I’m a chemical engineer, largely because I heard they were the highest paid engineers while I was studying in college. When I read everything here and on reddit it seems like even entry level software engineers are making more money than mid/senior chemical engineers. Is this usually the case or are most of these posts not representative of your whole industry? Might have to change careers My TC $70k :( lol
Definitely the case, my friend was an electrical engineer. Convinced him to learn to code, got an internship at BOA and then FT offer at Tesla. Is making 150k fresh out of college while all his EE friends barely break 70k. Ymmv
Good friend man, wish I had someone push me that direction.
Yeah, I changed my major 4 times, from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering then finally computer science. When I talked to my wife about changing it the last time I was so nervous because I thought software engineers made a lot less, boy was I wrong I make double what I would have otherwise
I made 300k in my first year out of undergrad. So yeah.
Chemical sucks bro/sis. Switch to SWE through some data science or analytics route.
Seriously thinking about it. I’d be happy with any job so it just feels dumb for me to stick with chem e when I could be making multiple times more.
Heisenberg made some Ms and he was a chemist. Just saying . Haha . But have you considered cutting edge research in chemistry(if you are passionate) , may be that could get you fame to feel better
Sadly true. Entry level software engineer can make 140k. If you don’t feel dedicated to chem, you can switch
Man I wish I talked to the right people while I was in college. But I think it’s never too late to switch especially when I could be making so much more
Fortunately, tech comapanies are the most forgiving when it comes to non-traditional backgrounds, so you should apply for a role and see.
You're wasting your life doing CE
There are about 100 companies in the country that will pay 150k+ minimum (obviously much more for seniors). There are quite a few more that have a lower bar around 100k. I think generally if you work for a small tech shop in a nice (low COL) area your pay is probably about equal to a chemical or electrical engineer. I'd recommend clicking around levels.fyi to get a better representation. Honestly though screw money do what you enjoy, either way you'll have plenty of money.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I think even getting that lower bar 100k would make a switch worth it, especially with the ceiling being so much higher at senior level. I’m the kind of person who is happy no matter what I’m doing so I feel like if I could make multiple times more it might be worth it. Plus I always liked programming and was pretty good at it (for a chem e at least).
Sure, and honestly getting into the 150k range as a new grad is not terribly difficult if you do enough to get your resume decent and grind leetcode (if there isnt a pandemic). Amazon for example gives out quite a bit of interviews (to my knowledge). And even with the 100k+ companies (like cisco, ibm, tmobile, walmart, starbucks, banks, etc. - think everything thats a big company but doesnt actually market their software) you can still get over 200k as a senior no problem. I actually transitioned from aerospace through OMSCS, highly recommend that program if thats the sort of path you're looking for.
Check out levels.fyi for tons of salary data. For perspective google L3 is 0-4 years of experience, L4 is like 2-8, L5 is senior so like 6+. A lot of people are mentioning the entry level salaries here, but higher level salaries are really crazy here, getting L6 is typically ~500k (although not too many people get there, but definitely achievable).
Thanks, levels.fyi seems to support what everyone has been saying here in terms of salary. I think I need to start planning a transition
L6 is more than 500k at GOOG FYI. My offer was around 650k. Then trading is a whole big bump. Close to 7 figures is doable at a similar level (albeit much worse WLB and requiring domain knowledge)
For money, Yes. In general, I'm not sure anymore
I think the money alone makes it pretty much worth it. As long as I get along with my team I generally don’t mind whatever task/project I’m working on. And I’m already doing some crazy overtime so wlb probably would be same or better
You might think that until you take a job just for the money and find yourself completely miserable in 6 months, which I've been through. Chase money if the only thing you want in life is money. Maybe it will show you that there is much more to life.
Making 187k as a new grad with a bachelors from a no name school. Make the switch
That’s awesome, congrats. Yea I just need to plan a transition. Someone on here mentioned OMSCS which seems like quite the effort and time so I might have to do a boot camp and practice leetcode and to get my foot into data science/analytics like someone else mentioned then work toward the OMSCS to fully transition to SWE. Or something along those lines
Sounds like a lot of extra work. Just grind LeetCode and if you have a stem degree you have a good shot
It's mostly true. I make 160k+ and I just finished education this January, although I live in a high CoL area :)
I’m close to Bay Area so I’m high col as well. I think I need to switch hahah every comment pushing me that much closer
Just do it! Sooner the better!