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Reply 40
SillyFencer
Personally, I'd want more money than that to move across the world. lol.

But yeah, you make a good point, that they are not always crap paid, but really there are a lot of crap paid engineers on the go. This partly answers the question in the title.


Mechanical Engineer

Senior Mechanical Engineer The Role: - Review drawings, plans, review contracts specifications & perform estimations, Develop & interpret CPM schedules, sequence Mechanical construction work activities to minimize interferences between other trades, contractors on the project. - Provide technical input to support ... Job Role: Mechanical/Electrical Engineer | Job Position: Permanent | Job Hours: Full-Time | Location: Abu Dhabi | Salary: £60000 - £70000 per annum + Housing, Flights, Car & Medical | Company: Digby Morris | Published Date: 23 January 2009 15:03:39

would that be enough?
Reply 41
im so academic
Most people think that being a doctor is just giving prescriptions, and working in a hospital.
Most people think that being a lawyer is just standing in court and arguing your case and winning it.


It really is.

Anyway, to answer the OP, I think its because most people have the wrong idea of what an engineer is or does.
Reply 42
Higgy90
Mechanical Engineer

Senior Mechanical Engineer The Role: - Review drawings, plans, review contracts specifications & perform estimations, Develop & interpret CPM schedules, sequence Mechanical construction work activities to minimize interferences between other trades, contractors on the project. - Provide technical input to support ... Job Role: Mechanical/Electrical Engineer | Job Position: Permanent | Job Hours: Full-Time | Location: Abu Dhabi | Salary: £60000 - £70000 per annum + Housing, Flights, Car & Medical | Company: Digby Morris | Published Date: 23 January 2009 15:03:39

would that be enough?

Hmmm... it would have to be a nice place, but I can certainly see the temptation.
Reply 43
SillyFencer
Why should I look anything up? If you make a claim, be prepared to back it up. What you are describing is designers and architects, not your typical engineer. They would be in a workshop somewhere, not an office.


"Designers", in the non-artsy sense of the word, is exactly what most engineers are. They design things. This may involve workshop time in the case of new R&D (as is typical of consumer products) but a far larger proportion work mainly with outsourced and/or established technologies, so need not concern themselves with such details. You certainly wouldn't build an oil rig by messing around in a workshop.

In consumer products and civil projects designers (in the usual sense of the word) and architects work with the engineers to reach a compromise between external appearance and practicality, subject to the usual constraints (time, budget etc.).

The common misconception confuses the white-collar engineering role in designing things with the blue-collar role of actually running the machines/building sites to make them and subsequent maintenance.
SillyFencer
Personally, I'd want more money than that to move across the world. lol.

But yeah, you make a good point, that they are not always crap paid, but really there are a lot of crap paid engineers on the go. This partly answers the question in the title.


nah thats easily enough money for me. and houses are far bigger and cheaper in parts of the US than they are here. although they all seem to be made out of flimsy building materials that fall down whenever a hurricane gets anywhere near them

glad we could come to a sort of agreement
My boyfriends dad is a mechanical engineer, and at a very high grade (i.e. he manages the whole projest). His recent promotion offers the same salary as I will have probably 1-2 years post-grad.

:smile:
Reply 46
didgeridoo12uk
nah thats easily enough money for me. and houses are far bigger and cheaper in parts of the US than they are here. although they all seem to be made out of flimsy building materials that fall down whenever a hurricane gets anywhere near them

glad we could come to a sort of agreement


They need to get some decent engineers over there :p:
Reply 47
junglemonkey
My boyfriends dad is a mechanical engineer, and at a very high grade (i.e. he manages the whole projest). His recent promotion offers the same salary as I will have probably 1-2 years post-grad.

:smile:


Supply and demand; most people would rather manage engineering projects than fiddle with teeth.
Reply 48
Higgy90
Mechanical Engineer

Senior Mechanical Engineer The Role: - Review drawings, plans, review contracts specifications & perform estimations, Develop & interpret CPM schedules, sequence Mechanical construction work activities to minimize interferences between other trades, contractors on the project. - Provide technical input to support ... Job Role: Mechanical/Electrical Engineer | Job Position: Permanent | Job Hours: Full-Time | Location: Abu Dhabi | Salary: £60000 - £70000 per annum + Housing, Flights, Car & Medical | Company: Digby Morris | Published Date: 23 January 2009 15:03:39

would that be enough?


I assume that's the top end of the career? Senior Mechanical Engineer, after many years of experience and expertise.

Immediatly after graduation you wouldn't come very close to that as a Mech engineer, or any other i presume.
Reply 49
didgeridoo12uk
for a not particulary amazing university in the USA, here are the starting salaries for engineers.
http://www.adors.gatech.edu/assessment/adors/commencement/salary_report_result.cfm?college=3&level=2&surveyid=13&Submit=Submit

and obviously better universities will have higher starting salaries



Wow!

