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Engineering Grad Salaries (2 Viewers)

Geologic

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Chameleon wrote: "salaries aren't going to push above $55k a year for grad engineers."

Err the average for 1st yr. graduate mining engineers @ UNSW is over $90,000; the faculty keeps a record of it, plus I have spoken to those who are about to graduate and what the offers & expectations are. Petroleum engineering is a bit higher and can even push the 100 grand limit.

It's simple supply/demand, the industry is so short of & desperate for these two professions that EVERY student in the final year mining has accepted employment before graduating. I can think of NO other course out there that offers anything like that potential; hence why I tranferred to mining.

Plus from the grapevine I've heard the lifestyle can be incredible. Although a lot of the work is FIFO, this can suit certain people. A speaker was saying that on his breaks (7 days on: 5 off, I think) you get a group of people together and connect a flight straight to Fiji, Indonesia, PNG, skiing in New Zealand, Malaysia, New Caledonia, and so forth. Since I intend to be a PT writer this provides amazing exposure to the South-East Asia region, which is also easy since you earn enough to fly wherever without drama & can even get some flight credit from the company.

I have also heard there is amazing opportunities abroad, such as South America & Europe, depending on the operations that the company has. Also there is the possibility of getting into the business aspect of then industry (have a commerce degree in Management/Marketing from Melb Uni; hopefully will study some post-grad economics down the line); selling & trading gold while flying around South America & West Africa sounds like a decent option.

NB: I am still studying and haven't been exposed directly to the industry; this is all based on extensive research, going to speakers, talking to grads, etc. But yeah 55k is chump change in mining, and you can expect more.

:pirate:
 

blue_chameleon

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Chameleon wrote: "salaries aren't going to push above $55k a year for grad engineers."

Err the average for 1st yr. graduate mining engineers @ UNSW is over $90,000; the faculty keeps a record of it, plus I have spoken to those who are about to graduate and what the offers & expectations are. Petroleum engineering is a bit higher and can even push the 100 grand limit.

NB: I am still studying and haven't been exposed directly to the industry; this is all based on extensive research, going to speakers, talking to grads, etc. But yeah 55k is chump change in mining, and you can expect more.

:pirate:
I was making that comment in regards to the overall Engineering field, rather than any specific area such as Mining. Obviously, when you factor in the living conditions and a lot of other factors, then guys in mining at good companies are going to be pulling a lot of coin.

My point was, that overall, when you take out the outliers in the salary data, then salaries are realistically expected to be around the $55k - $60k mark at current. If there's stories of higher, that's great. But we're looking at the norm here of the overall field and not exceptions to the rule in specific areas.
 

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