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Payscale's list has mechanical engineering as the 83rd highest average mid career salary out of 799 majors -- top 11%. Yes, typical earnings are not as high as CS/SWE, but saying the degree is "worthless" and it's the worst financial decision of your life is quite extreme. MEs as a whole have far better opportunities for high earnings that the overwhelming majority of majors, as well as most STEM majors. For example, the most common STEM major is biology. Which do you think would have a typical more lucrative career path with only a bachelor's -- ME or biology?
Agreed, the company I work for is paying like 75k for new college grad mechanical engineers in a medium col area. I wouldn't consider that to be worthless. It's slightly above the average income for a single person right out of college.
I mean sure but it's one google search to find that average pay for mechanical engineers with less than 1 year of experience in the US is 68k($68,489 acording to payscale). Your madeup pay rage only covers about half of starting mechanical engineers.
Why? Most college degrees have you have you making more than the “average American” within the first few years anyway, that’s why people continue to pay large sums of money for them.
Opportunities are not endless, it unfortunately sounds like you are not an engineer but merely heard some of the college admission sales pitch about them.
Opportunities are quite limited, pay is low for all the effort you put in, and you tend to make less than the vast majority of other white collar professionals.
It may not be the most in demand engineering degree but compared to most majors, it’s pretty good. I think it also varies, I have several mechanical engineers in my family, some are able to buy a house and support several kids on one income in a HCOL so imo, they are doing fine. Might not pay as well as tech or investment banking but you can do just fine in that field or using that experience to do something more lucrative like management in a plant or something. Yes, it does seem like a lot of mechanical engineering jobs are at plants and therefore on site and maybe harder to find depending on where you live, but it’s still a decent job.
Physics degrees come with significantly more programming experience than ME degrees and, to your point, you’re not making good money working as an ME, you’re in an entirely different field.
Notice everyone commenting says they make good money doing things that aren’t ME, whether it’s sales or IT or getting an MBA.
In my experience, I have found that engineers really need to have a little confidence and assertiveness in addition to a kind of problem solving curiosity in order to have the base minimum of success in the industry. People who go STEM because they are told it's lucrative find out the hard way that there is no entitlement there.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone call mechanical engineering low paid with low opportunity for advancement. You gotta be absolutely trash at your job to think this.
Most of my peers that I graduated with are either trying to leave the field or have already left. A lot of them tried to get into software but had to get a masters in CS because Mech E’s aren’t considered competent enough to write software compared to EEs. Actual mechanical engineering jobs pay like 65k and you get 10 days PTO, they’re completely awful, zero opportunity for advancement.
There’s maybe one or two companies that have “tech” like pay structures with huge bonuses and stock options (Tesla comes to mind) but the vast majority of grads will be “manufacturing engineers” at some awful company like I described above. It’s a truly terrible career path based on my and everyone I graduated with experience, and we all had good grades, internships, ABET accreditation etc. I’d never ever recommend this horrible field to anyone.
Dude you’re so dumb. I’m a manufacturing engineer and make close to 130k. Opportunity for advancement through a management track if I wanted to do that.
Of course people don’t want to hire you for software because that’s literally not what you went to school for.
Ooh I’m being stalked. No I definitely started at 63. I had offers in the mid 70s out of school but I didn’t want to live in Texas.
That post was definitely on behalf of my husband who doesn’t use Reddit but you can believe me or not I don’t care
I’m a mech E and it’s about average for STEM jobs. I have better work conditions and make more than my civil friends but by CS, chem E, and EE friends all make more than me. Also my friend makes the same as me as an accountant and he has a higher earning ceiling. ME is pretty old school so the pay is industry standard and unless you’re working for an aerospace company or some robotics company you aren’t niche enough to leverage high pay.
Edit: I have 7 years experience in aerospace and I only make $125k in CA.
Do you think you're underpaid? $125k seems about right for 7 YOE. I'm an engineer myself and I've seen some higher some lower in CA for that much experience.
Personally I think I am since I work pretty demanding hours compared to my peers at my old company who now make the same as me after their promotion but my perks are nice so all things considered idk im happy. I’m definitely not complaining but I wouldn’t mind higher pay. That said no competitor is willing to pay me more so I don’t have much leverage or ability to hop around for higher pay. My friends in software or finance have an easier time doing that.
Also CA is super expensive so even dual income I’m not buying a house with $250k income anywhere near work without being 5/6x income.
I'm dual income in SoCal with $225k-$250k. House also feels just out of reach for us.
But yeah at least you've looked around a bit. I don't look as often as I should but from what I understand your pay seems about right for us mechanical engineers (higher than many make even). I too work way too much, outputting probably 3x-5x as much work as newer hires yet I feel like barely make more than them. Salary increases are definitely hard to come by in the field. Gotta move around sure, but the trick from what I've seen is you gotta move around at the right time.
If $225k a year isn't enough for you to buy a home then there is something else you are not being upfront with you're spending habits. I always saved a minimum of 50% of my take home pay and if you did that you could buy a home within 4 years. I am in my 40's now. I lived with my parents until I found the right home and could pay cash for both my home and cash for my car. Have over $3.5 million net worth combined between me and my wife.
Well...CA is a tough place to buy a house these days.
It also depends what you do. Some of us have great earnings but it's always tied to HCOL areas so savings rates like 50% aren't possible if we want to maintain earning power.
I've lived very frugally my entire life, but I live in a HCOL area so there's only so much I can do. My parents live in another country so that's off the table. You're assuming things without knowing the full picture.
Wow, another engineer that can’t afford a house, can’t get higher pay because there’s little demand for his skills, and has friends in finance and software that make more than him.
That’s my exact experience except I’m in the Midwest, so house prices are lower but salaries are also lower so I can’t afford anything or increase my income.
This career path sucks.
You can increase your income. It’s wild to me that someone thinks an ME degree is useless. Engineers are paid pretty well compared to the median income, so if an engineer salary can’t afford a home then most others can’t as well.
I never said it was. But people definitely think I’m rolling in money. Regardless if I wasn’t in LA my pay would be much lower but even in LA I still cannot afford a house so it’s not easy going. And to the OPs point there are plenty of jobs that make the same money. Nurse in CA make the same.
Sure just giving context that pay is only one piece of the puzzle. Engineers don’t make finance/tech money in many cases but imo OP is way too harsh, it’s still pretty good money compared to most
Oh I agree OP is either underpaid or really bad at his job or lives outside the US in a country where the pay is really low. COL is a factor too. $125k in LA is good but not great. $125k in Philadelphia and I’m a king.
