Industry Comparison 1

[generic_name]

How do various industries compare for a mechanical engineer in terms of pay and work-life balance? I want to stay in the realm of engineering (not management) but don't care what I work on. I'm partial to analytical work, but any good technical challenge can be fun. There's definitely other considerations, but I'd like to just focus on pay and stress/overtime for the purposes of this question. Everybody always seems to say that whatever company they're at or industry they're in underpays, so what are the ones that pay well without killing you? And yes, I know job hopping is the ideal way to increase salary, but let's try to ignore that option. Maybe we can rank the industries listed below by pay and hours.


-aerospace
-defense
-automotive
-medical devices
-robotics/automation
-oil & gas
-renewable energy
-HVAC & construction
-manufacturing
-consumer products
-government labs
-whatever I'm forgetting

 

[ScottyUK]

My experience so far

Manufacturing:
Pay - moderate.
Work / life balance - good, if you can cope with shifts

Power generation:
Pay - good.
Work / life balance - poor, but the lines become blurred when your social life is heavily linked to work.

Consulting:
Pay - moderate.
Work / life balance - can be great, can be awful if you pick up a lot of international work.

Oil & gas:
Pay - good to excellent.
Work / life balance - fair. Feels like a holiday compared to power generation. ;-)

 

[MFJewell]

Defense:
Pay - Low
Work/Life - Moderate
I have worked for a company that worked directly with DoD (it was an Aerospace company) and turned down multiple offers for various DoD related positions over the years (both direct with the federal govt and with contractors). Working for defense is an OK gig. Be prepared to be paid less than peers and not move up the ladder quickly.

Consulting:
Pay - agree with Scotty
Work/Life - Agree with Scotty
Work can be up and down and seems like there is always the threat of layoffs. I worked overseas on a project, so was away from wife and kids for a while. I will never work in consulting again.

Power Gen:
Pay - Good to excellent
Work/Life - Good
I have worked in power gen/district energy for the last 5 years for three different companies. All paid well and had excellent benefits (flex schedules, plenty of vacation time, etc) I currently come in at 5:30 am and leave at 2:00 pm (I am an early morning person). I then have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever I want. If you work at a corporate office for a power generator, travel will most likely be involved, so that may hamper some of the work/life benefit. I have done both (worked at a particular site and worked in a corporate capital project group).

I also interviewed and got offered a plant position with a large IPP last fall. Their work life balance was crap. Expected hours were about 60 a week and there was no increase in pay over the utility I was working for so I declined.

That's all I got.

 

[JBreunig]

Though it may not be exactly what you're looking for, I'd recommend checking out glassdoor.com. They have salary data and review data for various positions at various companies. I don't think they break it down by field, but you could do that yourself based on the companies with salary data.

Jim Breunig P.E.
XCEED Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
FEA Consultants

 

[IRstuff]

Defense:
Pay - Moderate/High
Work/Life - Moderate

I don't think that anything you get in this thread is going to be meaningful in totality

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[IRstuff]

Defense:
Pay - Moderate/High
Work/Life - Moderate

I don't think that anything you get in this thread is going to be meaningful in totality. My results don't really have much to do with anyone else's, including yours. While I don't have the benefit of bumps from job-hopping, I don't think that I'm doing that bad.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[CWB1]

JME but I believe salary and benefits relate more to local demand and location than industry. In the northeast where many thousands of engineers graduate annually and most every industry is shrinking the salaries are pretty pathetic. I've also found more and better opportunities in urban areas than rural ones however would urge folks to keep the cost of living in mind as it can be prohibitively expensive to live in many areas (SoCal to name one) regardless of higher salaries offered. Another consideration is the particular role, many engineers go into sales, service, product definition, and other non-technical roles as they commonly pay better and have more career growth potential. Its pretty rare for an engineer to become an executive after a mostly technical career.

 

[SandCounter]

If you're looking for work/life balance, be leery of industries with 24/7 operation. In my experience, this wins you a lot of ASAP assignments at 1630 on Fridays and weekend/holiday calls from the guys on rotation. Despite efforts to "train" people to the regular working hours and put their poor planning and procrastination back on them, you'll always have to compete with the young, single co-workers still under the delusion that if they sacrifice their personal time they can get ahead.

I used to count sand. Now I don't count at all.

 

[KoachCSR]

While each industry has its own nuances to be sure, I believe you should rather narrow down your "search" to a more defined industry list (maybe 2 or 3) that you can see yourself getting out of bed to pursue every day and start looking at specific companies - company culture, expectations, and business strategy can vary greatly within an industry (hence why I agree with IR's conclusion that you won't really get anything meaningful with your current query).

I have experience working for two very different companies. I previously worked for a large (3,000+ employees) company with multiple regional offices - company culture started out familial in the regional office I was in, but quickly became toxic after a management shift. Fast forward to today, I work for an employee-owned company of less than 150 people; the culture is that everybody is on the same team, there's a lot of trust, and I truly enjoy coming to work everyday.

In my experience, the company and its culture will more likely dictate how your work/life balance will be affected more than anything. And if it's a solid company which treats its employees well, your pay will take care of itself (ideally speaking, of course).

 

[drawoh]

generic_name,

I wonder how critical the industry is compared to the corporate culture of whoever it is you are working for.

--
JHG

 

[berkshire]

As some one who has worked in a variety of different industries from, HVAC to feed milling, to close tolerance sheet metal, then aircraft construction, and repair.
With corporations from 12 people to 14,000.0, any position you get is what YOU make of it. With small companies you can be a big fish in a small pond which can pay well , it can also dry up overnight. You can be a much smaller fish in a far bigger pond, the pond is more stable, but there are more sharks, you also can find yourself more at the mercy of HR and top management who can and will close a division overnight .

HVAC , mostly building industry related , good in boom times. Mostly retrofits and overhauls in lean times
Construction the same way.

Aerospace because of long lead times in the industry, tends to have boom and recessions at different times to the general industry's boom and recession cycle.
Sometimes you can use this to your advantage by switching industries, the dis advantage here is that because aerospace is a large industry , you may find yourself on the street with 4 or 500 equally qualified engineers at the same time. So you need to keep your antenna tuned so you can bail into general industry before the big lay offs.
B.E.


You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[rotw]

You can also roll dice and see what happens.

 

[EdStainless]

I have seen more difference based on ownership (family, public, VC) than based on the field of activity.
Typically med sized family owned companies (with family involved) tend to take a long range view, which is usually beneficial.
I have never minded travel though I did limit the long trips when my children were young.
The bigger issue with travel is the rules, and this applies to other areas as well. If there are a lot of rules that makes the travel much more of a pain. I can book with who I like, stay where I want, and control my own schedule.
I hate long hours more, as it will kill your family/social life faster.




= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[IRstuff]

As someone pointed out, your salary and work/life are going to be what you make them to be. Your seemingly mercenary attitude would be troubling to most employers, as that suggests that you really don't care about the work, and care only about what you receive.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[generic_name]

Thank you all.