One couldn't help but wonder: What is the prospect of an engineer?
Not all hopes are lost
Browsing the list of the 10 richest man in Malaysia, none of them are engineers. Browsing the list of the 10 richest man in the world, no luck either. Those are billionaires. But not all hopes are lost, many engineers did become millionaires. C'mon don't be greedy!
So where did they get their money? Some electronic engineers are able to earn more than $100,000 a year. Over 10 years, ta-da-, they become millionaires. If you are a HiFi design engineer like myself, you would probably be asking how am I going to achieve that. Am I on the right track? Am I at the right place, right time, knowing the right thing, and doing the right thing? Let's explore those questions!
Am I at the right place?
A closer approximation to American engineer's income would be to divide the Japanese salaries by nearly two. The yen to dollar ratio has improved, but cost of living is still close to two times higher than that of pricey New York City.
Source: Crosscareer.com
Am I knowing the right thing?
Knowledge often comes from 2 areas:
One; academic qualification 
Source: EETimes.com
and two; practical experiences.
Source: EETimes.com
Salary increment rises the fastest at the first 6 years.
It will tend to saturate until you gain enough experience to climb the ladder to the become a manager or a technical director.
Am I doing the right thing?
Below are salary of engineers from different field, ranging from the highly paid to the average ones.
- Deep submicron IC design: $79,400
- ASIC design: $72,800
- DSP. $67,500
- Unix: $67,100
- Wireless design: $66,700
- Systems integration: $66,200
- C/C++: $65,100
- Digital design: $64,900
- Embedded systems: $64,800
- Network design: $63,700
- Circuit design: $63,300
Source: EETimes.com
Back to the question, am I on the right track?
Here is my personal opinion, everyone should customize their ideal right track. What's right for me might not be right for you. From the data above, here is what I think is the right track for me.
Being in the right place where the demand is, is important. Working in Japan commands a high salary. Despite the high cost of living, by spending prudently, you may still be able to save up a lot.
Getting a higher education seems to me like a very good investment. Comparing a BSEE and a MSEE, there is a $20,000 difference. Whereas, it takes 6 years experience to make the same difference. If you have a BSEE now, it only takes you around 3 years to get your MSEE. Furthermore, it will boost your bottom line, and as your experience accumulates, so does your increment. Also, experience tend to saturate after a certain period of time, as work will tend to repeat with minor difference year-to-year. A person who worked 5 years may match the person with 7 years of experience. Besides that, with a good qualification, you stand a better chance for promotion.
Although deep submicron engineers seem to be hot job with high pay, it also requires a lot more time and commitment due to the job difficulty where references are still scarce.
Although a circuit design engineer has $16,000 lesser, you might have earned a little more time to balance between work and family, as this profession seemed to have been here for quite some time, and job difficulty is relatively low with references abundant.
Note:
*Data may differ due to various factors e.g. year-to-year, industry, company, specialization, age, etc.
**Perks and compensations are not included in the estimation.