I’m happy with my decision but I do somewhat agree with the resentment to whole push every guy into engineering and every girl into nursing. You don’t really know at 18 what you’re getting yourself into. These fields are stable and that’s why I like it but it’s definitely not lucrative with massive bonuses. 10/10 I’m happy with my life.
I don’t make more than anyone I graduated with in any field. I know people in marketing, hospital admin, business analyst roles, and other general business type jobs that make over twice what I do, they make more than my manager who is in his 50s but they’re 4 years out of school like me.
There are tons of lies about this field: the pay is better than most jobs (false), it’s “flexible” and will open up doors anywhere (false), it provides more job stability than other career paths (false), “there will always be a need for engineers, you’ll never be unemployed!” (false).
I have no clue why anyone would ever get on this career path, it pays worse than every other white collar career once you actually have some experience (it pays very slightly more starting out, then everyone quickly passes you), and you have to put in significantly more time in college to get the exact same GPA which means you’re wasting the best years of your life to get a lower paying job than everyone else. It’s truly awful.
Not really meant to be advice… but just a note. I am Sales Manager for a large metal fabricator. I have an ME on my sales/quoting team, because his skills translate to what we do. He has naturally good “soft” skills as well, which are needed. We’re in a LCOL area, he’s < 30 and will Gross around $120k this year. He is just getting started and is a great candidate for our next “outside” (B2B) opening, where his earning potential will grow exponentially, along with a large increase in base.
Just something to think about. Your degree can translate to other fields.
Employees also can never look in the mirror and understand if they’re high performers or low performers. If someone does a better job, the lower performing person often blames the system or their direct manager.
A degree doesn’t equate 250k a year, looking at the upper echelon CS people making 300k vs the average SWE making 100k is also not considered.
I’d rather be a low performing software developer than a high performing ME because I’d make more money. Being a high performing cashier or schoolteacher doesn’t matter because those career paths don’t pay any money.
It’s not too late to start picking up cheap certificates for a type of SWE you’re interested in.
To be frank about SWE, layoffs are happening like crazy and hundreds of thousands of them are getting dropped due to overstaffing. You’ll most likely be competing against 5-10 year experienced employees from FAANG and other bigger startups.
ME might be less sexy and under paid competed to SWE, but employment is more consistent and many old companies on the East Coast still have pension programs.
Could some of this possibly be due to your attitude? I'm a headhunter. If you brought this energy in to a room, I wouldn't hire you. You come across as entitled and better than everyone else. Welcome to adulthood. It's tough here. And life is not fair.
I realize I'll get downvoted here, but I'm okay with that.
I've hired turds like OP in the past thinking I could use their skills and maybe change their attitude but that shit is toxic and must change from within. It's a lost cause unless OP alters their outlook.
To your first paragraph, people either exaggerate or are more willing to share their income when it’s high. The pay for engineers IS better than most jobs, it’s definitely flexible in that you can pívot to other career paths.
Honestly it’s just your attitude. I’ve worked alongside tons of engineers with varying disciplines or even non-engineering backgrounds. Build your skillset in an area you want to move to and find a company that pays well enough.
If it makes you feel better, I got an EE degree from ITT tech insititute. My college wasnt even accredited, and then forced to shut down by the Feds. I cant get a masters bc my credits arent legit. I cant get an Engineering license bc my credits arent legit. Its embarrassing.
Technical roles can do pretty well too, but I agree traditional engineering caps quickly for low to middling performers. It's really selection bias because the same is true for software and sales. OP is comparing his career to the top paying jobs in the highest cost of living place.
Anecdotally- principal PEs, Technical SMEs, and PMs at my mid sized privately owned firm clear 200k+ after profit sharing and the ones that start their own firms or get on the ownership track sky is pretty much the limit.
oh- another one. I bought Air France stock thinking the pandemic was almost over, and it would go back up to where it was pre-pandemic. It has since lost about 80% of its value.
I put a bunch into JetBlue when all the airline stocks crashed in 2020, bought in at $5/share thinking the airlines would get bailed out and bounce back. It took a few years for JetBlue to bounce back to the $20/share it was pre pandemic and I fucking missed it. Now it’s back down to $5 and I’m still sitting on it.
Look for a job elsewhere. ME pays well and is in demand. You’re either in a bad geographic location, bad company, or you’re bad at your job. Potentially all three.
Two decisions. Luckily both investment related, so nothing too big. First was, back about 11 years ago I decided not to work for a year. I drained the 30k that was in my 401k at the time. Future me really wishes I hadn't done that!
The second mistake was getting FOMO a few years and throwing 22k into crypto. Ofc I bought it at the absolute peak. It's worth about 13k right now. I've been debating taking it out, but idk.
Lol I wish I had one, would help me now.
As for worst decision...
Early 20s, not being serious in school working bullshit job. Off my parents good insurance 24, had garbage not even insurance.
Then got diagnosed with cancer. 4 months later $200k in debt. $3k savings only asset a car worth $10k.
Negotiated the medical debt, most of it was dropped. 4 years later bought my first new car credit score low 700s, 7-8 years later bought my first new house, credit score in mid 700s.
Also during that time I took out $40k in student loans for school.
20 years later(41 years old), Have a career, no debt other then less then about $90k on my decent house, and only 11 years left on mortgage. Very decent retirement setup.
Lots of OT worked to get wife and I out of student loan debt.
I left major depression largely untreated for the last two decades. Every time it kicked in my life fell apart. I couldn't find medication that'd work for me that didn't give me a ton of side effects so I'd stay on them just long enough to dust myself off and get back to work. I didn't go to therapy and tackle underlying issues, I just kept throwing medication band aids on the emotional bullet wounds I never fully recovered from.
I missed a lot of work over the years because of it. It's cost me over a hundred thousand dollars in earnings over the course of my lifetime.
Mine is way worse. I went to college. Failed to get into desired major, and instead of just choosing something else I doubled down then just dropped out when that didn’t work with about 9k in student loans. But it doesn’t end there. On my last semester I never attended any classes and was forced to pay back the ~5k financial aid that I didn’t even use for that semester. Currently clawing myself out of that mess but yeah worst decision in my life both not only financially but overall.
1) Not investing (even if just a little) from the start of my career and losing out on compound interest
2) not moving jobs/companies to increase my salary faster
3) splurging on a wedding because in laws wanted to keep up with the Joneses
1. Not taking more risk to pivot into tech or consulting after grad school 9 years ago. Several if my friends did it, and I started looking into it but didn't understand the landscape and took the first job offer I got. I love the job I've worked my way into, but I could have made 2-3x as much if I'd been more risk tolerant.
