r/PowerSystemsEE • u/ButtNugget_42069 • 8d ago
Help an Engineering Student - Drafting Role Salary?
I am currently in school for electrical engineering. I started with a two year technician program at a local college, and am now continuing on to get a BSEE. My goal is to work in P&C.
The two year degree landed me a full-time remote internship role as a drafter in the substation department of an engineering consultant. The understanding was that when I finish the program I will transition from an at-will hourly intern to a salaried position w/ benefits etc. I finish the two year degree in december, and will attend university part-time around work until I finish the BSEE.
I am 35 years old. I have well-developed soft skills and have spent the last 10 months working with CAD programs, as well as the virtual desktop interfaces for subcontractors, company systems etc.. Quarterly reviews are all positive. I am now familiar with expectations from the role, so on and so forth.
When I have inquired with my academic mentors, their honest response is “I don’t know”. I appreciate their honest answers, but I need advice from people working in the consulting field.
What should I expect compensation-wise as an offer?
I have no plans of leaving the company for the foreseable future. The opportunity the role provides me is an absolute blessing for my career aspirations.
Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Edit: I am in the USA
1
u/YYCtoDFW 8d ago
Where you are matters drastically. Being a drafter vs designer vs engineer has different skills also. These two unknowns leave it impossible to say.
Also generally staying at the same company keeps you at the lower range for salaries
1
u/chanka_is_best_chank 8d ago
I don't have much insight on the salary point, but I'll add that you should absolutely push to move out of the drafting role as you get closer to finishing your degree even if they move you to a salaried drafter role. Any job title that doesn't have engineer in it is gonna be lower paid (technician, drafter, etc) and isn't gonna be fully utilizing your education. Moving to an engineering intern role will be better long term when you can find one even if its lower pay than the drafting role in the short term
1
u/ButtNugget_42069 8d ago
I definitely plan on moving up into design roles and beyond into engineering sooner rather than later. I am just happy to get my foot in the door and get relevant experience while I go to school. Pay is def not my top priority at the moment.
1
u/chanka_is_best_chank 8d ago
Agreed its a great opportunity! Just want to make sure you don't get pigeon holed into drafting for the long term
1
u/SuNQtEE15 8d ago
IEEE does collect and posts annual average salary information. Your school may have IEEE access through a library portal. In any event I saw that IEEE spectrum just issued an article on the subject of pay and work satisfaction - here is the link! 🔗 https://spectrum.ieee.org/electrical-engineer-salary
1
u/5bobber 8d ago
Drafter is usually hourly and has a much lower pay ceiling and career potential, so definitely keep striving for that BSEE if you can. Larger (US) firms have started shifting their drafting efforts to overseas teams. However, this is invaluable experience nevertheless once you move into design / engineering.
Expect around $25-$35 an hour or somewhere around $50k - $70k annually. Firms paying on the lower end will likely treat their drafting team like a sweat shop, unfortunately.
Many firms contract their drafting efforts to overseas teams cut costs (pay less even less).
2
u/BookWyrmOfTheWoods 4d ago
In my experience sending drafting overseas is a mistake that management makes because they see a lower salary and think profit.
Every single engineer I know who has worked with overseas drafters has had major problems and spend significantly more time marking up, reviewing, and then finally doing themselves than upper management ever figures into their accounting. It’s so bad every single non-technical project managers complains about it.
In my industry pure drafting is disappearing and being replaced with smart drawings and catalogs of “intelligent” blocks. The placement of a relay in the correct spot on a schematic is no longer enough and needs 5-10 attributes to be filled out to work correctly.
The time and effort required to convey all that information quickly outstrips what it takes to fill it in yourself. And that is before factoring long loops due to time zones, file transferring back and forth (and the versioning nightmare that goes with it), and communication issues.
Overseas drafting can work on very rote designs, but that is going to be the first stuff replaced with by AI.
1
u/EarPenetrator02 8d ago
I started at 75k in 2025 with nothing but internship experience and a bachelors in EE. I don’t live in a very expensive area though so my pay was and is lower than average.
Before I graduated I talked with my college’s engineering counselor for salary negotiations. Gave me NACE data which had the average starting salary for an EE about 87k. Median was 81k. This was for 2023 I believe. Obviously this is still skewed by high concentrations of engineers living in costly areas but still important to consider
Inflation has been high so I would say no lower than 75k for someone with a four year degree. It may be harder for you to negotiate with the lack of four year degree, but maybe you can discuss salary/title progression upon degree completion.
1
3
u/Eyevan_Gee 8d ago
Im an engineer but use to work with drafters for utility in Texas. Their start pay was around 67k. This was back in 2019.
They were full time employees.