Mechanical Engineer in aerospace and defense
Mar 4
12 Comments
Joined blind this week and really considering a switch. Went to top 5 school for my program, graduate top of my class, 24, 2 yoe and TC is around 85k in SoCal. Have a few offers at some good companies but only looking at around 120k TC (in hcol). Not super passionate about swe but after seeing so many people here with 500k+ TC I don’t have much motivation for my career. Should I make a switch to swe?
comments
I think switching to SWE makes sense if you're early in your career and not interested enough in mechanical engineering to compete your way in to those few positions.
That is most likely not representative of everyone's experience, but it seems like it can get pretty bad for WLB for at least some people.
But let’s get real here. Outside of Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon you won’t see crazy TC numbers thrown around. With typical ME roles you’ll hit a ceiling relatively quickly. Most ME’s I’ve known and worked with transitioned to program or project management to keep increasing but in general you will hit a cap around 120-140 (adjust for COL) unless you have management in the title. With NEW car manufacturers you can go much higher and they can even get you to the 300+
But with all that said… as a SWE (with some competence) you can basically work anywhere and for any company and look at 100k at the BOTTOM end of the range.