• Question: how much money do you make?

    Asked by john to Aisling, Colin, Laurence, Ned, Niamh on 29 Feb 2016. This question was also asked by 686spce27.
    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 29 Feb 2016:

      Rather than saying how much money I make now, which I think is irrelevant for those who are studying because a person’s salary is always linked to how fast they move to management or if they have done amazing work, or indeed if they weren’t very good in the work they have done.

      I think a better answer is to say how much does one make in engineering when you come out of college. When I started working after having been an ESA Young Graduate (having finished a masters and got experience at ESA), I was making – at that time – about 50,000 Euro per year – but this was over 20 years ago so pretty dated at this point.

      What does someone make now coming out of college or a YGT – maybe some of the other engineers might help here.

    • Photo: Ned Dwyer

      Ned Dwyer answered on 29 Feb 2016:

      I earn enough for all the essentials and to have some left over. Money doesn’t buy happiness. But it is great to have enough so u r not worried about paying the bills

    • Photo: Aisling Shannon

      Aisling Shannon answered on 1 Mar 2016:

      For me what is more important is the job security, I know that my salary will come in every month (and I know it is enough to pay the bills, with enough left over for other things, like flights home to Ireland or holidays).
      When I started working as a graduate, it was amazing to have this huge amount of money after living as a student for years. It was 16000 pounds in England and I was delighted. Now I can’t imagine how I would live on that salary. As you get older, you maybe buy a house, maybe have some kids to support and your priorities change. When I was a graduate, I was not worried about job security, I knew I could just move to find another one. Now I want to stay where I am and so having a secure job is the most important thing.

    • Photo: Colin Shirran

      Colin Shirran answered on 2 Mar 2016:

      Instead of saying what my salary is I’ll let you know the kind of money you should expect as an engineering graduate in their first job. At this moment it is typical for a graduate to earn between 22-26 Thousand Pounds a year when they first start. Usually in graduate development programs this will increase in a yearly basis at first until you reach the end of the program and are a senior employee. After that a change in your salary would usually be performance based I think.

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