Thanks for the link.

Here are some stats from a very famous British uni :

http://www.bris.ac.uk/careers/grads/dlhe/casestudies/index.asp
engineers make the world go round :smile: i love engineers, i just wasn't ready to give up maths entirely for engineering at uni but i hope i can somehow get into it in the end(weirdly, working in nuclear power or sustainable energy/products is a dream of mine... christopher behling :love:)
engineering is relatively well paid, ofc it depends on who/where/what you do and how good you are. i think people take for granted the work that engineers actually do, and just discard them as gas fitters and posh builders :p:
Reply 51
M_01
I assume that's the top end of the career? Senior Mechanical Engineer, after many years of experience and expertise.

Immediatly after graduation you wouldn't come very close to that as a Mech engineer, or any other i presume.


of course, i was just showing that there are jobs for engineers that do pay very nicely
twentyfour
Supply and demand; most people would rather manage engineering projects than fiddle with teeth.


Tell that to the 800 applicants a year at Glasgow :awesome:
Reply 53
junglemonkey
Tell that to the 800 applicants a year at Glasgow :awesome:


Glasgow is like no. 2 in the country for dentistry. I'd wager the numerous engineering courses at the equivalent top-end for engineering (Oxbridge, Imperial) get a lot more applicants than that.
Those who are good enough at maths, and physics generally do like to be become engineers. But in society few people really understand what they do so they have there misconceptions eg:

Mechanical engineer-Mechanic or the guy who fixes your washing machine
Electrical engineer- Electrician
Civil engineer- Builder
Chemical engineer- lab technician, or some one i know though it was being a cleaner.
Systems/ environment/ aerospace- no idea?

Obviously not all hold these beliefs but many do. Also it seems almost any technical job now has the rank of engineer.
Katermerang
Those who are good enough at maths, and physics generally do like to be become engineers. But in society few people really understand what they do so they have there misconceptions eg:

Mechanical engineer-Mechanic or the guy who fixes your washing machine
Electrical engineer- Electrician
Civil engineer- Builder
Chemical engineer- lab technician, or some one i know though it was being a cleaner.
Systems/ environment/ aerospace- no idea?

Obviously not all hold these beliefs but many do. Also it seems almost any technical job now has the rank of engineer.


Pilot :rolleyes:

Lots of people think that if you want to apply for aerospace/aeronautical engineering at uni, you want to either:

1) Be a pilot
2) Work at NASA
3) Be an air hostess (WTF?)
4) Be an astronaut/go into space
im so academic
Pilot :rolleyes:

Lots of people think that if you want to apply for aerospace/aeronautical engineering at uni, you want to either:

1) Be a pilot
2) Work at NASA
3) Be an air hostess (WTF?)
4) Be an astronaut/go into space


Yeah thats fine, but that was not the point i was trying to make.
Oh on the subject on how much money engineers earn, if your in it for the money become a petroleum or well engineer, they can get paid anything up to 300K a year, working in places in the middle east (income tax free).

Of course if you bring that money home you have to pay the tax.

But really in my opinion any one who bases there uni and career choice solely on money is probably making a mistake.
Reply 58
SillyFencer
Engineers like to be engineers (excuse the tautology).

But generally, the pay is crap, the work is dirty and in uncomfortable working conditions. Basically doing a highly skilled job, but without any of the usual perks (like a nice office).


That's not true if you're a 'design engineer'. I work in an office as a chemical engineer which is a highly skilled job, well paid if you go into contracting and has perks so to be honest, you don't really know what you're talking about.

You've made the common misconception that most people make about what an engineer is. Almost anything is called an 'engineer' these days which undermines those doing real engineering if you will.
I was watching a program on Dave yesterday called James Mays best toys or something like that, where he pretty much went through the UKs toy history (Hornby, Lego, Sindy, Scaletrix etc)
He got to Meccano, which was infact created by Frank Hornby during a time where Britain was an industrial giant where 'you were never more than 10 yards away from an engineer or mechanic'.
The kids those days were excellent with Meccano because that was the time, constructing and building things and most kids went into that proffesion as it was the work of the time.
The fact is nowadays, there are fewer 'hands on' jobs out there and the industry isnt as large as it used to be. There are also in my opinion fewer people willing to get their hands dity.
Nowadays most people would prefer to sit in an office watching the rain out of the window, rather than being out in it on a ship yard on the banks of the Tyne knocking up another Esso Northumbria!

Mind you though, engineer means loads now! So my post is talking your stereotypical engineering image, mechanical, dirty hands etc.

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