This week, engineeringcareer.org went searching for the engineers of popular social forum site Reddit. From February 21st to February 27th, National Engineers Week is celebrated in the United States. The week puts emphasis on the need for engineers in society. We interviewed thirteen engineers from the website and asked a few questions about engineering and the industries they currently serve, with focus on graduates. Demographic calculations of the site have shown that the approximate gender and age that is most prevalent on Reddit is 18-29 year old males. Through this survey, students who are currently studying towards their degree will be able to get an idea of the industry they are trying to find a career in.
13 responses filtered in as engineers were honest about their salaries and their happiness when it came to graduating and getting jobs.
Our first question for the respondents was: What is the nature of your qualification?
Once the category of engineering that they fit into had been established, the job title they were given as a result of being employed in the engineering industry was asked:
- Hardware Engineer II
- Graudate Engineer
- Product Design Engineer
- Design Engineer
- Materials Test Engineer
- Graduate trainee
- Field Engineer
- Construction Manager
- Evironmental Engineer (jnr)
- Electronic Engineer
- Structural Engineer I
- Operations Engineer
- Mechanical engineer
What salaries do these kind of engineering jobs make? Here we will present them in US dollars, showing the average of all of the salaries put together. The option to supply a monthly salary was optional in the survey but does give us an idea of what an engineer in their late twenties can earn. The average salary of all of these jobs put together was $4470.09 per month according to the survey. When asked if the engineers were happy with their salaries, this was the response: 
The qualifications that the respondents obtained were all acquired through universities. An encouraging statistic from the respondents when asked whether or not they held qualifications but failed to find a job resulted in a hundred percent, “No.” So, if you are pursuing an engineering degree, it is clear that out of thirteen respondents, not one was without work once they had their qualifications. Something to think about.
For all the engineers that might be celebrating Engineers Week along with the US this week, here’s a quote to keep you working towards achieving that engineering job: “The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up…His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way,” – Nikola Tesla.
