Badger Crossroads

Engineering Studies, Careers, and Transitions

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Can An Engineer Be Worth $40,000 a Day?

September 8, 2016 /

In some of my classes, the students are presented with a pretty appealing proposition. Can you make $40,000 per day? While students usually react with some incredulity, some will naturally express interest in the offer. The follow-up question is a little tougher – can you be worth $40,000 per day? Most everyone would be willing to receive that much, but justifying that value honestly, well that can be more of a challenge. Let’s illustrate how that magnitude is something we need to assess and appreciate.

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Life would be all roses and rabbits on $40k a day (Goya’s Spring)

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How Engineers Have More Effective Incomes

August 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

A lot is made of how engineering can be a modestly lucrative career, and indeed for starting salaries it can be quite appealing for new graduates. Other professions like medicine, law, and small business owners can and do pull in more in many cases, but as a fairly low-risk, steady track to a six figure income, engineering is not a bad choice, if one has the right temperament and aptitude. Like any career, don’t go into it for the money if you aren’t otherwise suited for it; you’ll be miserable. But if you happen to take to it, the money doesn’t hurt.

Thinking beyond that to more intangibles however, what are some of the ways an engineering education or mindset prepares one to have a more ‘effective’ income? By that I mean have a net effect on your life that goes beyond the size of the actual paycheck. Let’s consider a few.

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Timberland Treadmill to Riches

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Why Young Engineers Don’t Deserve New Cars

August 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Let’s be honest, anyone enjoying the (perceived) freedom and higher income that come with the first job out of college may be tempted to buy a spritzy new car.  Young military officers seem particularly vulnerable to this. For a mechanical engineer like me, the temptation may be trebled, as by nature we like engines and acceleration, and perhaps what we lack in sartorial style we think we can make up for with steel.

However, in this post we’ll cover five considerations about what type of car to get in the early stages of your career.

NissanAppealing right? Just. Back. Away

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The Five-Tool Engineer

July 27, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Let’s talk about the tools we use as engineers. I’ll present one of the most useful (and not so secret) tools I use to get a leg up on younger engineers with their whamplodyne smartphones.

It’s a bit of a strained metaphor to use here, but a “five-tool” baseball player is someone that possesses several characteristics. Courtesy of Wikipedia these are: the ability to hit for average, hit for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding ability. Sure, these are more like attributes of a person rather than objects like a bat or glove, but overlooking that, let’s consider five assets I have in my toolbox. They allow me to swiftly and accurately solve problems, gauge the effect of variations in independent design parameters, and keep organized. They can also be valuable for problem solving in the field.

We’ll start with four simple tools and finish with a discussion of a fifth that has truly transformed the way I think about engineering solutions.

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Top three tools: always within reach. Bottom one heavy.

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