experience in a regulated industry! Everything you mentioned is dead on....
Dealing with Industry CA is still a night mare, but still easier than EU and South America. We also deal with a CM up in Canada, Star-Fish. They have been pretty decent to work with.


With the cyber security crack downs coming down the pipe from now until 2027, even a Class 1 device has a nightmarish CE approval process. We currently were just granted FDA approval on one of our 510K submissions in the US, and are currently going through a rebranding project on our other 2 devices, one of which will require CE marking. This is all WHILE supporting existing customer devices in the same building where we are in parallel operating under a CAPA for a manufacturing readiness plan in preparation for the completion of the rebranding projects.

We actually just completed an internal audit last week in preparation for a DMR/DHF audit in August. Thankfully Quality is in that room, not me...

So yeah... When I see someone not understanding why an Engineer should start at 150-175.... I just sort shake my head, because as you know nothing above has even mentioned physical hands on engineering work, the above is just getting through the morning!!! LOL

But all things are relative, I always have to remember that there is probably something within their area of expertise that I would be able to wrap my head around either.

I'm actually glad to have left that world. We worked on wireless (needing Industry Canada and FCC approvals) data transfer, but my time was before having data security requirements like they are today. Creation of our first CE design file, meeting all the directives, took quite a bit of time.

 

[wsar10]

I'm actually glad to have left that world. We worked on wireless (needing Industry Canada and FCC approvals) data transfer, but my time was before having data security requirements like they are today. Creation of our first CE design file, meeting all the directives, took quite a bit of time.

We dealt with CA on on a few remotes for devices at my previous employer. I forget the details now but I do remember the hardware and software side and having to do something like 932 and 416 for Industry CA... The 900mHz remote was a FHSS setup and this was a hobbyist consumer grade device, or maybe it was 916 and EU was 932... I Just don't remember now

 

[billt460]

But he is in a high cost of living area--pay has to follow the area.

So does that mean a McDonald's worker in Palo Alto CA. should get $38.00 an hour? Because the cost of living is very expensive there compared to Blythe CA.?

 

[factorytuned2012]

 

[Ranger83]

Interesting list, but ROI doesn't define the best - it simply defines relative to cost which is the best income return.

I did work with a girl at my first job who was an Engineer from Berkley. She was very, very smart.

MIT is consistently ranked as the "best" Engineering school on earth. I believe it, the smartest technical person I know has a EE masters from there. While being very smart, he is a poor judge of character because he always takes my call and answers my stupid questions. He is also one of the nicest people I know, and I would do anything for him. Sadly I likely add little value, but I am optimistic some day I can return the favor.

Not to mention Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers! MIT was a customer of ours, 3,500 SolidWorks licenses! The guy who founded SolidWorks is an MIT grad.

MIT powers the Massachusetts economy, period. They also indirectly pull up the engineering programs at Northeastern, UMass Lowell, Worcester Polytechnic etc. There are something like 1,200 companies founded by MIT grads in the DPRM.

 

[supton]

So does that mean a McDonald's worker in Palo Alto CA. should get $38.00 an hour? Because the cost of living is very expensive there compared to Blythe CA.?

I don't know about the dollar amount but it follows. If McD's wants to hire people there, they will have to compete with other businesses. That's true wherever they locate their store--that's true for all other businesses, they compete for the same sales and the same talent.

 

[Astro14]

Folks, did we lose sight of the fact that this was in the humor column?

It was posted as a joke. Not social commentary, and not an opening for a debate on economic topics.

 

[PandaBear]

I didn't realize Harvard has an engineering program....