What I Made as an Electrical Engineer 

I found switching jobs every 2-3 years early in career can increase your pay scale considerably vs settling for the small annual increases that barely cover cost of living at the same company unless there is internal promotion opportunity. Otherwise, staying at the same job for long-term may reduce your marketability potential elsewhere.

I subscribed to you in my first year of Uni and now I'm graduating as an electrical engineer lmao.

This is very insightful, quality content as always.

love this type of content and agree with everything you said here after working as process engineer for 10 years

Wow, I'm having a similar situation to what has been mentioned at around 11:21 of this video. I have no idea how to properly explain to my manager that I can't show my skills or get more work done because I they give me this other thing to do which is a full time job in itself and this thing is not even included in the performance review at the end of the year! This video is very helpful!

Thanks for being transparent. This is why I’m subscribed. :)

1000% agree with this method of increasing your pay in the engineering field. I graduated with my Mechanical engineering degree in 2018 and the only significant bumps Ive gotten are with switching companies, just be CAREFUL to not switch too many companies too quickly as they will start to question your resume. ALSO WHY DON'T ENGINEERS HAVE UNIONS?! WE ARE SMART ENOUGH TO CREATE THEM BUT FOR SOME REASON WE DON'T COME TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY

Great video recapping your journey with great info.

The video I've been waiting for!!

as a fellow Asian and NA ee grad, I love listening to other engineers talk trash about Finance people 😂 they are most conniving type of planners, as in they are trained to only think about short term gains.

I been so interested in the kind of field work hopefully things turn out alright for me wish me luck 🙏

Dude! All this time and only now am I finding out you were an Electrical Engineer! You do realise there’s a massive community of people on YT studying, myself included (not for a job). You could really help (and make some more YT bank) people with all that knowledge. Having said that, I should probably ask if you already have a channel dedicated to it lol.

We need you to share some pro tips on how to get promoted from Jr. Relaxation Engineer to Sr. Relaxation Engineer.

I have a MSEE from one of the top state universities too. Unfortunately, I work in the Fab and there are not many jobs. You are right about the raise. It is no good if I stay in the same company. I used to spend too much money on useless things. Now, I save money as much as possible and invest in the market. I hope I will join you soon to retire comfortably. BTW, I wish I had computer science degree. I love programming and FAANG pays much better than MSEE.

Thx for your information

Hi, My take is that changing job once every two years is the best approach as per my perspective. It allows one to learn the different organisation's culture and new things. WTK

Great advice, I've found if you broach the subject of expecting more than a 3% raise a few weeks before the review process is finalized you have a good chance of getting a bigger raise. There's definitely a cap on how much they'll give you unless you have offers from other companies.

I believe the “taboo” is so everyone thinks they’re overpaid & isn’t aggressive about compensation - the way execs are.

I graduated in 2020 during the the start of the pandemonic, and now after 1.5 years trying to find a job is so hard, since i don't have much experience ; the most funny thing is that even interns required some experienced from pervious internship SMH

This was a good video!

Great video!

Thanks for breaking it all down and explaining your salary! I’m an electrical engineering student and was wondering what the salary would look like down the road

not sure if its just the lighting, but you're looking much healthier/well-rested these days BTB...hope all is well!

Heck I worked for a Korean Auto Manufacturing company. I didn’t get a raise for 4 years. They offered $2500 bonuses instead. It was a slap in the face.

Agreed. The only way to get a good pay bump is to jump ship. My current company is hemorrhaging engineers daily. SO many people are leaving, including myself. It feels good

Very informative

thank you so much

This is exactly what I do and advise other engineers to do as well.

thanks for the vid of your experiences. i can feel your experiences as they happen in many industries. Because your now in a better position you dont need the aggravation , and can just relax without all that , it just doesnt give you inner peace working in these companies

That was a fun pay journey to hear about. My company has a set pay scale for my position. The scale does increase depending on what's going on in the industry. From the bottom of the scale to the top is a difference of 124% so it more than doubles

Hello sir. Great video. Kindly tell how are things in the electrical power engineering ? Am I just working towards a dead end or does it have any good carreer opportunities either good pay in the USA. Looking forward to your reply. Thank you so much

This is true and is a good tip if you job is demanding like his, but normal people who have regular jobs, changing jobs every 2-3 yrs may raise a red flag in hr’s perception. Also kind of makes your resume look like you have patterns for not staying at one place more than a couple of yrs.

I didn't jump around....stupidly stayed with the same co for 22 years! Fortunately I was able to promote myself to Sr Relaxation Mgr last yr due to going all in on $TSLA

This was well done, very interesting.

