Salary?? 4

[viking47]

I was wondering if anyone has checked out

http://www.salary.com

. If so, what do think of the salary ranges they list for your profession?

I thought they were somewhat high for a mid-level civil engineer. But I really have not paid to much attention to the job market past few years. I would appreciate other people’s opinions.

 

[kxyoung]

Wow!

I couldn't believe that I've actually written all that stuff two years ago. It's been more than 10 years in the civil engineering field for me now. Since then, I became a Project Engineer, Lead Field Inspector, Resident Engineer, and now I'm a Senior Transportation Engineer but working as a Contract Manager responsible for hiring and managing Consultants. I now worked closely and have interviewed and dealt with competence among engineers of various disciplines, landscape architect, public and private individuals, right-of-way agents, surveyors, lawyers, etc.

What I said years ago still hold true, especially now I got to see all the consultants' books and how much the engineers are actually getting paid, as well as the companies overhead costs.

As for professional developement, I went ahead and actually got my general contractor's license, both in General Engineering as well as Building trades. That means now, not only can I design buildings, highway, tunnels, dams, parks, piers, etc., I can actually building them myself as the Prime.

I want starting my own company in the near future, once I have a better vision of the future market trends. Meanwhile, I'm planning on getting certified as Project Manager Professional under

http://www.pmi.org

as well as a better understanding about the financial side of the business, a.k.a. the sciences of making sales and making deals.

After reading my previous postings, I found it amuzing. I guessed it's age. I realized that as engineers, we are constantly evolving, for survival. The key is having a balance professional and personal life. The last few years, I managed to get married, handled the death of my dear father and his finances, managed my mom's depression and health issues, dealt with my mother-in-law and father-in-law's deaths, blessed with a collic but now happy 20 month old daughter that makes me a better person, managed the mortgage payments with sigle income, etc. Always a daily struggle to improve both professionally and personally. The key is to have a good attitude?

I took the salary test recently and found out that I'm at the 75% range. The funny thing is, that is still not enough given where I live in the San Francisco bay area. I do get jealous, knowing that it only takes consultants to make the same amount in 6 months. However, the trade off is the consultant might be out of a job for the next 6 months or so. Job stability and insurance for the family does take priority over my personal ambition, and perhaps prevents me from starting my own firm.

Nevertheless, now I try to help whenever I see an eager aspiring engineer. I have no problem taking time to show anyone around who has to desire to become professional, given that I was once that person.

 

[joekm]

Interesting feedback....

As you probably have surmized, I am shopping around right now. My current job was a great opportunity 5 years ago. However, I have a young family now and what was good back then is just not meeting my needs right now. It's a good group I work with so I'm not going to go into the "gory details", but it is time for me to move on.

I've been on four in person interviews so far, three of which, I rejected. One of those three was a large company that is currently up for sale. So, I had no way of knowing if the benefits they were quoteing were going to remain, plus the salary they wanted to offer was about 12K less than what salary.com says I should be making. I can hardly move move my family half-way across the country for that. As for the other two, one looked like I was going to be on call 24 hours a day supporting a well-known airline and the other just looked boring, they wanted a manager type that could do engineering on occasion. I rather like being an engineer.

I've got two other interviews in my future. One is a follow up with the company I haven't rejected and the other is with an aircraft manufacturing firm that is "rising from the ashes" as it were. The latter looks like it would be very cool, but it's kind of far away. The former is directly related to what I do, is probably a better choice as a place to finish up my career, and is located about halfway between my wife's parent's New Jersey and Florida homes. Both potential employers like the fact that I'm not only an engineer with a graduate level degree, but I have experience as an aircraft mechanic (how I put myself through school).

The big things that are driving my decision right now are: 1) A salary appropriate to what an engineer of my skill level should be making - no more and certainly no less.

2) A good benefits (medical, dental, 401(k), etc.) plan

3) Enough stability and opportunities for personal growth that I can finish my career at this place. That way, my kids don't have to move around like I did growing up and can have friends they've known all thier lives, etc.


Sorry for rambling...I guess I just needed to purge. Nothing against who I'm working for right now, they're just not what I need at this station in my life. With any luck, I hope to be able to find my replacement before I leave.

--
Joseph K. Mooney
FAA DER Structures

 

[MadMango]

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7172831

Offshoring Said to Zap Electrical Engineers' Wages
Thu Dec 23, 2004 05:46 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Electrical engineers have come in for a shock: for the first time in more than three decades of technological innovation, their salaries are dropping.

The median salary of an electrical engineer working in the United States fell $1,500 in 2003, according to a survey released this week by the IEEE-USA, a membership organization of 225,000 engineers. It was the first drop since the group started tallying data in 1972.

"These results are disturbing, but not surprising," IEEE-USA President John Steadman said in a statement. The group blamed a combination of offshore outsourcing, competition from foreigners on guest worker visas, and rising health insurance costs.

The drop contrasts with growth in overall U.S. personal income of more than 3 percent in 2003.

Electrical engineers, who were critical to the development of the personal computer, the cellular phone and the Internet, have seen their salaries rise commensurate with the importance of electronics in society. Ten years ago, the median salary was $67,000. By 2002, that had grown to $101,000.

In 2003, the median wage dropped to $99,500.

The decline bolsters claims that the move by some U.S. employers to relocate technology jobs to places like India and China is squeezing local employees.

"It's tough for someone to go demand a raise when they know they could lose their job overseas," said IEEE-USA spokesman Chris McManes.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
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