Quote:
Originally Posted by Corbic
For the Big 3, who still have not refilled their ranks to pre-2006 levels, an out of college Engineer from Purdue, Michigan State, ect can expect to make... nothing. They often have internship programs you can do your senior and post graduate summers which pay $0-10 an hour. If you can shine you'll get an entry level job if something is available. These jobs pay $40-50k a year. Obviously over the years you'll be able to move up the food chain but you won't get past $80k as a "straight engineer". The people making that money are in decision making positions and are not doing hands-on engineering anymore -they are managing resources, people and projects.
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You are focusing in on a small segment of the market. What you are claiming *may* be true for the Big 3 at this moment, but it is simply not true for all auto manufacturers in the US. Also, the vast majority of the hiring is done through suppliers. $60-70k is most definitely a realistic salary for an engineer starting out in the auto industry nowadays (yes, in the midwest).
You can easily get past $80k as an engineer nowadays as well. Granted it may take 10+ years, but it was not anything unusual in my experience with several companies. Most engineers I know who switched roles simply got bored/fed up with their current position and wanted a change.
BTW OP, you would be doing yourself a great service learning the "blue collar" portion of the industry prior to becoming an engineer. My advice would be to work part-time while getting your pre-req's out of the way.