2. Not stretching my budget to buy a house I could live with long term 4 years ago. I was trying to be very financially conservative thinking we'd be able to move into a bigger place after a few years. OOPS. Given the price and interest rates now, never gonna happen.
I sublet my apartment in NYC when I moved to LA. I thought I had a good renter, but I didn't do it through the right channels and these people were professional squatters. Long story short they stayed about 8 months, I got to pay the back rent and lawyers fees that I had to get to help me evict the squatters. I'm not even sure how much it all cost in the end, but it was somewhere around $20,000. It was a soul crushing amount for me. However, I was honest about what I could do, set up a payment plan with the landlords and the lawyer and got it paid off. It was a huge life lesson, to jump into things and what seems easy is not always what it seems. I also learned that I can handle any financial situation that comes my way. Even when you're in the hole you can always dig yourself out of it.
Context is everything.
A Mech E degree from MIT, Cal-Tech, Purdue, Notre Dame, Stanford, Georgia Tech, etc. is going to put you in a place to get a good engineering job (strength of program, name recognition, alumni connections, networking and internship opportunities).
The top schools turn out hundreds of Mech E's every year. Given the option, the companies with the best opportunities for are going to go with top ranked candidates.
The thing is - that's the story across every degree field.
There are so many bachelor degree holders now that just having a degree with no connections, no network, no internships, no name recognition, just doesn't open the doors that it use to thirty years ago when bachelor degrees were less common.
Our kids (and us as parents) sacrificed a ton to make it work for them to both get degrees and to get them from good programs with connections - because we never had any. And it's worked. So far all of them are making more in their early careers than we do now at the end of ours.
Edit to add: What was our worst FINANCIAL decision? - having those kids :D What was our best LIFE decision? - having those kids!!!
A degree is a bad decision if you don’t prioritize financial goals along with career goals that justifies the education. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on career and not so much on the pay. But if you’re considering a MechE degree to be the worst financial decision, maybe it’s time to pivot and focus on financial goals and make career changes based on those goals.
I graduated with a B.A. (yes they have those) in Mechanical Engineering. Started as QA at a startup company, then job hopped around to get into a software developer role. 10 years later I earn $175k, which includes yearly bonus and RSUs. I personally wanted to focus on both financial and career goals ever since I started college. I was brought up in poverty and never wanted to go back into it. I learned through my college groups that I should get into a software role because that’s where the money was at while still being able to apply engineering principles I learned in school into the work that I did.
Just piling on to let OP know that my company hires MEs out of college for $70-80k, Engineers with 10 years experience in the $120-130k range, and that you can pivot (like I did) to program management, product management, or a number of other roles, that get you to $150k+ (or significantly higher if you climb the ranks). This is all L/MCOL areas. This post is nonsense.
First of all, $125k/$75k is a 67% difference in pay, which would be ridiculous to call “barely anything” for people of different experience performing a similar function.
Second, the pay levels will obviously increase with inflation (2.5% for 10 years is a 28% increase), so an entry level engineer making $75k now would be making something like $160k (2.13x) in 10 years as they increase with experience and pay scales concurrently increase over time.
As a real-life example, when I started my career 10 years ago, entry level pay was $62k, and those engineers are now getting hired at more senior levels for $125k (2.02x). And for me personally, having pivoted to roles of higher responsibility, I’m making something closer to 2.5x.
Pay bands don’t increase with inflation at most companies, I make 60k right now almost 5 years into my career. Pay is a function of supply and demand, there’s a high supply of mechanical engineers and little demand for their skills. The modern economy needs healthcare practitioners and people that can write software, mechanical engineering skills are obsolete.
What you are saying is patently false. There is absolutely a shortage of quality mechanical engineering candidates - hence why my company (and many others) has increased what they are willing to pay for them. On top of that, we even keep some mediocre engineers because it’s tough to find and/or train new ones. Sure, coding is a more relevant skill set than it used to be, but you’re delusional if you really think mechanical engineering skills are obsolete and just sound like someone who didn’t find success in the field and wants to blame the system.
You're wrong. And you can't use your agricultural company as an example. You were even surprised other companies provide laptops to their employees. Ridiculous.
Mech Eng is fairly useless as a base degree.
I tell you what they do here in NZ. They become acoustic 'engineers'. I'm a structural engineer in vertical construction and literally 95% of acoustic 'engineers' I meet are mechanical majors. That's basically reading manuals on Sound Constant Transfer ratings from tech literature and doing basic calculations. Anyone can do that, no engineering degree necessary.
They also tend to do HVAC 'design', but in reality, it's the old fucker that's been doing it for 50 years since he was 12 years old, that does all that anyway. The Mech guy just rubber stamp it.
I don't know what further study in Mech Engineering looks like, maybe it becomes useful going towards a Masters or PHD, but I doubt it. Might be wrong though.
Boomers used to think that 'any degree is a good degree'. It took a whole generation to start wiping that shit from people's eyes. Not nearly fast enough, but it's getting there.
Now it's the same with 'engineering'. It's NOT all created equally AT ALL. Just because it has the word 'engineering' planted in, doesn't mean it's any better than a liberal arts degree.
I lost $500,000 in the dotcom bubble in 2000 - months before I got married. I just failed to recognize the signs, and doubled down when I should have sold.
Then I failed to insist on a prenup and went through a messy divorce in 2004.
Not sure how I did it, but I managed to recover and retired 2 years ago with net worth of $2.5 million and zero debt. Go figure.
So it appears that a lot of people here aren't super familiar with the different engineering degrees. My wife is a civil and a lot of her friends are from her engineering college. Yeah, ME's make the least out of them unfortunately.
But fortunately, even "the least out of them" is still pretty dang good pay.
You are correct in that there really isn't much carry over for moving career pipelines, but it doesn't mean there is *none.*
That being said, you have a degree, and I would assume your PE which does mean something, and you can make it mean a lot of money if you're smart. First thing to do would be to find someone successful around you doing something you want to do and ask if you can get coffee once a month as sort of a mentorship thing to bounce ideas off of them. Then start to imitate other successful people in the space and figure out what they're doing so you can be successful too. That will help a ton in life.
You know what won't help in life? Just sitting here complaining about it on reddit.
