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How much do engineers specializing in these systems get paid? I interviewed at a couple of places that do industrial-style systems and in one case, I got an off

How much do engineers specializing in these systems get paid? I interviewed at a couple of places that do industrial-style systems and in one case, I got an offer that clocked in far below the requested rate (not a negotiation tactic, they declined to revise it), and at another, the recruiter couldn't hang up fast enough when she heard salary requirements. It's something like the Idiocracy Effect. In Idiocracy, the present-day world's best minds devote all their energy to eliminating hair loss and prolonging erections, eventually leading to a collapsed society. The real world is not too far off. Our best minds are dedicated to improving ad targeting and keeping users in vanity-gratifying loops on social media, while our industrial control systems that literally run the modern world wallow in the 70s. Everyone has some culpability in that. How many of us yearn to work for the local power utility (or one of their upstream vendors) rather than Facebook, Google, or the latest VC pump-and-dump scheme -- err, I mean, hot SV unicorn? Even if they did compensate competitively, are there enough hackers with a sense of [realism/duty/patriotism/INSERT_OTHER_SOCIAL_VALUE_HERE] to heed the call? There's definitely a role for some type of regulation or standards here. Industrial controls should be considered vital infrastructure that require serious and immediate investment. A brief visit to Shodan will show thousands of exposed industrial resources, and that should scare your pants off.

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Don't know about the US market but in EU salaries in the embedded/automotive/industrial control are crap compared to frontend/app kiddies. It's definitely a tragedy of the commons, idiocracy style. Lots of embedded work related to critical infrastructure is now dumped to Eastern Europe or Asia as the good people in this field are mostly gray beards which are deemed too expensive by management.
coryrc 7y ago
I used to work on those sorts of systems. I'm now making 3x as much at FAANG. I love working on systems where you own it top-to-bottom, but not going to turn down extra piles of cash every month.
nitrogen 7y ago
How many of us yearn to work for the local power utility I actually would (or a vendor as you say) if it didn't mean earning 1/3 or less as much money. I mean, what better way to give back to the world than to apply one's hard-earned skills to improving the technologies (water, gas, power, manufacturing) that make modern society possible? It's like real life Ark or Infinifactory. But the pay is just not viable, and there are often stricter credential requirements than in valley software engineering.
philpem 7y ago
As someone who worked in this industry -- it's peanuts, but they'll tell you its gold. I walked out of my IA job with the boss screeching about how I was "making the biggest mistake of my life", how "nobody can match our prestige"... after a four-year pay freeze. Nearly a 20% pay rise right off the bat, and that was the initial offer. The other thing about IA is there's no career progression for engineers unless someone higher-up quits (which usually triggers a deckchair shuffling or a hiring). If you're good at sales, you can progress into that -- otherwise your only option is likely to be management. If you want to make cool things, IA is not the industry for you. If you're happy making the same thing day-in day-out, just with a different coloured box? You'll fly. If you can play politics and ruthlessly spike your colleagues, you'll get all the way to the boardroom.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  May I ask how did you get out of industrial automation and where did you go after?

ChuckNorris89 7y ago

Don't know about the US market but in EU salaries in the embedded/automotive/industrial control are crap compared to frontend/app kiddies. It's definitely a tragedy of the commons, idiocracy style. Lots of embedded work related to critical infrastructure is now dumped to Eastern Europe or Asia as the good people in this field are mostly gray beards which are deemed too expensive by management.

coryrc 7y ago

I used to work on those sorts of systems. I'm now making 3x as much at FAANG. I love working on systems where you own it top-to-bottom, but not going to turn down extra piles of cash every month.

nitrogen 7y ago

How many of us yearn to work for the local power utility I actually would (or a vendor as you say) if it didn't mean earning 1/3 or less as much money. I mean, what better way to give back to the world than to apply one's hard-earned skills to improving the technologies (water, gas, power, manufacturing) that make modern society possible? It's like real life Ark or Infinifactory. But the pay is just not viable, and there are often stricter credential requirements than in valley software engineering.

philpem 7y ago

As someone who worked in this industry -- it's peanuts, but they'll tell you its gold. I walked out of my IA job with the boss screeching about how I was "making the biggest mistake of my life", how "nobody can match our prestige"... after a four-year pay freeze. Nearly a 20% pay rise right off the bat, and that was the initial offer. The other thing about IA is there's no career progression for engineers unless someone higher-up quits (which usually triggers a deckchair shuffling or a hiring). If you're good at sales, you can progress into that -- otherwise your only option is likely to be management. If you want to make cool things, IA is not the industry for you. If you're happy making the same thing day-in day-out, just with a different coloured box? You'll fly. If you can play politics and ruthlessly spike your colleagues, you'll get all the way to the boardroom.

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
May I ask how did you get out of industrial automation and where did you go after?