Comments on: Top 5 Most Underpaid Jobs

By: alf

alf — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:06:48 +0000

ENGINEERING AND THE PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH F****** SUCK!!!!! I HATED MY LAST JOB AND THE PEOPLE SO MUCH THAT IT HAS COMPLETELY RUINED ENGINEERING FOR ME

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:41:06 +0000

First off, Architects, go write something about how underpaid you are. The author of the post freely admitted that you guys are overworked and underpaid.

I totally agree that engineers are underpaid. I work as one, and I work my @55 off for people who make more money than I do because they don’t have an ability to understand how a system works. Engineering has become a commodity over the years, not a profession, and our wages have become stagnant. The thing is, it is not really about the money.

I became an engineer so I could solve problems and come up with systems that benefit society or make existing systems work cleaner, cheaper and better. I do not do that because I am too busy filling out spreadsheets so people can see how much money they are spending/will spend. How come they can’t get an accountant to do it? Because engineers can understand the system AND can do the number crunching.

So, yes, I will get out of my job eventually, but I am staying long enough to get my license.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:00:05 +0000

Architects don’t have time to run into you. They’re too busy being underpaid to talk about being underpaid.

By: Spidermedic

Spidermedic — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:18:47 +0000

i think there is really no need for a debate for which job is underpaid or what. Salaries are all determined by the demand n supply market driving forces. If you think you are underpaid, then why are you still clinging on to your job? Because tt job is your choice job. You want to be a engineer, doctor, policeman etc.. no one force you to do that? so yeah, ppl.. just love your job instead of complaining n live life well

By: Walter Allen

Walter Allen — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:09:09 +0000

I am a retired software engineer. Got an EE degree in 1965 at the height of the space program and actually worked for NASA RIGHT OUT OF COLLEGE. You are absolutely correct that American engineers are well under paid, or as we used to say ‘Engineers are always on TAP but never ON TOP’. I think the problem is that the American business model has alwys been short term profit driven and that means those selling some thing (or managing money) will always be more visible (and therefore better paid) than those actually creating things in the basement. Also engineers tend to mostly be the first in their families to go to college, and we went to “get a job” , not to find ourselves. WE took courses that were extrememly difficult and robbed us of time and opportunities to develop people and negotiation skills AND TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE, . Undergraduate engineering can be a HUMBLING experiance, did you know that the class average for freshman MIT physics is a 65% and these are Brilliant kids? So we have been conditioned to see ourselves as always just barely keeping up with the science. I think this carries on throughout our careers and we kind of become mute when it comes time to negotiate our due rewards. We never organized because we see ourselves as part of management but management does not have the same view. In America, engineers are viewed as skilled (for a time ) labor that is replaceable about every 10 years. Now with outsourcing the financial guys are really destroying the future for American based engineers. India, China, Russia etc have a cadre of young engineering graduates who will continue to work themselves to death for much less than their worth.
A recent study of graduates from Duke who degreed in engineering showed that most never worked as engineers but went on to Wall street. Even the peresident of Georia Tech , a few years back, questioned the future of the profession. So when I hear Greenspan and others decry that Americans are not pursuing eengineering, AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH OUR ECONOMY , I want to choke them !!