r/ChemicalEngineering • u/DRJSAN • Jan 06 '23

Salary Where is the crazy money

What are the jobs that chemE’s can get that print crazy money.

I know for the most part engineers are well paid, but I’m wondering if there’s any shot to make ridiculous money (like the higher end of SWE or big 4 consulting) using an undergrad in chemE in conjunction with any experience or further degrees.

This may seem like a shallow question, and it definitely is. I’m happy with my degree and jog, I just really want to know what the top of the mountain looks like and how people got there.

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u/wye_naught Semiconductor R&D/PhD Jan 11 '23

I don’t know which engineering field you are in, but in my experience, engineering does not have good work life balance and often does not pay better than many jobs with better work life balance.

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u/musicantz Jan 11 '23

There’s few other jobs where you have a path to making 150k-200k working 40-50 hours a week. Most engineers I know aren’t working 60-70 hours a week. There’s jobs that pay more (finance, law, medicine, sales) and jobs that work less but engineering is a pretty good middle ground of hours and pay. There are some jobs where you work less and make more but you often have to grind for a decade making little money before they become realistic options.

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u/wye_naught Semiconductor R&D/PhD Jan 11 '23

It’s not so much the raw number of hours but the travel, on-call, after hour meetings across time zones that make WLB a challenge in engineering. And then during product releases when the hours and demands just blow up…

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u/musicantz Jan 11 '23

I think those things do suck but can be highly job dependent. I’m on call pretty rarely. Rarely travel, barely ever have calls across time zones and only during work hours. Releases can suck.

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u/wye_naught Semiconductor R&D/PhD Jan 11 '23

That sounds nice. Which industry do you work in?

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u/musicantz Jan 12 '23

Currently consulting but I used to work at a large refinery. I moved to a department that was a little more detached from the main process and all the worst aspects of the job went away.