<p>No, I’m not a career counselor. I am, however, annoyed and mystified that engineering companies will on the one hand, complain that they can’t find enough top-level US engineers to hire, and on the other hand, won’t raise their engineering salary offers. That’s free market economics without the price mechanism, which is ludicrous. It is a basic truism of free markets that if you want the market to supply more of something, you have to increase your offering price. Otherwise, as I pointed out, many of the top engineers at MIT and Stanford will continue to run off to non-engineering careers like consulting and banking. And many of the best students won’t even study engineering in the first place, figuring that the payoff is not worth the course difficulty. </p>
<p>I would however point out one thing. Engineering is really good for providing a decent backup career. It’s not an outstanding backup career, but at least it’s decent. Contrast that to what the guys studying, say, physics or biology get. Or maybe even worse, the guys who major in humanities . MIT engineering students may not be making hugely impressive amounts of money, but they tend to make more than the guys who major in Biology at MIT, and almost always a lot more money than the guys who major in Art History at Harvard. </p>
<p>But like I said, is money is your thang, then don’t work as an engineer. You can still get an engineering degree, but don’t work as an engineer. Go to Wall Street. Be a banker. That’s where the money is.</p>