Coaster Engineering Salary

The max salary is probably listed at 70k because you move up into management and get a whole new salary structure.

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roosel said:
Just to let you know....

Average starting salary for a mechanical engineer with a masters degree is $57,000....not a bad starting rate if you ask me...

I'm a 4th year ME/Aerospace engineering major, and ME is definately not easier then environmental or civil engineering .... and you can ask any CE or EE at my school and they'll agree... but as someone else said...it's all about enjoying your work...that's why you do it...not the money

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I definitely second this thought. At least here at Purdue University, a mechanical engineering degree is one of the more difficult degrees to obtain. Electrical degrees are slightly easier. A civil degree is much easier than these other two. The differences in major difficulties probably depends upon where you are getting your degree and the type of facilities as your institution.

I would *LOVE* to make 70K, Hell, if I made half that I would be pretty rich by my standards! but that will *never* happen in my current field or any field I have any apptitude in.

What do kids today expect?

Well apparently I'm the only CivE on here, so I must defend ...

1.) CivE's *do* design buildings, although that's not what I do. Architecht's design impossibilities, and haggle CivE's who actually know how to structurally accomplish what head-in-the-clouds architechts dream up until everyone's so fed up that nothing gets done and you get "engineered" buildings which are nothing more than ugly blocks.

2.) Sophmore year doesn't weed out all those who are in it for the money - I'm graduated and going for my masters, and I'm only in it for the money. I already hate it, and want to get out of it, but I'm only 2 1/2 months in, I figure I outta stick it out for at least a year.

3.) CivE is NOT the easiest, that would be Industrial, followed by Computer, then Electrical, THEN CivE, with MechE running a close one with Civ and ChemE thanks to OChem and BioE thanks to articificial organs and transport phenomena running at the tops. I don't know what's up with all your schools, but at 2am, the only ones you'll find in Pitt's Engineering building are ChemEs, CivEs and BioEs.

4.) And if anyone out there has any serious ideas on what an enthusiast who would love to have Will Koch's job, has a CivE degree, but is working towards his MBA and hates Engineering from a technical aspect could do with his life (although could handle management ... I'm all about logistics), I'm taking suggestions ...

Millrace - Kids today (at least in Pitt's Engineering program) are told that if they get $40k coming out of school, they should really be lookin' for another job, cause they're gettin' shafted. Only after settling in for a month or two and realizing that I'm lucky to have a JOB at this point, did I realize that they're lying through their teeth. But honestly, kids today are disappointed if the first figure of the 5 isn't a 5. *** Edited 3/23/2004 3:28:58 AM UTC by Impulse-ive***

Brett, not that I disagree with you myself, but I have some architect friends who might take issue with your #1... :)

(A friend of mine, who's an architect, said the difference between architects and civil engineers is that the architect can tell you that the arch looks pretty and will support the doorway, while the civil engineer can tell you the load factor on the keystone and work out how much extra it can take before it fails...)

As for #3, I don't know about Pitt's program, but at CMU, the EE/ECE's pulled the latest hours, by FAR. I was once up for 3 days straight wirewrapping our CPU design. Every engineering major will believe their degree is the hardest and argue till they're blue in the face that the others are easy, but truth is the guys who can do CivE would shrivel and die at the highest level EE coursework (for example), and visa-versa.
*** Edited 3/23/2004 4:21:08 AM UTC by GregLeg***

TTDragster14,

If you are concerned about the salary then you do not love the job enough. There are plenty of engineers (myself included) who would work for B&M (or others) soley for satisfaction of designing the greatest machines ever invented. If you wouldn't do it for free, then you shouldn't be doing it. And while you might be able to convince big engineering firms to hire you despite your lack of passion, coaster manufacturers are so small that you will certainly be hired by their genius leaders who will see right through you.

Why do you want to be an engineer?

Hey hey... I don't think it's unrealistic to expect that salary *will* play some part in determining what careers we pursue or how much we'll enjoy them. We all need to eat and pay the bills, after all.

That said, $70K annually isn't bad. You're already richer than 98% of the world, so that salary's nothing to scoff at.

There are plenty enough people designing amusement park rides, though. Have you ever considered pursuing other engineering pursuits? Designing medical technology or efficient, environmentally-friendly power sources, perhaps? There are many varied things to do within the broader engineering field that will make many, many meaningful contributions to society.

Engineering is a cool job. Engineers are cool people. They do some of the most amazing things happening on this planet, and they do it without fanfare, celebration or recognition. They do it because, if they didn't, things wouldn't nearly as well off for many of us as they are.

I have about three years of a four-year Bachelors of Engineering degree finished in mechanical engineering. I haven't finished it because it's not what I want to do, but the engineering work I've done for the past six years has imbued with an enormous appreciation for engineers. If you think it's something you're interested in pursuing, give it a try. You wouldn't be the first person to change your mind about anything if you don't like it, and you'll certainly not be the last.

