Good 'N Plenty
11-08-2008, 08:38 AM
I picked the wrong damn major!! Petroleum enginnering is where it's at.
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/839618.html
Hot jobs: Demand, pay is high for the right skills
By ERIC ADLER
The Kansas City Star
It’s often said someone makes money even in a bad economy.
Cody Bass just didn’t know how much.
“A hundred thousand dollars,” the 22-year-old college senior said.
That’s the annual salary that Bass — who is still a semester away from receiving his bachelor’s degree from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla — is to be paid for his first job out of college.
That, he said, doesn’t even include the $7,500 he’ll be given in moving expenses. Or the $20,000 he’s getting upfront as an early signing bonus. Or the $25,000 “impact bonuses” he said he was told to expect for each of the first two years he is on the job.
Total package for his first real job: $145,000-plus.
“I was shocked,” Bass said. “We grew up very modest. When I was growing up, my dad probably didn’t make much more than $30,000 a year teaching in Oklahoma. I feel bad for everyone having such a hard time.”
But such are the rewards of picking the right college major even in these shaky economic times.
For Bass, that is petroleum engineering, a job for which starting salaries in the expanding business now average $85,000 to $95,000, with offers often coming a year or more before the end of college.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Rolla petroleum engineering professor Shari Dunn-Norman. “These are kids.”
Yet Bass is hardly alone.
Whereas workers in some industries are being laid off by the thousands, in others — such as engineering, accounting, nursing, pharmacy and, as the cost of shipping by truck has risen, railroads — the watchword is “hired,” not “fired,” as new employees are being promised high-paying jobs sometimes more than a year before graduation.
Of course, many of the jobs have their perceived downsides, which range from long hours to boredom to weeks and, in some cases, months spent traveling. But the financial incentives can be great.
The guy will probably make over $200k at about 28 if he gets 5% raise every year without even getting the promotion.
http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/839618.html
Hot jobs: Demand, pay is high for the right skills
By ERIC ADLER
The Kansas City Star
It’s often said someone makes money even in a bad economy.
Cody Bass just didn’t know how much.
“A hundred thousand dollars,” the 22-year-old college senior said.
That’s the annual salary that Bass — who is still a semester away from receiving his bachelor’s degree from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla — is to be paid for his first job out of college.
That, he said, doesn’t even include the $7,500 he’ll be given in moving expenses. Or the $20,000 he’s getting upfront as an early signing bonus. Or the $25,000 “impact bonuses” he said he was told to expect for each of the first two years he is on the job.
Total package for his first real job: $145,000-plus.
“I was shocked,” Bass said. “We grew up very modest. When I was growing up, my dad probably didn’t make much more than $30,000 a year teaching in Oklahoma. I feel bad for everyone having such a hard time.”
But such are the rewards of picking the right college major even in these shaky economic times.
For Bass, that is petroleum engineering, a job for which starting salaries in the expanding business now average $85,000 to $95,000, with offers often coming a year or more before the end of college.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Rolla petroleum engineering professor Shari Dunn-Norman. “These are kids.”
Yet Bass is hardly alone.
Whereas workers in some industries are being laid off by the thousands, in others — such as engineering, accounting, nursing, pharmacy and, as the cost of shipping by truck has risen, railroads — the watchword is “hired,” not “fired,” as new employees are being promised high-paying jobs sometimes more than a year before graduation.
Of course, many of the jobs have their perceived downsides, which range from long hours to boredom to weeks and, in some cases, months spent traveling. But the financial incentives can be great.
The guy will probably make over $200k at about 28 if he gets 5% raise every year without even getting the promotion.