Thanks for sharing all of this information. We are the same generation as I graduated in 2003 Bachelor's degree. I just got a job as an electrical engineer for Pickering nuclear power plant in Ontario CA. After finishing mine over 19 years of designing nuclear power plant experience in China. I think it's lucky to get a salary of over CAD$ 8k per month. 😂

You are definitely right, the only way to get real raises is to switch jobs. On the other side, you don’t want to switch job too much so people think you jump around all the time. I started my first job as an architect at 40k, after 10yrs I’m finally at 6 figures. Thanks to recent hot job market.

I Houston, Tx I never made it pass 90k with my engineering degree. I live comfortably but never extravagant. I was able to pay off my house but never accumulated enough to venture into anything else. Got laid off last couple months and it’s hard from where I use to be to finding something similar to salary. I just think in big cities, they usually don’t pay well as they can find similar talents with someone cheaper

Nice I have a bachelors in EE, 3.5 years of experience, second job after school making 100k in AZ, started at 69k

heyy im attending UCLA for my third year for EE! I am going to keep my GPA above 3.5 to guarantee masters program at UCLA. Thanks for helping pave the road!

Very genuine summary and advice. It brought back my memories of starting up 46K in San Fran like 10 years ago. The couple raises I got from moving to other companies saved me from poverty. Another point if helpful (but really depends on industries) - stay in the same job for at least 1-2 years before moving on. Otherwise it's easy to get a raise in cash by jumping around, but not necessarily helpful to growth in title or career.

Definitely can relate to feeling desperate. I graduated a few years ago in a different field than yours making barely above minimum wage in the Bay at around $22 and jumped to $115k five months later

I really wish I had the time to go back to school and pursue this career to better my family

Would you say this logic and strategy is useful for any field ? I’m wondering if I can apply it to the field of nursing or if it’s strictly tied to electrical engineering?

Hey BTB, I saw in the comments that you worked with microcontroller programming and in one of the tables you showed, it looks like you worked in consumer electronics for quite some time. Do you have any tips/advice for developing skills to become better at writing firmware and such? I'm not an EE major...I've been working an embedded software engineer for about 8 months now and my background is really more on the programming side.

GoodMorning sir from Philippines here , I really need your advice for me what career path to choice I recently passed the EE board exam . Hope you notice this .

i'm a senior engineer myself and my salary is pretty stagnant the last 2 years. I'm at 120 but I am thinking long term. My cousin who is 8 years younger is a firefighter prob makes 50-60k. In 10 years, he will be making 6 figures easily with a pension fund building. I don't think I am ready for an architect role. Ageism is a thing I worry about in IT.

Thanks for sharing. I'll list my salaries too. And good for you guys, you all did better than me. I lost hope and faith and gave up after 15 years of job hunting while unemployed, and still unemployed today. I guess not everyone can get a job in their chosen field. I wonder what the true statistics are. Graduated in 1994 with an EE degree, couldn't get EE job interviews but I was able to find two jobs, first a maintenance job and after that an electronic technician bench repair job. I don't remember the exact wages, something like $8-9 an hour and $11-12 an hour. It took me four years, to finally get hired as an EE in 1998 designing electrical power transformers, for $32K. But it was more like assembly line work just plugging in numbers in a spreadsheet. (No electronics just wires wrapped around iron cores). Their business slowed and 3 1/2 years later in 2001 I was laid off, with a salary of 40K. Never could get an interview after this so my degree and short career just rotted away. Employers for manufacturing jobs told me I'm overqualified and employers for engineering jobs told me I'm underqualified for EE and electronic technician jobs.

thx

Your salary journey was very insightful, as to see how other careers do compare to yours. My brother graduated as a food scientist in 2020 and as a recent graduate with no experience couldn't find a job for over 6 months, he applied every day for jobs, when he finally landed a job he only got paid $20 an hr. He's been there at this job for little over 6months and even though he keeps applying to jobs , noone calls him back because they are asking for experience of 2 to 3 years minimum. So, he feels stuck where my stepson makes $21 an hr working for FedEx. 🤦‍♀️ it's just funny to me.

This is a very valuable video, thank you for making this! I have a question: if I apply for other jobs right and somehow get an offer that's higher than what i currently make, aren't there consequences to showing my manager this and nudging them for a raise? Now, they would know that I'm looking for other jobs so wouldn't I be the first to get fired/laid off, especially if I'm not a top performer?

i bet your smart as hell!!. not easy to get masters in EE. EE are already smart before they become EE.

What's your take on getting a masters as an EE straight from college? Is it worth it if the company is paying for it? or Is it better to get the experience from just working?

