salary ballpark please guys

Dave,

I'd estimate at least $700K/yr for Atlanta, and about 20% more for San Jose -- especially since this person will need to do technical documentation/marketing material.

Bob

for

depends...

Do you normally add "Would you like fries with that?"

Simon

for

Do normal people really make 700k a year purely in salary? My first reaction is that you are making a joke.

I would have guessed 150-200k for a PhD with only a little relevant experience, but that would have been nothing but a guess. That is, I don't know any PhD's (in EE).

How long does it take to get a PhD? If it's only five or six years, it may actually be worth it! ;-)

--Mac

$700K/yr! Wow, where do I sign up?!

Phil

Well, to join two threads together, if a 'professional' in this industry makes $700k/year, I'm about to become a professional! And I already have a PhD :-) [it takes 3 years in the UK, on average btw]

I'm sure that was just a reaction post to an open-ended question though. Please tell me I'm right, or I'll have wasted the last 10 years (!)

ATB, Simon (the unprofessional one. Oh, wait!)

I think, there is a '0' too much (if it was not a joke alltogether ;-), otherwise I'll buy a ticket to the Bay Area... (I am from Europe)

Thomas

In article , "Thomas Entner" writes: |> I think, there is a '0' too much (if it was not a joke alltogether ;-), |> otherwise I'll buy a ticket to the Bay Area... (I am from Europe)

Consultant job in the NYC metro area as a freshly graduated PhD, ~100K/yr

A Friend of mine is working at LLNL (after a Postdoc year at Cornell), ~120K/yr

Thomas: In Europe they don't pay their PhD nearly as well. They just wonder why everyone who has the chance to work in the US does it...

Rainer

$70k right!?

In the UK it is usually 3/4 years.

More like 5/6 in Europe though I think....

Any salary insights then based on your experience?

Cheers

Dave

I expect living costs in the NYC metro area are higher than Atlanta for example?

Pretty good salaries - does put Europe in the shade a little....

Only when I use the wrong supply voltage..... :-)

For San Jose, 1.2 * 70k (84k) sounds a little low. Then again, it does say "at least." And $70k is much more plausible than $700k. ;-)

A BSEE with 5 years of experience could make $84k. Some BSEE's I graduated with in 2001 are making more than $84k in the San Jose area right now. Others can't find work. At least one guy I know got hired at $85k, straight out of University. I haven't kept up with him, so I don't know whether he got laid off or not. But he worked while he was attending school, and that work experience may have helped him negotiate his salary up.

I have to admit that I don't see a lot of job descriptions where "PhD" is a requirement, though. Sometimes I see "MSEE required." More often it will be "MSEE or equivalent experience."

Anyone thinking of relocating to the San Jose area should be sure to understand that the cost of housing is much higher there than in most of the country.

--Mac

Well, my situation is a bit different - I and 3 friends started and ran a small company for 6 years in the UK, finally persuading someone over here in the US that it was worth buying :-) So, one relocation later, my salary probably isn't representative of Joe-public-with-a-phd.

There is a senior engineer working with me on ~135k though, without a PhD. This is in the bay area, south of San Francisco. It's all software development however, not hardware.

ATB, Simon

Alas, I'm sure you're right. I had high hopes that something had radically changed in the industry in the last few months ;-)

True. I'm wondering about this as I'm about to complete my MSECE in the next six months or so (I've got 20 years of industry experience, I went back to school in 2002 when everything hit the fan). I keep toying with the idea of continuing on to get a PhD with the idea that doing so would get me a more research-oriented job (which I would like). But I'm kind of afraid that a PhD actually reduces your chances of finding employment because it narrows your focus and if you choose the wrong little area to focus on - well, it could just be a wasted effort. Are there really 'research oriented' jobs out there anymore?

MUCH higher. To the point that if you lose you job in SJ you might only have a couple of months before you're living in your car.

Phil

I would suggest you check out some job boards (dice, hotjobs, monster), put in some key words (FPGA, VHDL, verilog, PhD if you please), and see what comes up for the region(s) you are considering.

As many have noted, San Jose (& Silicon Valley) has been a very expensive place to live, and the salaries go with it (more or less.)

Jason

Dave,

Often jobs are listed that I would characterize as "saviour" positions.

The salaries offereed are huge, the benefits unbelivable.

Then, when you interview for the job, you realize what the scam is: the position is impossible, the responsibilities unreal, the requirements unachievable. You just need to perform regular miracles, and walk on water.

That way, the CEO, CTO, (whatever) can go back to the board and say: "look, we hired the absolute best, and paid top dollar (euro, yen, etc.), and they failed!"

They are absolved of their incompetence, and the person hired takes the fall as not being up to the challenge (the job was impossible, even for the 'best" they could hire, but maybe he wasn't all that good, anyway).

Those that take these positions know perfectly well what is going on, and play the game as required (pocketing everything they can) all the while looking for their next job.

For me, that is not why I walk in the door everyday. My older brother, Ron Lesea (now deceased) once said: "Ausitn, if you don't feel like walking in the door in the morning, don't."

Best advice I ever received.

So, the answer to the question, is that any salary from "work for worthless stock" to astronomical salaries, are possible. The real question is: what are you looking for?

If it is the median salary, just consult an IEEE salary survey for the region you are interested in, or go to the many other surveys that are out there.

PhD is also a bit an issue in Electronics Engineering. What is it they want? A person who can do independent research? A manager of technical wizardry and magic? A figure-head to fly out to important customers so as to impress? To keep that person out of the hands of their competition?

What is it that a PhD knows, that a well seasoned engineer with a bacheleor's degree doesn't know?

They say a bacheleor's degree means you know the subject, and can do work in that subject. A Master's means just that, you have mastered the subject and can lead work in that area. A PhD means you are able to do original work in that area (as well as what the other two degrees can do).

Of course, after a while, a bacheleor's degree engineer, or a master's degree engineer is just as likely to file for patents (evidence of original work) as the PhD.

As proof of on the job training and experience, I offer you another interesting tidbit: after 7 years of marriage, wifes (and husbands) test the same as their spouse on intelligence tests. So you see, marrying a stupid woman (or man) is a disaster waiting to happen: they will become just as clever as you are (and they won't be very happy when they realize what the criteria was originally).

Austin

Um, Austin, you don't actually specify which end of the scale the tests place both parties [grin]

Simon.

Simon,

Oops.

The less intelligent became as smart as the most intelligent.

I always make sure I work with the most brilliant minds around (and I married a lady smarter than I was ....).

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