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Impulse-ive said:

But don't count on being a Roller Coaster Engineer. You gotta realize there are about 10 to 15 actual RC engineers out there - and 80% are in Denmark and Switzerland. So, I'd say, good dream, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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Being that im a mechanical engineering student planning a career in roller coaster and theme park attractions design i have to disagree with that statement. Being that a particular firm have more that that number working for them personally i feel you have your numbers and speculations wrong. Just because some names in the industry are more heard than others doesnt mean its only 10 people responsible for hundreds of coasters.

Its not cool to shoot someones dreams down. If someone on here wants to presue a career in coaster designing then I applaud them. Its better to have a dream and try to presue it regardless of the odds than just to sit back and give up because someone said its only 3 coasters designers world wide!! Heck the ratio of coaster to designers to firms, according to some folks theory would be like 1:1.

The last i cheked a firm has various types of engineers working there. theres Structure Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Design Engineers, and Electrical Engineerings just to name a few. And im sure and average companie has more than one of each.

So to bringing this to a close, its not cool to shoot someones dream of becomming a coaster designer because you feel it cant happen. Especially at a coaster site. Im sure Walt Disney had the same experiences, and im quite sure Bill Gates was told over and over that another computer producer wouldnt last long being that apple was very prominent.

coasterbruh, no one's shooting anyone's dreams down. In the words of comedian Adam Hills, "Go you big red fire engine!" We're just being realistic.

The money's not in engineering and never has been. It's in engineering management - you're controlling a team of engineers.

Don't waste your life in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Do engineering because you enjoy the sort of work. Yeah, of course keep that dream going that some day you might work for a ride manufacturer, but expect in the meantime to work at places like mines, industrial , or designing bridges, buildings or whatever (depends on your discipline of course).

If you want to be filthy stinking rich, unless you're in a businessy industry where you can sleaze and backstab your way to a cushy executive position, the only way it'll happen is if you go out into the world head-on and do things for yourself. Not easy, loads of tireless work and you're practically doomed to fail anyway, but if $70k doesn't cut it for you, that's how you have to go. *** Edited 3/23/2004 9:17:14 AM UTC by auscoasterman***

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Just because some names in the industry are more heard than others doesnt mean its only 10 people responsible for hundreds of coasters.

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I, like Jeff, have met quite a few of the designers out there and liek he said, it's not because either of us are popular, there just are not that many.

You would be surprised that most coaster geeks who can list some are listing a majority of them. There are not that many.

The biggest example of it I can think of is Gravity Group. We know they are respected engineers and coaster designers, CCI creations were and still are some of the best wooden coasters out there, but in 2 years, how many major jobs have they gotten? 1 ... at a semi-backwoods park in Wisconsin. That barely seems like enough to sustain 4 engineers, let alone be looking to add some fresh-from-school kid who needs to be integrated into the business, taught the codes, etc.

And I never shot the dream down, I just told him what I came to realize - its nice to have something to shoot for, but you gotta face reality that it's probably not going to happen and not have it be life or death if it doesn't!

And GregLeg - that's just because CMU sucks ;) j/k, some EEs work hard, but most of the ones at Pitt were slackoffs. They didn't work hard, but it reflected in their grades. I knew a couple that worked just as hard as us CivEs that were friends with my roommate (CMU EEs I mean), and I only knew 1 out of the whole crew at Pitt that worked that hard ... *** Edited 3/23/2004 1:09:15 PM UTC by Impulse-ive***

Actually, TGG has been doing a bit of consulting work over the last year or two doing less glamorous work, like foundations and such. Just because they don't have a big ride doesn't mean they're not working.

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coasterbruh said:
Its not cool to shoot someones dreams down. If someone on here wants to presue a career in coaster designing then I applaud them. Its better to have a dream and try to presue it regardless of the odds than just to sit back and give up because someone said its only 3 coasters designers world wide!

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It's not a matter of being shot down, it's a matter of balancing realism with idealism. As we get older we tend to gain more of the former and let go of more of the latter. It's bad to lean too far in either direction, if you ask me.

Besides, even in college, you think you know what you want, but you really don't. I was going to have a great radio career, and got a lot further in my first year than most people ever get. It's another field without enough jobs to go around. I got out, and enjoy being a code monkey. But even that requires the right circumstance. Six figures isn't worth it when it sucks the soul from your very being.

At the ripe young age of 30, my goal right now is to live the J-Pizzie lifestyle with the minimum amount of work, doing things that I like. Life's too short for anything else.

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CPgenius said:

At least here at Purdue University,

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Uh-oh. Can't resist. Gotta tell you about my favorite casual shirt...on the back, it says, "Friends don't let friends go to Purdue." :)

My son is an EE/Math double major at Rose-Hulman. (He's double minoring, too--can't remember the specifics, though.)

Speaking as a mother, and someone who has a very satisfying career...work hard in school, keep your eyes open to opportunity, and don't have a rigid view of your future. Back in high school, it never occured to me to look for a job in the tourism industry.

Good luck! Paula

Bro, the average american salary is somewhere between 30-40 thousand a year. 70,000 is a very good salary, especially if starting out of your master's you get 57,000 A YEAR.

