[PLUG-TALK] Salaries for BSEEs

[Keith Lofstrom]

> My niece will graduate with an EE BS from Boston University next spring. 
> She's currently interning with Verizon and will soon interview for a
> permanent  position.  There are two job tracks available.
> 
> She's asking if the salary is good.  I have no idea what the potential for
> a new EE is.
> 
> If you do please share.

EE's aren't interchangable - region and work intensity matters
a lot.  For example, around here, if you want a higher salary,
work (and work, and work) at Intel in the right group.  

Her college library probably has access to the IEEE Salary
Survey.  Perhaps Barker Library at MIT has it.  Perhaps online
through IEEE Xplore.  That will give number ranges by region 
and by industry.  She also should hang out with her IEEE student
chapter (either at BU or MIT) and network network network.

If she starts work with a BSEE, she should do so near a school
with an MSEE and PhD and MBA program.  If she wants to advance,
she will need better paper - and more network network network.
Time and money for further schooling should be part of her
employment package.

I suggest she reads two books:

"Ask For It" by Linda Babcock.  Women are not accustomed to firm
assertiveness, and their salary and careers can get stalled because
they don't ask effectively for opportunities.  The book contains 
useful how-tos and mental training exercises.  Even though I am 
impaired by a Y chromosome, I learned useful techniques from it.

"My Dream of Stars" by Anousheh Ansari.  Ms. Ansari got her MSEE
at George Washington U., interned and later got a job at MCI in
Richardson Texas (a good place for telecom jobs).  She and her
husband left MCI to start the megaconsulting firm tti, and sold
it for enough money to pay for the Ansari X Prize, and a $40M
trip to the space station.  Even that isn't top earnings for a
new EE (acquaintance Bill New, MD PhD MBA MSEE got his MSEE last,
and made half a billion inventing and marketing pulse oxymeters)
but it does demonstrate that even the sky is not the limit.

Good luck to her.  We EE's need to help each other survive the
flood of sloppy software.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993