If you're in college and you want to get the most out of your engineering degree financially, save this. Here's the blueprint.
Step 1: Pick your target employer
Your target employer is most likely going to be a large corporation. They have the money to pay their employees the most.
Among those large companies, look for industries that pay entry level engineers six figures. Some of those are oil and gas, semiconductors, big tech, and aerospace and defense.
To check that a company actually pays entry level engineers over six figures, look on Glassdoor or Levels.fyi. You can also check the company website. A lot of job postings list the salary range.
Step 2: Freshman year
Join a design club, get involved in undergraduate research, and build personal projects. By the end of freshman year you want a solid resume and a good portfolio. That should be enough to get an internship at a small company.
Small companies are great for your freshman and sophomore summers because they're usually less competitive than large corporations. You can still apply to the big companies. It's just easier to get your first internship at a smaller one.
Need project ideas? There are 134 on this site, sorted by major and difficulty.
Step 3: Sophomore year
Keep going with your clubs, your research, and your personal projects. The summer after sophomore year, intern at a slightly larger company so you build more skills and experience.
Step 4: Junior year
Move into a leadership position in your club, and keep building on the same experience from your first two years.
The difference is that this year you go after an internship at your target company. Once you have two internships, a leadership role, undergraduate research, and personal projects, you are a standout candidate. It gets a lot easier at that point.
Your GPA matters
This goes without saying. You should also have a high GPA. If you want to make six figures straight out of college, your GPA should be above a 3.5. That's a non negotiable for me.
Don't plan around the exceptions
Someone will always comment, "I graduated with a 2.2 GPA, did zero clubs, did zero projects, and still got a six figure offer at Lockheed Martin."
Exceptions aren't the rule. If someone had a really low GPA and still got great results, they likely didn't do it alone. They probably had a connection or a referral that got their foot in the door.
And you might be on the other end of that comment, a student with a 3.2 GPA who's struggling to get an internship, thinking you aren't trying hard enough.
Don't look at the outlier. Look at what the average person can do to raise their odds:
- Go to career fairs and employer events
- Build a portfolio
- Make a business card
- Join a club
- Do a personal project
If you do all of these, the odds are in your favor. Do the obvious things.
Want to see how fast your degree pays for itself? Try the ROI calculator.