Paula: one of my colleagues went to RH. Comparing his experience to mine at Berkeley, I'd wager that your son is getting a great education there.

igron: It's interesting to me that your degree is the "hardest". Also, I don't know where you get your numbers, but $25K for a CivE/ME degree is off, and potentially way off. Here are the numbers reported for Michigan graduates over the past year. Since salary distributions tend to be heavy-tailed (a few of the very best people can command very high salaries), you want to focus on the median numbers, not the averages. These are only valid for Michigan students, but are probably not far off what students at other schools mentioned can command.

http://career.engin.umich.edu/MISalary_03.htm

As has been mentioned, salary numbers can differ from location to location, but in my experience typically do not vary enough to cover cost of living differences. In other words, if you live in a "cheap" place, your salary will be a bit lower, but not as much as you'd expect given the lower area costs, resulting in a higher overall standard of living. On the other hand, if you live in a place with high average salaries, chances are cost-of-living differences more than eat up the extra. This was certainly true when I last looked for a job in '98, but it is also fair to say that regional variations in PhD starting salaries are much smaller than they are for those with Bachelors and Masters degrees. Plus, you have to factor in the observation that cheap places have lousy weather and are nowhere near the ocean.

I see three kinds of students: those who are in it because engineering pays well, those who are in it because their parents want them to do something serious in college, and those who are interested in being engineers. Typically, only the third group excels at engineering as a career. The first tends to leave technical fields to go to management, either via promotion from within or the MBA route. They're paid better, and they are happier too. The second group finds what they like eventually. They might not be paid better, but they are happier.

For Ph.D. students pondering which direction to go for their first post-graduate job, I give the following advice. (The originator of this advice is David Patterson, with whom the CE's in the audience should all be familiar.) Everyone is motivated in their work life by some combination of four factors: Fame, Fortune, Family, and Fatherhood. Fame: "People know who I am." Fortune: "I get plenty of money for doing what I do." Family: "The people I work with are great." Fatherhood: "My products are used by large numbers of people." It doesn't matter which of these dominates your personal value system---no one value is "best". It does matter that you understand which one dominates, so you can pick the right job for you.

For CS PhD students, the answers are: Fame--university faculty; Fortune--serial entrepreneur; Family--big reasearch lab; Fatherhood--Microsoft. :)

Finally, I remember a talk given semi-annually by a CMU PhD graduate who had gone off to start a number of companies. One of his main points was: the technical people in a start up always get the smallest equity share, while the managers, lawyers, and marketing folks always get more. There is a reason---companies (at least in CS/CE/EE) don't succeed or fail based on their technical superiority, and history is littered with examples. Apollo, NeXT, and BeOS are just a few that come to mind.

My wife and I both work full-time, in the fields we studied for (me in English and her in radiologic technology). I've been at the same place for six years and she has more than 10 years experience, and we don't make $70,000 *together.* Yet we own a house, new car and live a pretty easy life.

$70,000 is a *ton* of money.

Oh, TTDTom, the Bible says that the LOVE of money is A root of ALL KINDS of evil. Much different.
*** Edited 3/23/2004 2:45:54 PM UTC by Den***

How can you support your DDR habit on that? ;)

GameWorks gives you a free 1-hour play card every time you join their online club. :)

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Jeff said:
...it's a matter of balancing realism with idealism. As we get older we tend to gain more of the former and let go of more of the latter.

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So you're telling me it's time to give up on my NBA dreams? Short, white, and slow is no way to go through life...;)

I remain *constantly* impressed by how MOST of us think of 50K, 60K or even 70K a year as a LOT of money...and yet, there are LOADS of people out there who wouldn't DREAM of living on that much each MONTH....(those are the ones who insist on calling themselves "middle class")....gotta love delusional thinking...:)

Salary is nowhere *near* as important as lifestyle...and if you really feel you *require* 100K to live on, then you really shouldn't be working for someone else...;)

edit: Just dropping this in....colleges oftentimes tell you that an *average* person starting out with your degree should make such-and-such per year to start. Remember, that "average" includes more than a few people who get hired right out of school to manage daddy's company (or daddy's crony's company)...those folks BOOST the average considerably, MOST make nowhere near that. Statistics RULZ!!! *** Edited 3/23/2004 4:22:49 PM UTC by rollergator***

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Brian Noble said:
Paula: one of my colleagues went to RH. Comparing his experience to mine at Berkeley, I'd wager that your son is getting a great education there.

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He's one happy puppy. Not that my son's an overachiever, or anything...but at the end of his freshman year (in May), he'll have enough credits to be a junior.

He spent his quarter break a few weeks ago studying in the hopes of testing out of statistics. (He did.)

Happily, he's also social and musical. In fact, if you've attended SRM in the past, Thomas played electric bass in the employee "garage band."

And for those of you reading this who are at college--stay in touch with your parents! We miss you! </nag> Luckily, we have two other sons at home, so the nest is far from empty.

Paula