School of Engineering - J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College

Engineering
Associate of Science

What do Engineers do?

Engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop economical solutions to technical problems. Their work is the link between perceived social needs and commercial applications.
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engineering

How much money do engineers make?

According the US Department of Labor, starting salaries are significantly higher than those of college graduates in other fields! In the Federal Government, mean annual salaries for engineers ranged from $100,059 in ceramic engineering to $70,086 in agricultural engineering in 2005!
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What is the job outlook for engineers?

Overall engineering employment is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations over the 2004-14 period. Engineers have traditionally been concentrated in slow-growing manu-facturing industries, in which they will continue to be needed to design, build, test, and improve manufactured products. However, increasing employment of engineers in faster growing service industries should generate most of the employment growth. Overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be favorable because the number of engineering graduates should be in rough balance with the number of job openings over this period. However, job outlook varies by specialty, as discussed later in this section. >> more

What do Engineers do?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, engineers consider m engineering men any factors when developing a new product. For example, in developing an industrial robot, engineers precisely specify the functional requirements; design and test the robot’s components; integrate the components to produce the final design; and evaluate the design’s overall effectiveness, cost, reliability, and safety. This process applies to the development of many different products, such as chemicals, computers, gas turbines, helicopters, and toys.

In addition to design and development, many engineers work in testing, production, or maintenance. These engineers supervise production in factories, determine the causes of component failure, and test manufactured products to maintain quality. They also estimate the time and cost to complete projects. Some move into engineering management or into sales. In sales, an engineering background enables them to discuss technical aspects and assist in product planning, installation, and use. Supervisory engineers are responsible for major components or entire projects. (See the statements on sales engineers and engineering and natural sciences managers elsewhere in the Handbook.)

How much money do engineers make?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, earnings for engineers vary significantly by specialty, industry, and education. Even so, as a group, engineers earn some of the highest average starting salaries among those holding bachelor’s degrees. The following tabulation shows average starting salary offers for engineers, according to a 2005 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Curriculum	Bachelor's	Master's	Ph.D.

Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical	$50,993	$62,930	$72,529
Agricultural	46,172	53,022	—
Bioengineering and biomedical	48,503	59,667	—
Chemical	53,813	57,260	79,591
Civil	43,679	48,050	59,625
Computer	52,464	60,354	69,625
Electrical/electronics and communications	51,888	64,416	80,206
Environmental/environmental health	47,384	—	—
Industrial/manufacturing	49,567	56,561	85,000
Materials	50,982	—	—
Mechanical	50,236	59,880	68,299
Mining & mineral	48,643	—	—
Nuclear	51,182	58,814	—
Petroleum	61,516	58,000	—

Variation in median earnings and in the earnings distributions for engineers in the various branches of engineering also is significant. For engineers in specialties covered in this statement, earnings distributions by percentile in May 2004 are shown in the following tabulation.

Specialty	10%	25%	50%	75%	90%

Aerospace	$52,820	$64,380	$79,100	$94,900	$113,520
Agricultural	37,680	43,270	56,520	77,740	90,410
Biomedical	41,260	51,620	67,690	86,400	107,530
Chemical	49,030	60,920	76,770	94,740	115,180
Civil	42,610	51,430	64,230	79,920	94,660
Computer hardware	50,490	63,730	81,150	102,100	123,560
Electrical	47,310	57,540	71,610	88,400	108,070
Electronics, except computer	49,120	60,280	75,770	92,870	112,200
Environmental	40,620	50,740	66,480	83,690	100,050
Health and safety, except mining safety	39,930	49,900	63,730	79,500	92,870
Industrial	42,450	52,210	65,020	79,830	93,950
Marine engineers and naval architects	43,790	54,530	72,040	89,900	109,190
Materials	44,130	53,510	67,110	83,830	101,120
Mechanical	43,900	53,070	66,320	82,380	97,850
Mining and geological, including mining safety	39,700	50,500	64,690	83,050	103,790
Nuclear	61,790	73,340	84,880	100,220	118,870
Petroleum	48,260	65,350	88,500	113,180	140,800

gas

What is the job outlook for engineers?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, competitive pressures and advancing technology will force companies to improve and update product designs and to optimize their manufacturing processes. Employers will rely on engineers to further increase productivity as investment in plant and equipment increases to expand output of goods and services. New technologies continue to improve the design process, enabling engineers to produce and analyze various product designs much more rapidly than in the past. Unlike in other fields, however, technological advances are not expected to limit employment opportunities substantially, because they will permit the development of new products and processes Many engineers work on long-term research and development projects or in other activities that continue even during economic slowdowns. In industries such as electronics and aerospace, however, large cutbacks in defense expenditures and in government funding for research and development have resulted in significant layoffs of engineers in the past. The trend toward contracting for engineering work with engineering services firms, both domestic and foreign, has had the same result.