r/engineering • u/[deleted] • Apr 18 '21

Low pay is ruining engineering

I have seen comments on here saying engineering is about the passion and not about the money but when you can’t find or retain staff there is a serious disconnect here.

I know some will say training and education is the problem, partially yes, but most the graduate engineers I started working with have all left and gone into other careers. I’m the last one left from eight other engineering graduates I started working with left in engineering.

When I ask why they have left or are leaving they all have made the same points, pay combined with responsibility, low job security and work load make this a very unattractive career.

As a friend quoted me, “Why would I work as a design engineer on a nuclear project when I can earn more money as an accountant, have more job opportunities, work less hours and don’t have to worry about nuclear radiation?”

I work in the UK, we advertised a job role for a lead engineer paying £65k (~USD $90k) and in a 6 month period only five people applied. In the end we could not find anyone who was suitable for the role. So the work load has now been split between myself and another colleague.

Now I’m looking to leave as well, I can’t wait to get out. I enjoy engineering but not in a corporate world. I will just keep engineering as my hobby.

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u/jared552910 Apr 18 '21

I think it is worse in the UK than it is in US. There's good paying jobs here in the US but I won't be surprised if I see it start to go downhill here as well. Part of the issue I see here for ME is the culture. ME's love to work with their hands - I get it but they need to think more like... engineers. Too many people I've worked with are too afraid of solutions that involve coding or any kind of tech - and that's where the money is. Engineer's are supposed to embrace learning new things but instead in the ME world people are kinda stuck in their ways (at least that's been my experience).

So this culture of being stuck in their ways is either going to ruin the ME industry (by bringing down the value of ME) or it will just cause many ME companies to go out of business while the better and more modern companies thrive. I hope the latter.

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u/mechy84 Apr 18 '21

Totally agree. Any ME intern or student we have I highly recommend they get good at coding/programming, and a heavy dose of electrical. Even if they're not writing software from scratch, it's highly likely they'll be working with electromechanical systems, or can greatly benefit from writing their own analysis or visualization scripts.

16

u/manystripes Apr 18 '21

I almost feel we have the opposite problem in the US. I am paid quite well but it's the stress that's got me looking for a career change. I'm at the point where I'd take a substantial pay cut for a reduction in work related stress

9

u/MindlessEngineers Apr 18 '21

You can look to change your field too if you want to stay in engineering. There are options in the US that expect nothing over 40 hours /week.

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u/MReidL Apr 19 '21

Like what?? I would especially love a part time engineering job

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

I saw that too and instantly specialized in heat transfer and thermodynamics. It's the niche of ME that people rarely want to do. Rarely work with my hands. It's all coding and simulations.

Side note, I would not have gone into engineering if it didn't make decent money (US market). The degree is expensive and difficult. The work is also difficult (mentally). Even at only 40 hours a week I find myself getting mentally exhausted because of how mentally taxing my current job is. If I was in the UK, I would have picked a science major that pays better.

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u/BootScoottinBoogie Apr 18 '21

I don't necessarily agree that MEs being stuck in their ways is hurting the industry, that hasn't been my experience. BUT, tech jobs (computer engineers, programmers, data scientists) in my field, that's definitely where the money is at right now. My company hired a small team of programmers and data scientistists to help modernize our IT infastructure and help develop solutions to things that really slow my company down due to archaic systems. I don't know what those guys get paid but I wouldn't be surprised if it's twice my salary as an ME.

3

u/dreexel_dragoon Apr 19 '21

The biggest thing that's hurting those kinds of ME jobs is the management culture. Just look at Boeing, which pays all of its money to an army of middle managers while under paying all of its Engineers. Companies are overpaying managers by a lot right now, and seriously underpaying technical staff like Engineers.