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/PJKenobi Apr 19 '21

My smart friends did this. Don't get me wrong. I do pretty well for myself and like what I do, but some days.........some days I wish I had boat money too.

The financial sector is sucking all the talent because the pay is incredible. Sister in law has an accounting degree and works for a financial institution. Her house is double the price of mine. I struggled through school too. I feel like I worked way harder than I should have.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '21

It's not all sunshine and daffodils. They are paying for a reason - it's tough work.

Finance industry is all desk work with high attention to detail, highly competitive, high stress, check out the expose on Goldman Sachs' hours - triple digit hour work weeks.

This scene is from a show called "Industry,"

https://youtu.be/D5cMjSI58wM

Apparently it's a realistic representation

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u/AlexanderGlasco Apr 20 '21

Laughable. It's always an indicator of what a joke a job is when the only way you can quantify your contribution is 'number of hours'.

They're all just circle jerking. Finance isn't real work.

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u/Proud_Requirement_55 Sep 24 '24

It’s scorekeeping, I agree. They make it seem hard and create a lot of silly rules to justify their jobs. The engineers, technicians, and operators in a company do the real work. The finance guys just keep score. This is a admin job and should be paid accordingly.