SECURITY

Average starting salary for electrical engineers?

What is the average starting salary for an electrical engineer with a masters degree from R.P.I. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)?

Assuming you are in the continental US, according to the IEEE 2008 salary survey, the average offer for starting EEs was $56,512. It will probably be a little more in 2009. With the MSEE it will be a bit more and I know that this goes up quickly with experience. It is also influenced by many other factors including location. In the research facility I worked at a few years ago in the mid west, salaries for EEs topped out around $120K. That was with a lot of experience and an MSEE/PhD.

I was a hiring manager in that R&D group and am now a EE faculty. Mid $50′s sounds about right to me for a new graduate with no experience and is commensurate with what graduates tell me they are being offered. If you have experience like coop or have the MSEE… it could be more like in the low 60′s.

There are a lot of salary surveys out there you can go look at including various professional organizations and the Department of Labor statistics if you don’t like my answer.

IEEE, Experience

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