5 ms·

Yeah no kidding. I was shocked at the numbers in this article. A 15-year engineer in aerospace gets you ~120k.

by metalliqaz 5y ago

cushychicken 5y ago
I've seen fpga engineers pull down $150k Real drought of senior talent in that area
- ecshafer 5y ago
  A lot of the fpga talent is going towards Finance and ML companies nowadays from what I have seen, that's probably causing the salaries to bump up in non finance world.
jurassic 5y ago
I'm not surprised. I'm guessing the aerospace industry is relatively stable in size (we don't suddenly need a lot more planes, spacecraft, or weapon systems than in the past), so employers in that industry don't need to offer big compensation packages to lure away scarce employees from competitors in order to enable that growth.
- gremIin 5y ago
  I would guess the opposite. There is a ton of new stuff going into space, and by a larger variety of organizations than in the past.
- hasdf 5y ago
  from talking to friends I think its more that there are really only 2-3 viable employers in the US, so there is little option to jump ship for higher salary. This keeps salaries artificially low. For example a friend of mine worked at raytheon, jumped to lockheed for a raise, back to raytheon for another raise, and then back to lockheed. You can only do that so many times before companies stop hiring you. Whereas in my field (IT consulting) there are an almost infinite amount of small companies to work for
  - metalliqaz 5y ago
    There is a lot more to aerospace than just the primes (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics). There are thousands of smaller companies that produce the parts and services that are used for the big projects.
Rebelgecko 5y ago
I don't know if this was anomalous, but I was making a smidge more than that in the aerospace industry with 5 years experience
- metalliqaz 5y ago
  what region, if you don't mind me asking?
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    Los Angeles area
nostrademons 5y ago
At my first job in financial software, one of my coworkers was an MIT-grad aeronautical engineer with ~5 years experience in aerospace, ~6 months software. He took a pay cut (though not much of one - I think he went from about $90K -> $75K) to get into finance, because aeronautical engineering doesn't really pay you enough money to have a decent life in the Boston area. Within 2 years he'd jumped ship to a hedge fund and was making about double his aerospace salary. And people wonder why we don't make things in the U.S. anymore...
astura 5y ago
Coincidentally I currently work in aerospace (in a software engineering role) and I have 15 years experience. I wish I made $120k/year.... :(
- the_only_law 5y ago
  Makes me wonder if it’s worth it to just say fuck it and leave software development for some other mediocre paying field I have interest in. Sure, there’s probably gonna be big financial hit in some form, but I don’t see a good reasons to stay in software development anymore if I’m not someone who can command the massive salaries.

Yeah no kidding. I was shocked at the numbers in this article. A 15-year engineer in aerospace gets you ~120k.

cushychicken 5y ago

I've seen fpga engineers pull down $150k Real drought of senior talent in that area

ecshafer 5y ago
A lot of the fpga talent is going towards Finance and ML companies nowadays from what I have seen, that's probably causing the salaries to bump up in non finance world.

jurassic 5y ago

I'm not surprised. I'm guessing the aerospace industry is relatively stable in size (we don't suddenly need a lot more planes, spacecraft, or weapon systems than in the past), so employers in that industry don't need to offer big compensation packages to lure away scarce employees from competitors in order to enable that growth.

gremIin 5y ago
I would guess the opposite. There is a ton of new stuff going into space, and by a larger variety of organizations than in the past.
hasdf 5y ago
from talking to friends I think its more that there are really only 2-3 viable employers in the US, so there is little option to jump ship for higher salary. This keeps salaries artificially low. For example a friend of mine worked at raytheon, jumped to lockheed for a raise, back to raytheon for another raise, and then back to lockheed. You can only do that so many times before companies stop hiring you. Whereas in my field (IT consulting) there are an almost infinite amount of small companies to work for
- metalliqaz 5y ago
  There is a lot more to aerospace than just the primes (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics). There are thousands of smaller companies that produce the parts and services that are used for the big projects.

Rebelgecko 5y ago

I don't know if this was anomalous, but I was making a smidge more than that in the aerospace industry with 5 years experience

metalliqaz 5y ago
what region, if you don't mind me asking?
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  Los Angeles area

nostrademons 5y ago

At my first job in financial software, one of my coworkers was an MIT-grad aeronautical engineer with ~5 years experience in aerospace, ~6 months software. He took a pay cut (though not much of one - I think he went from about $90K -> $75K) to get into finance, because aeronautical engineering doesn't really pay you enough money to have a decent life in the Boston area. Within 2 years he'd jumped ship to a hedge fund and was making about double his aerospace salary. And people wonder why we don't make things in the U.S. anymore...

astura 5y ago

Coincidentally I currently work in aerospace (in a software engineering role) and I have 15 years experience. I wish I made $120k/year.... :(

the_only_law 5y ago
Makes me wonder if it’s worth it to just say fuck it and leave software development for some other mediocre paying field I have interest in. Sure, there’s probably gonna be big financial hit in some form, but I don’t see a good reasons to stay in software development anymore if I’m not someone who can command the massive salaries.