| 120k a year is a very good salary for anyone. You must have a large family or live in a big expensive city if 120k a year plus your mothers salary can not afford clothing over $20. Your first job will be just that - your first job. It is highly likely after a few years of experience another company will come along and offer you a competitive salary, a big fat signing bonus, a company car or other benefits such as vacation time paid, a good 401k plan, etc. etc., The money comes with experience.
College is only going to teach you the fundamentals of engineering, Once you are out working things will be very different and you will gain experience and with time develop your own technique that will stamp your skill as an engineer. Starting salary for graduates is usually garbage and within 1-2 years it won't be out of the question to start receiving offers by other companies.
And you are wrong - that is not only true for big companies, small companies work the same way just because you wont receive a fancy title like "manager" does not cap your earning potentials.
Example: Civil Engineers - My father is the owner of a construction company that builds custom homes. Nothing spectacular just your average run of the mill homes in the suburbs. The Structural Engineer he hires for blueprints and to swing by once in a while take some photos and give an assessment of if random things are all safe&sound charges between 5-10k depending on the size of the property. All he does is work with the architect to draw blueprints for the home which usually takes him about a week and swings by every few weeks just to see how the property is turning out. Keep in mind he is working on multiply properties at once. He lives in a very fancy building with full amenities, doorman, valet parking, dry cleaning, the works and drives a brand new Porsche so I'm pretty sure he is banking 200k+ a year. He does great work but I can assure you what he earns is very very far from the 40k a year all these sites list Civil Engineers are paid and he is under 30.
I'm not saying everyone can do something like that. Skill & Luck of the draw, as well as dedication and business skill have a lot to do with it.
Starting salary for journalists and students with art degrees hover around 30,000. I can assure you that plenty of journalists make a lot more than that.
To be honest, You are worrying about this way too much. The key to being successful after college is to broaden your skills and interests during college. If you enjoy what you are doing you will work that much harder, be that much better at it and in turn not realize how successful you will end up becoming. |