• Question: Not to sound materialistic, but would you considering engineering a high paying career? Or would you recommend people to avoid it if looking to make a lot of money?

    Asked by gravitygals to Aislinn, Fiona, Nathan, Padraic, Sinead on 6 Feb 2015. This question was also asked by kirby.
    • Photo: Nathan Quinlan

      Nathan Quinlan answered on 6 Feb 2015:

      You can start on quite a decent salary straight out of college and from there you can go anywhere. Some engineers move into very senior management/CEO jobs in companies, where the pay is very high. Everybody sees their pay rise as they progress as engineers. Some start their own businesses. As in any walk of life – the harder you work, the better you get, and the better you get the more your work will be valued. No profession is a ticket to riches. Engineering is not the very highest paying profession, but mostly I would say engineers are quite well looked after. Me, I’m going to hit the bigtime when I win I’m an Engineer.

    • Photo: Padraic Morrissey

      Padraic Morrissey answered on 6 Feb 2015:

      I think you have to consider what the pay is like in a career before you enter it…otherwise it could make things very difficult! But the most important thing is that you like the job. There’s no point doing something you hate just because you’re getting paid well!

      I think jobs in engineering are always going to pay well, because you have a very good set of skills that can be used to solve a variety of problems. I’m sure in some areas of engineering you can get very high paying jobs, but it depends on your experience and importantly, what field you work in.

    • Photo: Aislinn Coghlan

      Aislinn Coghlan answered on 6 Feb 2015:

      I’m not sure about the others, but chemical engineering has one of the highest starting salaries out there. And you get to have a life too!

      A lot of engineers climb very high on the career ladder. It’s all there for the taking if you want it

    • Photo: Sinead Quirke

      Sinead Quirke answered on 6 Feb 2015:

      Hi,

      If you want to make a lot of money you really need to work for yourself. However with the rewards comes a lot of risk and you need to find a way of offering a product or service that will solve a problem people have. Engineers are very good at solving problems. I know an engineer who has company in the US and is now worth over 10 million dollars.

      If you don’t want to have your own company and want to work for someone else (advantage is you have money coming into your account every week and you don’t need to do the sales) then engineers are generally well paid but it also depends on which branch of engineering you are in – some pay better than others.

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