Mining Engineering. (3 Viewers)

[Meldrum]

Mining Engineering
Length - 4 years
Employment - 96.9
Average starting salary - $75,550
Average career salary - $166,200
Average top 10% salary - $250,000+

2005 UAI cut-off: 78.20

Now. That seems like a fucking great course. Small. Low UAI. GREAT SALARY. But why isn't it more popular?

I've been doing a bit of research into the course but all I can seem to find are chunky-butt university signs which point towards the money and seem to cloud the details of the job.

Currently, I'm looking to do Comm/Law at UNSW - 99.blegh. But, if I can get a good job with a starting salary of $75k+ why the fuck bother? Why not just work my arse off, then get my money to work for me, then shit all over you hard-working solicitors who'll be in the job for over 10 years before they get to my starting wage?

That's why I figure there's a catch...could something please tell me what it is.

 

[velox]

I know its off topic, but why are you looking to do a course that will earn heaps of money? Do something you enjoy.

I think why mining engineering isn't that popular is because as someone else stated you have to live near the mines which is in the middle of nowhere. That's pretty good employment figures too!

 

[Meldrum]

Effing good pay.

What's so wrong with wanting money?

I'm the type of person who'd hate anything they're doing. I figure that I might hate something a lot less if I'm making stacks of dosh for it.

 

[clive]

Be careful not to make the mistake of assuming that the course is easy just because it has a low UAI. Mining engineering is most likely to be a fairly hard couse with a fair workload. If you are genuinely interested in engineering go for it, but it isn't really the kind of course you do if you don't really like the stuff or you will find yourself in trouble

 

[Shuter]

My sister is a mining engineer. That pay seems a little bit high compared to what you'll actually look at averaging I tihnk, at least in Australia. If you are prepared to go overseas to places like Indonesia then yes you will get some very high pay.

The course is a fair amount of maths chemistry and physics, fairly demanding but of course still easily doable.

Downsides though are:

Stucking in outback towns in the middle of nowhere
With many uneducated bogans (the town's will be made purely of people who work in the mine essentially)
Can be boring work, and tedious
Stressful as you're responisble for safety.
Have to get up really early each morning

The pay is good but if you want to live in a big city it is very unwise to do this course.

 

[Slidey]

If you want money, do photovoltaics or petroleum or civil engineering instead. Far less boring and better conditions.

 

[Courtenay]

I would say if you were considering mining, do civil instead because you can get the same mining jobs with a civil degree, plus civil is open to more job options.

However, renewable energy is the way fo the future, so i would suggest looking at either photovoltaic engineering or renewable energy engineering because job is guarenteed, do not forget, in the next 5 years we will reach the point where we have used half the worlds oil, as such there is lots of money to be made in the renewable energy sector

I laugh at my uni, offering both petroleum and renewable engineering....

 

[stazi]

where did u get those starting etc wages figures?

 

[withoutaface]

Now. That seems like a fucking great course. Small. Low UAI. GREAT SALARY. But why isn't it more popular?

I've been doing a bit of research into the course but all I can seem to find are chunky-butt university signs which point towards the money and seem to cloud the details of the job.

Currently, I'm looking to do Comm/Law at UNSW - 99.blegh. But, if I can get a good job with a starting salary of $75k+ why the fuck bother? Why not just work my arse off, then get my money to work for me, then shit all over you hard-working solicitors who'll be in the job for over 10 years before they get to my starting wage?

That's why I figure there's a catch...could something please tell me what it is.

1. You have to move overseas.
2. You have to inspect mines.

 

[stazi]

3. it's hard to maintain a family.
4. you become a boring eeediot

 

[clive]

I would say if you were considering mining, do civil instead because you can get the same mining jobs with a civil degree, plus civil is open to more job options.

yep civil is the way to go

 

[Shuter]

1. You have to move overseas.
2. You have to inspect mines.
3. it's hard to maintain a family.
4. you become a boring eeediot

1. Untrue
2. True, but the amount of inspection can be minimised in some positions
3. Untrue, just yourfmaily will turn out to be outback bogans.
4. Fairly true, your life will revolve around mining.

 

[noneother]

those figures quoted are inaccurate. graduate job guide states it as 40kish starting salary - from memory.

 

[withoutaface]

The Great Jerkspe` says:
"fuck you u cunts go to bed"

 

[Slidey]

Um, you don't have to move overseas. One of Australia's main resources is minerals. There's plenty of jobs here.

The average UNSW graduate starts on $70K.

 

[Meldrum]

As it says in the quote, the figures come from the 2006 UNSW Engineering Prospectus.

Renewable energy, 'ey? You don't think that's a pipe-dream?

 

[Slidey]

No, I don't. It's hard to explain it to people. I've read and seen enough to know that renewable energy isn't a pipe dream but it's hard to convince others.

These articles might help you, but otherwise look at UNSW's Centre for Photovoltaics website.

http://physorg.com/news5370.html

Further: http://www.earthtoys.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=04.04.01&article=photovoltaics

And you could also take a look at Iceland as a model for a society suceeding of renewables. Renewables power about 80% of Iceland. (type iceland or 'hydrogen economy' into wikipedia)

Plenty of other information on the net.

 

[Slidey]

those figures quoted are inaccurate. graduate job guide states it as 40kish starting salary - from memory.

That's not correct. The figures quoted are UNSW specific. They are what the average UNSW mining graduate gets in his first year out. They are NOT estimates or guesses, but real figures from a statistical report on UNSW graduates.

So obviously if you don't plan to do the degree at UNSW, they wouldn't be very useful.

 

[laney]

I'm studying mining and civil engineering and can safely say that if you like working outdoors, or like geology type stuff, do mining. The civil part of my degree sucks and it's so hard compared to the mining subjects.

1. You have to move overseas.

You don't have to move overseas but there are good opportunities overseas if you do wish to travel. That's a big reason i'm doing it. I want to see other countries and work in other places around the world.

2. You have to inspect mines

As for inspecting mines, yeah, so? If being outdoors is something you enjoy, inspecting mines becomes a day to day activity.

3. it's hard to maintain a family.

Fuck off, why is maintaining a family hard just because of your degree. You're picking a lifestyle, not your family. If you don't want to raise a family in the middle of nowhere, there are other mining places where you can live where families have the same benefits to other people in cities.

4. you become a boring eeediot

Fuck off. Mining is cool. People who don't know anything about mining think it's boring.


And yes, you do get a lot of money. A lot. Even doing vacation work at a mine i got paid a shitload. They can afford to pay people a lot because there aren't enough people in the industry.

 

[Slidey]

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050721/NEWS01/507210368/1095

That's America, but it's a similar case around the world, INCLUDING Australia.

Also note the starting salary - $60K starting out. But that's American dollars, so it'd be far high in AUD.