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To those who think they "Made It" in Engeneering: What was your path?

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joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: tmadness on June 23, 2021, 06:36:12 pm ---So you think you have #Made-It TM 8). You have reached the upper echelons of not only technical capability, but you bring in bank, serious bank, putting you in the same class as the "I make money from thin air" crowd (investment bankers, real estate ppl, people who bought bitcoin in 2010, drug dealers etc).
...

--- End quote ---

Sorry but I never attained the skills needed to make money from thin air but I was curious how much drug dealers make.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/939zga/how-much-money-drug-dealers-make
From 2014:
https://www.salon.com/2014/03/09/the_true_lives_of_low_level_drug_dealers_whats_the_point_of_surviving_if_you_cant_live/

I would imagine you would want to be located in an area where the cost of living may play into it in order to have easy access.   

Curious OP, how much you make in your area dealing?   

nctnico:

--- Quote from: sandalcandal on June 23, 2021, 09:11:34 pm ---I wonder if EE legends like Jim William, Bob Pease and Bob Widlar actually even ever "made bank". The love and passion for their art seemed to be their overwhelming drive.

--- End quote ---
I agree. One of my mentors once told me that EE is probably the worst job (requiring a formal education) where it comes to money.

fourfathom:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on June 24, 2021, 12:07:44 am ---The maximum value of any real labor is in the realm of $500k/yr for, like, expert surgeons.  Nothing a lowly EE or SE will approach.

Pretty much any earnings beyond that, are due to the owning or management of capital.
--- End quote ---

Yes.  While (as has been mentioned) there are a few top engineers making more than this as a salary, the vast majority of good engineers will make much less. 

You usually need ownership to make the big bucks.  When it happened for me (in the 1990's) this was in the form of stock and stock options at a start-up.  The risk is high, but the potential payoff is big.  You generally need to be in management.  I helped found our company as Director of Systems Engineering, but we were initially a small team and I also had a significant design responsibility (architecture, ASIC design).  But many of the non-management employees also received significant stock options -- after we were acquired there were a couple of technicians driving new Ferraris.

This was in 1999.  We had a hot product in a hot sector (fiber optics networking), with real customers.  I don't think that it would be possible to repeat our story in the current environment.

But I started my career in the late 1970's when things were pretty bleak.  You never know what's going to happen, so find something you like to do, something that other people value, and get good at it.  Be  bold.  You will probably become comfortable and (mostly) enjoy your job -- not too bad, really.  But you might just get lucky.

The company I helped start was "Cerent".  One of the marketing guys wrote a book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Upstart-Startup-Cerent-Transformed-Cisco/dp/1505303826/  It's a bit of an "inside" story -- perhaps you had to be there.

TimNJ:
For the most part, you have to sell your soul, at least a little, if you want to make bank. If money is your main career driver, then you probably wouldn't even consider this "selling your soul". But, if you are truly passionate about electronics (or engineering in general), I don't know...but I don't think you're going to strike it rich, at least not as your "typical" engineering company. Apple, et. al., maybe different story.

You can live very comfortably with salaries >$100K/year, but I think even gray beard EE's are probably not (on average) making too much more than $120-130K/year, and lots of young and middle-age engineers working for $60-90K/year.

I feel like company's play off the fact that design engineers generally value ~what~ they do more than ~how much~ they make, and then pay you as little as possible. On the contrary, I have so many friends working in finance/corporate in Manhattan making absolutely stupid money, and I think they make so much because the companies are a.) in the business of using money to make more money, so the culture is already there and b.) they know their employees probably put salary first.

Maybe a lot of generalizations, just ramblings of a grumpy 26 year old EE.  ;)

tmadness:

--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on June 24, 2021, 03:05:29 am ---I don't see anything paying a fraction of that, at least not that's listed publicly.  Anyway, I did say "lowly EE", and that's still nothing out of the ballpark. :)

--- End quote ---
Well Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos both have electronics backgrounds. Now, I would not call them Engineers, but they are easily some of the riches people on earth.

In a more honest retrospective,
Raja Koduri
Lisa Su
Pat Gelsinger
Drew Baglino

etc
are all extremely respected for their technical talent and contributions. And these are people just at the top there are probably at least a dozen technical leads below them who are doing quite well for themselves.

Holy crap @fourfathom. Damn you were the person I had In mind when I posted my question, $7.2 billion exit for your company, congratulations. I have a few questions for you:
how did you decide on Cerent?
There are hundreds of new startups each year with compelling products, what do you look for In a startup?
On staying on the technical track, it is relatively easy to be a middle manager, how did you have your engineering capabilities and contributions valued at the same level?
What advice would you give to your 25 year old self? what about educational attainment?

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