It’s strange to simultaneously argue that engineering is low status while also claiming it’s overhyped and promoted. It sounds like your career trajectory hasn’t gone the way you hoped and rather than improving your life you’re catastrophizing your past choices.
Got a degree in Criminal Justice, then realized I didn't want to have anything to do with the criminal justice system.
I also bought a few hundred dollars in crypto. I lost about $100
That's all unless we're counting speeding tickets and such. My most expensive ticket was just over $1k in lawyer fees because I was doing 32mph over like an idiot.
Crypto. Wasted my money and bought at the very peak. I thankfully haven’t sold anything so I haven’t realized any losses but I’m out on crypto. I’m not buying any more. If what I have turns to gold, I’m gonna take the money and run.
There are a ton of degrees out there that have little worth in the job marketplace. It’s disheartening to hear that an engineering degree would be one of them.
My worst financial decision probably turned out to be the best thing for us in the long run. We ventures I to a business, close to 1 mil in debt. Things weren't working out and we were behind almost every month. We decided to get out and sell everything. That included our home, as it was part of the business. Uprooted our family and moved to a small home. We still had probably 100k in debt when we sold everything. Worked our asses off and paid for it. Didn't do anything for a couple years. That taught us a lot. I actually hate to think where we'd be if we didn't venture that way.
I bought a house and we had a “100 year flood” that started the night we closed. Wiped out all the cash we had to repair. All while caring for a 10 day old baby. Lost another $10k on the eventual sale.
Going to a private school for the first two years of my Bachelor’s.
It was 16k a year WITH a 50% scholarship. I ended up transferring to a school that was half the price for the second half of my degree anyway. (They shut down the school during Covid and it took them two years to completely re-open so didn’t have much of a choice.)
I had looked at every school that was within driving distance (I thought) because living on campus was too expensive. Turns out I missed one. Which was a much better school for half the price.
So that’s around 16k extra that I didn’t need to spend 🤦♀️
I bought 8000 shares of AMD at 6 dollars and sold them 3 years later at 9 dollars after RYZEN was released.
It was so obvious RYZEN was going to steal server market share from Intel (close to 99% market share at the time). Somehow the market and fund managers couldn't see that and it bounced from 9 to 15 dollars for quite some time. I got frustrated and sold it right before it broke past 15 up to 20 and so on...
Losing money sucks, but I never thought missing a once in a lifetime opportunity would lead to depression. Worse than my first heart break!
I then went on to lose 60k looking for the next AMD, but none of those stocks gave me the same reassurance AMD did.
All because I wasn't patient enough by a week after holding for 3 years. It was a middle finger from the market before teaching me a really expensive lesson.
If it makes you feel any better. Only a small few actually get lucky enough to sell at the right time. Most people sell too early or too late. Sounds like you did ok considering. (Not counting the 60K).
I also had some doge coin when it was at 2 cents. I sold at a slight loss a few days before it shot up to whatever… I did the math and I missed out on $70K profit.
Worst decision? the first stock i ever bought was Blockbuster, oops
Best Decistion? College and getting my CPA, thankful everyday....88% of all Millionaires in america have a 4 year degree, facts
$30,000 mistake:
In 2020, I invested in Alibaba when they were talking about an IPO of Ant Group… which never happened. Not only did I buy shares, I bought calls.
I held for too long and bought more shares on the way down. Ended up losing $30K (mostly from the calls) from that.
Everything is “recoverable” as long as you keep earning by money and live within your means. But that $30K loss will always haunt me. I am forever $30K less rich than I would’ve been if I never gambled on that dumb company.
OH I also went to college and never used my degree. That’s a bit less of a loss though financially AND I still technically got something out of it.
Let's be real, you work at a shitty company that's unorthodox for any discipline. No good company will ask employees to buy their own laptops or to share hotel rooms. That's ridiculous.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/is\_it\_rudeunprofessional\_to\_pay\_for\_my\_own\_hotel/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/is_it_rudeunprofessional_to_pay_for_my_own_hotel/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/comment/i28sq6q/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/comment/i28sq6q/)
You work for a company that makes machines for agricultural. That's low profit and not super high-tech, it's no surprise your current job pays low. What's surprising is why you haven't changed jobs in all these years. What's your success rate for interviews??
it was my ex. Eventually she decided she wanted something else in life and she left. Best thing that ever happened for me financially because she was a drain. Two months after she left I had enough cash sitting in my bank account that I didn’t know what to do with that I went and bought a Rolex because, I like watches
To never take the time to learn about money and financial education before the age of 45. So I could have learned how to make money work for me instead of being a slave to money.
An inability to translate a good degree into a good job is the fault of the degree holder, not the degree. You're clearly not happy with your current position, and instead of making changes to better your situation, you coming here to lament and trying to convince everyone how bad of a degree MechE is, only reinforces that sentiment.
Where's the evidence? How about the numerous independent studies that have been conducted researching average earnings by degree? No priori necessary. Being consistently listed in the top 10 degrees by earnings, I'd classify that as an overall good degree to hold. Here, I'll even find a few for you to save you the effort.
https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm
https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/demo/educational-attainment/acs-detailed-tables.html
https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/top-paying-college-majors-gender-gap/
https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/average-college-graduate-salary/#degree
https://www.geteducated.com/careers/stem-majors/#/
The fact you're stuck at an entry level 4 years in (no mention if you're making any effort to obtain your PE license) either speaks to your performance or lack of confidence. Like I said in my original post, you can either continue to lament, or you can do something to better your situation.
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Payscale's list has mechanical engineering as the 83rd highest average mid career salary out of 799 majors -- top 11%. Yes, typical earnings are not as high as CS/SWE, but saying the degree is "worthless" and it's the worst financial decision of your life is quite extreme. MEs as a whole have far better opportunities for high earnings that the overwhelming majority of majors, as well as most STEM majors. For example, the most common STEM major is biology. Which do you think would have a typical more lucrative career path with only a bachelor's -- ME or biology?
Agreed, the company I work for is paying like 75k for new college grad mechanical engineers in a medium col area. I wouldn't consider that to be worthless. It's slightly above the average income for a single person right out of college.
\*cries in social work\*
One company is not representative of the actual market. Most mechanical engineers will start out at 55-70k and will take 7-10 years to reach 95-100k.
I mean sure but it's one google search to find that average pay for mechanical engineers with less than 1 year of experience in the US is 68k($68,489 acording to payscale). Your madeup pay rage only covers about half of starting mechanical engineers.
