This is why you're going into technical careers!

[Beth Sweet]

Found this on the internet, thought some of you would find it interesting:

Top Ten Tech Jobs, Wages Released ExtremeTech Staff - ExtremeTech
Mon Feb 6, 7:54 AM ET



Hourly wages for tech professionals hit a record high during the fourth quarter of 2005, according to a report released Monday.

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According to the Yoh Index of Technology Wages, hourly pay increased by 3.1 percent to an average of $30.27 per hour between October 10, 2005 and November 6, 2005. Since the fourth quarter of 2001, wages for "high-impact technology professionals" have rise nearly 11 percent, the frm found.

The positions in the most demand include SAP functional consultants, who commanded an average of $75.09 pr hour. Data warehouse architects, CRM managers, hardware/firmware engineers and a generic project manager classification rounded out the top five.

"Ending 2005 with the highest wages for skilled technology professionals recorded in five years is a high water mark for the industry," said Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh, in a statement. "Despite major economic setbacks during the year, the technology industry has demonstrated its strength and confirmed its power to propel the employment market in a positive direction."

The Yoh data is culled from actual employment activity of over 5,000 technology professionals outsourced on short- and long-term projects by over 1,000 of the nation's top employers in aviation, engineering, information technology, manufacturing, scientific, telecommunications, and utility industries, according to the company. It is used to determine salaries in Fortune 500 companies.

According to Yoh, the top ten jobs with the highest demand by employers in the fourth quarter of 2005, together with their average hourly wages, were:



Clinical Research Associate - $38.52


Data Manager - $45.06


CRM Project Manager - $62.01


Data Warehouse Architect - $69.03


Hardware/Firmware engineer - $59.34


.NET Developer - $45.77


Oracle Database Administrator - $55.82


Project Manager - $57.07


SAP Functional Consultant - $75.09


Senior Scientist - $43.76

Found here

[Bill Moore]

The title to this thread reminded me of a very hot August afternoon, as a group of us were heading to lunch. The summer intern was in the car as well, and he looked out and saw some roofers working in the heat, obviously in discomfort.

Intern: "Wow! Those guys must be dying up there in this heat!"

Engineer: "That's why you are in college."

[Yan Wang]

Hopefully no one here's going into technical careers just for the money. If that's what you care about (nothing wrong with it!), summer internships at large finance firms such as Morgan Stanley pay $1200/week + housing + travel. That's equivalent to $62,000+ a year as an undergraduate (imagine yourself as a sophomore earning that rate)! MIT grads with a BS consistently get $80k-$90k offers and with an MBA, that goes up to $109k average (high last year of $250k) with up to a year's less education than what you'd need for an engineering BS and MS (and it's an easier education).

That said, the record engineering salaries are pretty sweet

[KenWittlief]

when I worked at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids Iowa there were 4 engineers who had a garage rock band.

They played mostly for fun, very seldom played before an audience. They got a gig at the University of Iowa for freshman day, when new students come to see the campus with their parents.

They were playing in the corner of the student cafeteria. One of my friends went along to help out (be their roadie). At one point while they were playing almost no one was paying attention. Some new student and his mom sat down at a table with their lunch, and my friend overheard their conversation:

[Mom] Im so proud of you, going to college, making something of yourself -so you dont end up like those bunch of losers over there! Look at them, they look like a bunch of bums!

my friend almost died laughing. That lady did not realize those 4 guys were probabally the highest paid 'musicians' in the state (their engineering pay).

I guess the moral of the story is: do what you love, the money will follow (but it doesnt hurt to make enough money to also do things that you could never earn a living at, like being a weekend rockstar once a year :^)

[Ashley Weed]

Originally Posted by Yan Wang

Hopefully no one here's going into technical careers just for the money. If that's what you care about (nothing wrong with it!), summer internships at large finance firms such as Morgan Stanley pay $1200/week + housing + travel. That's equivalent to $62,000+ a year as an undergraduate (imagine yourself as a sophomore earning that rate)! MIT grads with a BS consistently get $80k-$90k offers and with an MBA, that goes up to $109k average (high last year of $250k) with up to a year's less education than what you'd need for an engineering BS and MS (and it's an easier education).

That said, the record engineering salaries are pretty sweet

This trend is also seen in Penn State's newest College of Information Sciences and Technology. Since it's inception in 1999, the school has become the highest paid interns, starting salaries for graduates, and now highest paid faulty in the University.

[evulish]

The tech industry is pretty impressive right now. Even with the recession we're in, there are tons of jobs being created. I work in a mid-sized financial company, and our IT department has doubled or tripled in size, software engineering has also grown quite a bit (thought not quite as much, due to outsourcing), our web development team has gone from me to 4 people, the marketing department (mostly online advertising) has doubled in size.. and that's all in the past year (not even including our interns). While the starting base pay not be the best, the growth potential is amazing since we're doubling the size of the office, most manager positions are filled by the current employees. Bonuses are great, full medical, 401k, and other perks (discounted gym membership, 30% off many broadway shows, etc).

My recommendation if you want a good job out of college (and prepared to work LONG hours) is to check out the INC 500 list put out by INC magazine of the 500 fastest growing private companies in the US. The company I work for was #60 on that list.. and it's mind-blowing that we're able to keep up.