re: What kind of engineer are you 2 update in OP

Field. 140k

Mud

My civil degree gave me a lot of skills to run my own GC commercial company. I do see myself transitioning into more of an engineer position at some point, really need to get on my PE exam.

You don't need to be a math whiz, but if you go into college with an understanding of physics and Calculus you'll be well ahead of most kids. By junior year of high school he needs to be taking those classes to stand out early in college. I made C's and was fine, but I definitely didn't get all of the cool internships that about 10 percent of my class got.

I worked for bfgoodwrench areospace building thrust reversers and inlet cowels for 747-300s. I could easily build 4 cowl assemblies in a week but instead I built one and swept floors the rest of the week because I was always waiting on paperwork from engineers in the office.

I was 20 years old making 30 an hour in the 90s. My high school civics teacher saw me driving a hot boys car and thought I was a drug dealer smh

Software (Backend and DevOps)

4 years of experience

Just under 100k

Mechanical here. I work for a large refinery in SE LA. 15 years out of college (on my third job), I'm pulling in the mid-200's. If they are REALLY interested in working at a refinery, PE isn't required necessarily even though they have changed the PE testing requirements recently, and a Master's isn't either unless they want to get in high level management (and that's iffy).

Internships are key. The math in school is tough, but if you can muscle through the classes most of that isn't relevant to refinery jobs. Another thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn't feel ANY loyalty to the employer. You aren't going to get paid THAT much out of college, but once you get your 3-5 years experience you can swap companies and get a 15-20% increase in pay. We were told that in college, that you HAVE to swap jobs early in your career to make your full earning potential later on.

The big thing about the engineers I deal with in the refinery word is their personality. Most of the ME's and EE's I deal with are really personable, down to Earth. Most of the ChE's are not.

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I'd still note that the best and brightest ME and ChE are not in management.

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Hah! Dozens US patents, internationally recognized as top of my field by one of the world's largest engineering professional orgs, and I made it all the way to the corner office before leaving to do investment banking.

There are plenty of counters to this statement, not the least of which is a guy by the name of Alfred Sloan, who was an outstanding bearing engineer when that was cutting edge tech before he took over a raw, woolly startup named General Motors and built it into the world's largest company. Then there's that Porsche guy, most of the founders of today's major aerospace companies, and most of their best CEOs along the way, Allan Mullally who should have been CEO of Boeing, but left to save Ford, etc.

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Don't get a masters in engineering unless he wants to teach. If he wants to advance, get an MBA and go into leadership.

If he's happy being an engineer, experience far outweighs a masters.

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Couldn't disagree more, though I will qualify that by saying that the quality of the MS program and your advisor matter a LOT. If you just go get a part time classwork MS at the local U - think someplace like UAH in Huntsville - you can learn a few useful things but it's not going to be career-altering.

I was pulled aside by two mentors of mine a little over two years into my career in aerospace and told that I needed to go get a MS from a top 10 school, and then come back. I did get the MS, went somewhere else because that industry was in dire straights two years later, and quickly passed up all of my peers who played safe. The first MS was a door opener for me, and I applied many of the new tools that I learned there. Nine years later I did an executive MBA, and opened even more doors.

15 years out of school, double that.

Environmental Engineer
$150K
About 4 years