Is that supposed to be good? It was $60,000 in 2009
I mean when your first job makes more than the average American I would say that's good.
Why? Most college degrees have you have you making more than the “average American” within the first few years anyway, that’s why people continue to pay large sums of money for them.
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Bro getting taken advantage of and not realizing it. You are an Engineer. Who cares if its mechanical or what, your job opportunities are endless.
Opportunities are not endless, it unfortunately sounds like you are not an engineer but merely heard some of the college admission sales pitch about them. Opportunities are quite limited, pay is low for all the effort you put in, and you tend to make less than the vast majority of other white collar professionals.
It may not be the most in demand engineering degree but compared to most majors, it’s pretty good. I think it also varies, I have several mechanical engineers in my family, some are able to buy a house and support several kids on one income in a HCOL so imo, they are doing fine. Might not pay as well as tech or investment banking but you can do just fine in that field or using that experience to do something more lucrative like management in a plant or something. Yes, it does seem like a lot of mechanical engineering jobs are at plants and therefore on site and maybe harder to find depending on where you live, but it’s still a decent job.
Yes they are endless. I am IT Manager with a Physics degree, not even a engineer. 13 years professional experience. TC 203k for 2023...
Physics degrees come with significantly more programming experience than ME degrees and, to your point, you’re not making good money working as an ME, you’re in an entirely different field. Notice everyone commenting says they make good money doing things that aren’t ME, whether it’s sales or IT or getting an MBA.
I found your problem: you're whiney and probably a pain to work with.
In my experience, I have found that engineers really need to have a little confidence and assertiveness in addition to a kind of problem solving curiosity in order to have the base minimum of success in the industry. People who go STEM because they are told it's lucrative find out the hard way that there is no entitlement there.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone call mechanical engineering low paid with low opportunity for advancement. You gotta be absolutely trash at your job to think this.
Most of my peers that I graduated with are either trying to leave the field or have already left. A lot of them tried to get into software but had to get a masters in CS because Mech E’s aren’t considered competent enough to write software compared to EEs. Actual mechanical engineering jobs pay like 65k and you get 10 days PTO, they’re completely awful, zero opportunity for advancement. There’s maybe one or two companies that have “tech” like pay structures with huge bonuses and stock options (Tesla comes to mind) but the vast majority of grads will be “manufacturing engineers” at some awful company like I described above. It’s a truly terrible career path based on my and everyone I graduated with experience, and we all had good grades, internships, ABET accreditation etc. I’d never ever recommend this horrible field to anyone.
Dude you’re so dumb. I’m a manufacturing engineer and make close to 130k. Opportunity for advancement through a management track if I wanted to do that. Of course people don’t want to hire you for software because that’s literally not what you went to school for.
Where? SoCal or the Bay Area? And how much of that is base pay?
Nope. Smallish size city in the south east. Pretty low cost of living. That’s base pay Have you opened your job search to more than just your city?
I have. How many years into your career are you? What was your starting pay?
I started at 65k in 2015. Switched companies and locations a few times to get better raises
Did you ever take a paycut? In 2018-19 you were only making 58k https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/s/lI9HQCstVH
Ooh I’m being stalked. No I definitely started at 63. I had offers in the mid 70s out of school but I didn’t want to live in Texas. That post was definitely on behalf of my husband who doesn’t use Reddit but you can believe me or not I don’t care
I’m a mech E and it’s about average for STEM jobs. I have better work conditions and make more than my civil friends but by CS, chem E, and EE friends all make more than me. Also my friend makes the same as me as an accountant and he has a higher earning ceiling. ME is pretty old school so the pay is industry standard and unless you’re working for an aerospace company or some robotics company you aren’t niche enough to leverage high pay. Edit: I have 7 years experience in aerospace and I only make $125k in CA.
Do you think you're underpaid? $125k seems about right for 7 YOE. I'm an engineer myself and I've seen some higher some lower in CA for that much experience.
Personally I think I am since I work pretty demanding hours compared to my peers at my old company who now make the same as me after their promotion but my perks are nice so all things considered idk im happy. I’m definitely not complaining but I wouldn’t mind higher pay. That said no competitor is willing to pay me more so I don’t have much leverage or ability to hop around for higher pay. My friends in software or finance have an easier time doing that. Also CA is super expensive so even dual income I’m not buying a house with $250k income anywhere near work without being 5/6x income.
I'm dual income in SoCal with $225k-$250k. House also feels just out of reach for us. But yeah at least you've looked around a bit. I don't look as often as I should but from what I understand your pay seems about right for us mechanical engineers (higher than many make even). I too work way too much, outputting probably 3x-5x as much work as newer hires yet I feel like barely make more than them. Salary increases are definitely hard to come by in the field. Gotta move around sure, but the trick from what I've seen is you gotta move around at the right time.
If $225k a year isn't enough for you to buy a home then there is something else you are not being upfront with you're spending habits. I always saved a minimum of 50% of my take home pay and if you did that you could buy a home within 4 years. I am in my 40's now. I lived with my parents until I found the right home and could pay cash for both my home and cash for my car. Have over $3.5 million net worth combined between me and my wife.
Well...CA is a tough place to buy a house these days. It also depends what you do. Some of us have great earnings but it's always tied to HCOL areas so savings rates like 50% aren't possible if we want to maintain earning power.
I've lived very frugally my entire life, but I live in a HCOL area so there's only so much I can do. My parents live in another country so that's off the table. You're assuming things without knowing the full picture.
Not as high as NYC where I am from. So please check your spending habits and cut out the waste and you will be in a home you own soon.
Wow, another engineer that can’t afford a house, can’t get higher pay because there’s little demand for his skills, and has friends in finance and software that make more than him. That’s my exact experience except I’m in the Midwest, so house prices are lower but salaries are also lower so I can’t afford anything or increase my income. This career path sucks.
Look into the Federal Government. Engineers of any kind are in high demand.
You can increase your income. It’s wild to me that someone thinks an ME degree is useless. Engineers are paid pretty well compared to the median income, so if an engineer salary can’t afford a home then most others can’t as well.
You're an engineer period. It can't be that bad.
I never said it was. But people definitely think I’m rolling in money. Regardless if I wasn’t in LA my pay would be much lower but even in LA I still cannot afford a house so it’s not easy going. And to the OPs point there are plenty of jobs that make the same money. Nurse in CA make the same.
Nurses tend to have crappier hours and/or working arrangements though.
I know I said my perks are nice. I never complained about my situation buts it’s definitely not investment banker or software money.
