Aviation = flying things. Aerospace = making things that fly.

i agree with this assessment. however, would add that demand for commercial aviation is expected to grow exponentially, with growing middle class in china, india, and elsewhere. the potential for earnings is huge. AND, with large numbers of "old timers" retiring every day, the opportunities to get into management and rapidly rise up through leadership ranks is significant, unprecedented, and astounding. this is true for boeing. i am not sure about airbus, as it is a newer company with different demographics. these are highly stable corporations with really solid benefits. the biggest perk/value is reliable 40hr weeks or 9x80 schedules. if your priority is WLB or family, these cant be beat. for example, boeing recently went to 3months paid parental leave - for both men and women having delivered or adopted children. the problem is with their comp packages. no rsu/equity/profit-sharing. 1st level managers make roughly median income/middle class/equivalent to junior program managers in FAANG. senior managers are slightly above- enough to raise a family modestly on 1 income. no real money in this game until you hit Director or above, which is highly highly political & competitive. on the defense side, i'm not sure about lockheed, raytheon, or northrop grumman. but my understanding is that NG has had financial problems for a long time. antiquated tech and old-school manufacturing mindsets pretty much everywhere. but if you can get past that, great places to chill and focus on family/personal life.

@AA these people are not retiring every day. They are still sleeping during meetings and getting paid

need to know skillcode & level. depending on geographical area and skillcode, an L3 (mid-level, non-manager) makes between 40k & 150k....

Great point. The number above reflects the midpoint of the pay band for a software engineer in Dallas. I understand Boeing has a Dallas office as well?

fair!