Wow your salary journey has been so different than mine. What field of EE where you in? Consulting engineering doesn't pay nearly as much. I started at 40k in 2008 as an EE.

When switch companies for higher pay. How often until it becomes suspicious or even a red flag?

1:18 "Company: Bum" Lol!

I’m living in South Australia. Can you suggest me business idea in electrical. I have done my graduation as an electrical engineer

Thanks for sharing. It would also be interesting to know how many hours you worked per week.

I'm a hard worker with good grades finishing my 3rd year of Electrical Engineering at Canadian uni with co-op program. I am on the fence about masters since I'd rather just work and buff up my resume instead, I also hear some companies will pay for your masters, any advice?

What type of Electrical Engineer were you? Any advice if I want to become a Firmware Engineer or Embedded Systems Engineer?

As a person who never has nor likely ever will pay for college I’ve never felt so uncomfortable reading a comment section. I’m also an electrician paid 60k/yr….it’s very hard on my body, long hours, unwanted travel……it’s almost fascinating how high in sky you are from here…

Mechanical engineer here !

Do you think a electrical engineering technician associate degree is worth pursuing?

That’s a LOT more than I thought engineers make.

Started on USD 100k in 2014, now earning USD 85k. Consistent pay rises, but home currency depreciation!!!

Pro tip: always negotiate your salary denominated in Bitcoin to hedge inflation.

I'm 25 yrs old and I'm an electrician would it be to late to start studying for an electrical engineering degree while I'm working as electrician

Back at the crib

Which country are you from ?

There is a book called "Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute by Jack Chapman" that you can buy used for less than 15$. I highly recommend it.

The unneeded stress to get a pay increase of 20% 20k/ 40K? Getting too old for that. Leverage your net worth and earn that amount in dividend. Let the returns 3X your regular income. Meditate and do anything your heart desires.

​ @BeatTheBush LOL, wut? I got to switch jobs!... I started exactly the same year as you with the same MSEE degree at $62K per year. The difference.. I stayed 6 yrs at the first company, In my second company now about 10yrs, I make way less than you. Great Video!

Great video. In general I would never recommend anyone take a "matching" offer from an existing employer to keep someone from leaving. Once you accept, now there's an expectation for you to over-perform and work tons of hours. It never works out in my experience and in talking to many of my peers.

Something to think about. Usually when people stay at a job they were preparing to quit only because they've been offered more money they last with that job for less than 12 months. Whatever was going on you were undervalued and it wasn't good. There is a good chance they're just preparing to replace you

Pls hw do you make all these companies know you

Did you ever feel like an imposter in some of your jobs? Can you do a video on how you prepared for interviews etc?

What's impressive is that you made a huge fortune with your investments, from what you earned as an electrical engineer. Getting more pay is not as important as what you do with it. Electrical engineering is a very challenging field. It kills me every time i think about how low we are paid, when compared to say fund managers on wall street. I know someone personally, and I tell you, you don't want to know those pay numbers :(.

First! Big fan BTB!

I have a project I was wondering if I can get your help on. Trying to make a 60v cordless microwave and need to know if its possible and if so can you help me figure out how. Thank u

how often to switch jobs?

I remember started out making 54k and was pretty happy and then thought I had made it when I hit 6 figures.

Are these all jobs in a large capital city though?

Most people who quit leave because of a manager. I did too.

Why work at Amazon or some other place money?

Do getting more hours at a job per week count as a rasie?

interesting. it seems like quite a low hourly rate, i just got a rough estimate by dividing the salary by 50 hours/week.

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why didn't you work for Facebook or apple

I’m an EE graduate with a position paying around what you made at your first job without inflation. Any advice on how to obtain an increase in salary, and overall enhance my resume?

Haha he knows Graham respects guys in STEM careers

Sir what is your post tax salary?nice video.

I just try to do bare minimum and accept the inflation raise lol.

Where you hopping from city to city or state to state? Or wss it in your generak driving area where you didnt have to find a new place to live every change you had?

How much did you spend on school?

balla shot calla 20 inch rims onthe impala! lol

bro was college hard work? - like did you struggle , and can you fail... did you enjoy it ? then did you enjoy working?

Why quit from that kind of money though. Keep going and invest it wisely and multiply your gains. Let them fire you first and get unemployment and severance package

At my current job, the company doesn't care about you, they won't give you a raise, they'll just let you go to the new job.

Definitely Me in 10 years

I used to work for NASA. I drove the lunch wagon onto the pad. They fired me because everytime I'd drive up I'd yell out "LUNCH!". The guys at the top of the gantry would rush down thinking I said "LAUNCH".

So all of these jobs were in California?