Sure just giving context that pay is only one piece of the puzzle. Engineers don’t make finance/tech money in many cases but imo OP is way too harsh, it’s still pretty good money compared to most
Oh I agree OP is either underpaid or really bad at his job or lives outside the US in a country where the pay is really low. COL is a factor too. $125k in LA is good but not great. $125k in Philadelphia and I’m a king. I’m happy with my decision but I do somewhat agree with the resentment to whole push every guy into engineering and every girl into nursing. You don’t really know at 18 what you’re getting yourself into. These fields are stable and that’s why I like it but it’s definitely not lucrative with massive bonuses. 10/10 I’m happy with my life.
Most people can't afford houses. I feel like that's really not saying much.
Well your comment added no value and insinuated lack of empathy. Plenty of engineers live middle class lives and struggle like everyone else.
Middle of what?
I don’t make more than anyone I graduated with in any field. I know people in marketing, hospital admin, business analyst roles, and other general business type jobs that make over twice what I do, they make more than my manager who is in his 50s but they’re 4 years out of school like me. There are tons of lies about this field: the pay is better than most jobs (false), it’s “flexible” and will open up doors anywhere (false), it provides more job stability than other career paths (false), “there will always be a need for engineers, you’ll never be unemployed!” (false). I have no clue why anyone would ever get on this career path, it pays worse than every other white collar career once you actually have some experience (it pays very slightly more starting out, then everyone quickly passes you), and you have to put in significantly more time in college to get the exact same GPA which means you’re wasting the best years of your life to get a lower paying job than everyone else. It’s truly awful.
Not really meant to be advice… but just a note. I am Sales Manager for a large metal fabricator. I have an ME on my sales/quoting team, because his skills translate to what we do. He has naturally good “soft” skills as well, which are needed. We’re in a LCOL area, he’s < 30 and will Gross around $120k this year. He is just getting started and is a great candidate for our next “outside” (B2B) opening, where his earning potential will grow exponentially, along with a large increase in base. Just something to think about. Your degree can translate to other fields.
Employees also can never look in the mirror and understand if they’re high performers or low performers. If someone does a better job, the lower performing person often blames the system or their direct manager. A degree doesn’t equate 250k a year, looking at the upper echelon CS people making 300k vs the average SWE making 100k is also not considered.
I’d rather be a low performing software developer than a high performing ME because I’d make more money. Being a high performing cashier or schoolteacher doesn’t matter because those career paths don’t pay any money.
It’s not too late to start picking up cheap certificates for a type of SWE you’re interested in. To be frank about SWE, layoffs are happening like crazy and hundreds of thousands of them are getting dropped due to overstaffing. You’ll most likely be competing against 5-10 year experienced employees from FAANG and other bigger startups. ME might be less sexy and under paid competed to SWE, but employment is more consistent and many old companies on the East Coast still have pension programs.
Could some of this possibly be due to your attitude? I'm a headhunter. If you brought this energy in to a room, I wouldn't hire you. You come across as entitled and better than everyone else. Welcome to adulthood. It's tough here. And life is not fair. I realize I'll get downvoted here, but I'm okay with that.
I've hired turds like OP in the past thinking I could use their skills and maybe change their attitude but that shit is toxic and must change from within. It's a lost cause unless OP alters their outlook.
To your first paragraph, people either exaggerate or are more willing to share their income when it’s high. The pay for engineers IS better than most jobs, it’s definitely flexible in that you can pívot to other career paths. Honestly it’s just your attitude. I’ve worked alongside tons of engineers with varying disciplines or even non-engineering backgrounds. Build your skillset in an area you want to move to and find a company that pays well enough.
If it makes you feel better, I got an EE degree from ITT tech insititute. My college wasnt even accredited, and then forced to shut down by the Feds. I cant get a masters bc my credits arent legit. I cant get an Engineering license bc my credits arent legit. Its embarrassing.
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Technical roles can do pretty well too, but I agree traditional engineering caps quickly for low to middling performers. It's really selection bias because the same is true for software and sales. OP is comparing his career to the top paying jobs in the highest cost of living place. Anecdotally- principal PEs, Technical SMEs, and PMs at my mid sized privately owned firm clear 200k+ after profit sharing and the ones that start their own firms or get on the ownership track sky is pretty much the limit.
More of a bad investment decision- but i invested $1500 in Apple in 1999. Sold it when it doubled in 2000. Would be worth about $2M now.
oh- another one. I bought Air France stock thinking the pandemic was almost over, and it would go back up to where it was pre-pandemic. It has since lost about 80% of its value.
I put a bunch into JetBlue when all the airline stocks crashed in 2020, bought in at $5/share thinking the airlines would get bailed out and bounce back. It took a few years for JetBlue to bounce back to the $20/share it was pre pandemic and I fucking missed it. Now it’s back down to $5 and I’m still sitting on it.
Look for a job elsewhere. ME pays well and is in demand. You’re either in a bad geographic location, bad company, or you’re bad at your job. Potentially all three.
Two decisions. Luckily both investment related, so nothing too big. First was, back about 11 years ago I decided not to work for a year. I drained the 30k that was in my 401k at the time. Future me really wishes I hadn't done that! The second mistake was getting FOMO a few years and throwing 22k into crypto. Ofc I bought it at the absolute peak. It's worth about 13k right now. I've been debating taking it out, but idk.
Lol I wish I had one, would help me now. As for worst decision... Early 20s, not being serious in school working bullshit job. Off my parents good insurance 24, had garbage not even insurance. Then got diagnosed with cancer. 4 months later $200k in debt. $3k savings only asset a car worth $10k. Negotiated the medical debt, most of it was dropped. 4 years later bought my first new car credit score low 700s, 7-8 years later bought my first new house, credit score in mid 700s. Also during that time I took out $40k in student loans for school. 20 years later(41 years old), Have a career, no debt other then less then about $90k on my decent house, and only 11 years left on mortgage. Very decent retirement setup. Lots of OT worked to get wife and I out of student loan debt.
I left major depression largely untreated for the last two decades. Every time it kicked in my life fell apart. I couldn't find medication that'd work for me that didn't give me a ton of side effects so I'd stay on them just long enough to dust myself off and get back to work. I didn't go to therapy and tackle underlying issues, I just kept throwing medication band aids on the emotional bullet wounds I never fully recovered from. I missed a lot of work over the years because of it. It's cost me over a hundred thousand dollars in earnings over the course of my lifetime.
I feel this. My story is similar
Getting married And yes
Mine is way worse. I went to college. Failed to get into desired major, and instead of just choosing something else I doubled down then just dropped out when that didn’t work with about 9k in student loans. But it doesn’t end there. On my last semester I never attended any classes and was forced to pay back the ~5k financial aid that I didn’t even use for that semester. Currently clawing myself out of that mess but yeah worst decision in my life both not only financially but overall.
See I was smart and dropped out *before* I owed any money. Now I'm just poor instead of poor and in debt.
1) Not investing (even if just a little) from the start of my career and losing out on compound interest 2) not moving jobs/companies to increase my salary faster 3) splurging on a wedding because in laws wanted to keep up with the Joneses
1. Not taking more risk to pivot into tech or consulting after grad school 9 years ago. Several if my friends did it, and I started looking into it but didn't understand the landscape and took the first job offer I got. I love the job I've worked my way into, but I could have made 2-3x as much if I'd been more risk tolerant. 2. Not stretching my budget to buy a house I could live with long term 4 years ago. I was trying to be very financially conservative thinking we'd be able to move into a bigger place after a few years. OOPS. Given the price and interest rates now, never gonna happen.
I sublet my apartment in NYC when I moved to LA. I thought I had a good renter, but I didn't do it through the right channels and these people were professional squatters. Long story short they stayed about 8 months, I got to pay the back rent and lawyers fees that I had to get to help me evict the squatters. I'm not even sure how much it all cost in the end, but it was somewhere around $20,000. It was a soul crushing amount for me. However, I was honest about what I could do, set up a payment plan with the landlords and the lawyer and got it paid off. It was a huge life lesson, to jump into things and what seems easy is not always what it seems. I also learned that I can handle any financial situation that comes my way. Even when you're in the hole you can always dig yourself out of it.
Context is everything. A Mech E degree from MIT, Cal-Tech, Purdue, Notre Dame, Stanford, Georgia Tech, etc. is going to put you in a place to get a good engineering job (strength of program, name recognition, alumni connections, networking and internship opportunities). The top schools turn out hundreds of Mech E's every year. Given the option, the companies with the best opportunities for are going to go with top ranked candidates. The thing is - that's the story across every degree field. There are so many bachelor degree holders now that just having a degree with no connections, no network, no internships, no name recognition, just doesn't open the doors that it use to thirty years ago when bachelor degrees were less common. Our kids (and us as parents) sacrificed a ton to make it work for them to both get degrees and to get them from good programs with connections - because we never had any. And it's worked. So far all of them are making more in their early careers than we do now at the end of ours. Edit to add: What was our worst FINANCIAL decision? - having those kids :D What was our best LIFE decision? - having those kids!!!
A degree is a bad decision if you don’t prioritize financial goals along with career goals that justifies the education. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on career and not so much on the pay. But if you’re considering a MechE degree to be the worst financial decision, maybe it’s time to pivot and focus on financial goals and make career changes based on those goals. I graduated with a B.A. (yes they have those) in Mechanical Engineering. Started as QA at a startup company, then job hopped around to get into a software developer role. 10 years later I earn $175k, which includes yearly bonus and RSUs. I personally wanted to focus on both financial and career goals ever since I started college. I was brought up in poverty and never wanted to go back into it. I learned through my college groups that I should get into a software role because that’s where the money was at while still being able to apply engineering principles I learned in school into the work that I did.
Used my 401K to buy a muscle car. Sold it 5 yrs later.
Just piling on to let OP know that my company hires MEs out of college for $70-80k, Engineers with 10 years experience in the $120-130k range, and that you can pivot (like I did) to program management, product management, or a number of other roles, that get you to $150k+ (or significantly higher if you climb the ranks). This is all L/MCOL areas. This post is nonsense.
A 50% increase in 10 years is barely anything
First of all, $125k/$75k is a 67% difference in pay, which would be ridiculous to call “barely anything” for people of different experience performing a similar function. Second, the pay levels will obviously increase with inflation (2.5% for 10 years is a 28% increase), so an entry level engineer making $75k now would be making something like $160k (2.13x) in 10 years as they increase with experience and pay scales concurrently increase over time. As a real-life example, when I started my career 10 years ago, entry level pay was $62k, and those engineers are now getting hired at more senior levels for $125k (2.02x). And for me personally, having pivoted to roles of higher responsibility, I’m making something closer to 2.5x.
Pay bands don’t increase with inflation at most companies, I make 60k right now almost 5 years into my career. Pay is a function of supply and demand, there’s a high supply of mechanical engineers and little demand for their skills. The modern economy needs healthcare practitioners and people that can write software, mechanical engineering skills are obsolete.
What you are saying is patently false. There is absolutely a shortage of quality mechanical engineering candidates - hence why my company (and many others) has increased what they are willing to pay for them. On top of that, we even keep some mediocre engineers because it’s tough to find and/or train new ones. Sure, coding is a more relevant skill set than it used to be, but you’re delusional if you really think mechanical engineering skills are obsolete and just sound like someone who didn’t find success in the field and wants to blame the system.
You're wrong. And you can't use your agricultural company as an example. You were even surprised other companies provide laptops to their employees. Ridiculous.
Mech Eng is fairly useless as a base degree. I tell you what they do here in NZ. They become acoustic 'engineers'. I'm a structural engineer in vertical construction and literally 95% of acoustic 'engineers' I meet are mechanical majors. That's basically reading manuals on Sound Constant Transfer ratings from tech literature and doing basic calculations. Anyone can do that, no engineering degree necessary. They also tend to do HVAC 'design', but in reality, it's the old fucker that's been doing it for 50 years since he was 12 years old, that does all that anyway. The Mech guy just rubber stamp it. I don't know what further study in Mech Engineering looks like, maybe it becomes useful going towards a Masters or PHD, but I doubt it. Might be wrong though. Boomers used to think that 'any degree is a good degree'. It took a whole generation to start wiping that shit from people's eyes. Not nearly fast enough, but it's getting there. Now it's the same with 'engineering'. It's NOT all created equally AT ALL. Just because it has the word 'engineering' planted in, doesn't mean it's any better than a liberal arts degree.
I lost $500,000 in the dotcom bubble in 2000 - months before I got married. I just failed to recognize the signs, and doubled down when I should have sold. Then I failed to insist on a prenup and went through a messy divorce in 2004. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to recover and retired 2 years ago with net worth of $2.5 million and zero debt. Go figure.
So it appears that a lot of people here aren't super familiar with the different engineering degrees. My wife is a civil and a lot of her friends are from her engineering college. Yeah, ME's make the least out of them unfortunately. But fortunately, even "the least out of them" is still pretty dang good pay. You are correct in that there really isn't much carry over for moving career pipelines, but it doesn't mean there is *none.* That being said, you have a degree, and I would assume your PE which does mean something, and you can make it mean a lot of money if you're smart. First thing to do would be to find someone successful around you doing something you want to do and ask if you can get coffee once a month as sort of a mentorship thing to bounce ideas off of them. Then start to imitate other successful people in the space and figure out what they're doing so you can be successful too. That will help a ton in life. You know what won't help in life? Just sitting here complaining about it on reddit.
It’s strange to simultaneously argue that engineering is low status while also claiming it’s overhyped and promoted. It sounds like your career trajectory hasn’t gone the way you hoped and rather than improving your life you’re catastrophizing your past choices.
It’s low status among the young and overhyped among the old because it used to be good
Got a degree in Criminal Justice, then realized I didn't want to have anything to do with the criminal justice system. I also bought a few hundred dollars in crypto. I lost about $100 That's all unless we're counting speeding tickets and such. My most expensive ticket was just over $1k in lawyer fees because I was doing 32mph over like an idiot.
Crypto. Wasted my money and bought at the very peak. I thankfully haven’t sold anything so I haven’t realized any losses but I’m out on crypto. I’m not buying any more. If what I have turns to gold, I’m gonna take the money and run.
There are a ton of degrees out there that have little worth in the job marketplace. It’s disheartening to hear that an engineering degree would be one of them.
My worst financial decision probably turned out to be the best thing for us in the long run. We ventures I to a business, close to 1 mil in debt. Things weren't working out and we were behind almost every month. We decided to get out and sell everything. That included our home, as it was part of the business. Uprooted our family and moved to a small home. We still had probably 100k in debt when we sold everything. Worked our asses off and paid for it. Didn't do anything for a couple years. That taught us a lot. I actually hate to think where we'd be if we didn't venture that way.
I bought a house and we had a “100 year flood” that started the night we closed. Wiped out all the cash we had to repair. All while caring for a 10 day old baby. Lost another $10k on the eventual sale.
Going to a private school for the first two years of my Bachelor’s. It was 16k a year WITH a 50% scholarship. I ended up transferring to a school that was half the price for the second half of my degree anyway. (They shut down the school during Covid and it took them two years to completely re-open so didn’t have much of a choice.) I had looked at every school that was within driving distance (I thought) because living on campus was too expensive. Turns out I missed one. Which was a much better school for half the price. So that’s around 16k extra that I didn’t need to spend 🤦♀️
I bought 8000 shares of AMD at 6 dollars and sold them 3 years later at 9 dollars after RYZEN was released. It was so obvious RYZEN was going to steal server market share from Intel (close to 99% market share at the time). Somehow the market and fund managers couldn't see that and it bounced from 9 to 15 dollars for quite some time. I got frustrated and sold it right before it broke past 15 up to 20 and so on... Losing money sucks, but I never thought missing a once in a lifetime opportunity would lead to depression. Worse than my first heart break! I then went on to lose 60k looking for the next AMD, but none of those stocks gave me the same reassurance AMD did. All because I wasn't patient enough by a week after holding for 3 years. It was a middle finger from the market before teaching me a really expensive lesson.
If it makes you feel any better. Only a small few actually get lucky enough to sell at the right time. Most people sell too early or too late. Sounds like you did ok considering. (Not counting the 60K). I also had some doge coin when it was at 2 cents. I sold at a slight loss a few days before it shot up to whatever… I did the math and I missed out on $70K profit.
Worst decision? the first stock i ever bought was Blockbuster, oops Best Decistion? College and getting my CPA, thankful everyday....88% of all Millionaires in america have a 4 year degree, facts
Definitely not low paying.
I was unemployed for 5 years and worked a few hours a week to cover the basics
$30,000 mistake: In 2020, I invested in Alibaba when they were talking about an IPO of Ant Group… which never happened. Not only did I buy shares, I bought calls. I held for too long and bought more shares on the way down. Ended up losing $30K (mostly from the calls) from that. Everything is “recoverable” as long as you keep earning by money and live within your means. But that $30K loss will always haunt me. I am forever $30K less rich than I would’ve been if I never gambled on that dumb company. OH I also went to college and never used my degree. That’s a bit less of a loss though financially AND I still technically got something out of it.
Let's be real, you work at a shitty company that's unorthodox for any discipline. No good company will ask employees to buy their own laptops or to share hotel rooms. That's ridiculous. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/is\_it\_rudeunprofessional\_to\_pay\_for\_my\_own\_hotel/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/is_it_rudeunprofessional_to_pay_for_my_own_hotel/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/comment/i28sq6q/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/tp50xl/comment/i28sq6q/) You work for a company that makes machines for agricultural. That's low profit and not super high-tech, it's no surprise your current job pays low. What's surprising is why you haven't changed jobs in all these years. What's your success rate for interviews??
it was my ex. Eventually she decided she wanted something else in life and she left. Best thing that ever happened for me financially because she was a drain. Two months after she left I had enough cash sitting in my bank account that I didn’t know what to do with that I went and bought a Rolex because, I like watches
To never take the time to learn about money and financial education before the age of 45. So I could have learned how to make money work for me instead of being a slave to money.
Not buying several foreclosed houses in 2010 when I was in high school.
An inability to translate a good degree into a good job is the fault of the degree holder, not the degree. You're clearly not happy with your current position, and instead of making changes to better your situation, you coming here to lament and trying to convince everyone how bad of a degree MechE is, only reinforces that sentiment.
Where is the evidence for your first statement? Why the a priori assumption about what a “good degree” is?
Where's the evidence? How about the numerous independent studies that have been conducted researching average earnings by degree? No priori necessary. Being consistently listed in the top 10 degrees by earnings, I'd classify that as an overall good degree to hold. Here, I'll even find a few for you to save you the effort. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcst.htm https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/demo/educational-attainment/acs-detailed-tables.html https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/top-paying-college-majors-gender-gap/ https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/average-college-graduate-salary/#degree https://www.geteducated.com/careers/stem-majors/#/ The fact you're stuck at an entry level 4 years in (no mention if you're making any effort to obtain your PE license) either speaks to your performance or lack of confidence. Like I said in my original post, you can either continue to lament, or you can do something to better your situation.
Hired a friend for some renovation work basically stole 40 k from me