computer engineering

Maybe I am old fashioned but I don't believe money should be your main driving force. Very soon you may be bored again or find another fence with greener grass on the other side.

Embedded systems sounds a fair choice but you must attempt to be the best and must expand your horizons.

Maybe Monster.com would give you the job listings and pay ranges you seek.

However, the best paying jobs will be those that propel you toward the top of the food chain. Ultimately, having your own successful business can generate the best rewards, both financially and by challenging you to exceed your own perceived abilities. In that role it is not only important to have a good technological knowledge base, but very good leadership skills and market vision.

Having a narrow focus of abilities for your skill set will tend to pigeon-hole you and limit your possibilities. Having a too-wide set of skills will rob your ability to have deep knowledge in any one domain. You have to balance your skill set, but having a diverse set of skills will reward you better than a narrow set, generally.

In the end, two factors determine your earning potential.

1. The programming between your ears.
2. The market segment demand for specific job skills.

The first is self explanatory. The second is just how much demand there is for the skill. For example, medical doctors are in very high demand. Lawyers are not in demand, so their average salary income is close to parity for an embedded engineer with only a BS. Embedded engineers are in a little more demand than Windows programmers. Aviation embedded engineers command more pay than embedded engineers for toys.

However, there is also job satisfaction and that is a very personal thing that only you can determine. I know gardeners that are far happier than some business executives. There is also nothing wrong with being a successful, rich business executive that retires to the garden, either.

The best job will be one that you are absolutely passionate about. You will know it when you see it.

Which area do you find the most challenging? Which area are you most passionate about? Answering these questions will help you decide which area to go into where you will be the least bored.

Have you checked to see if an engineering society meets in your area?

Considering the business trends her ein Silicon Valley in the last 15 years, if you are money oriented the only trends that pay well tend to be anything that innovates and dramatically advances technology, busines amangement of techology sectors, and entertainment industry innovations (or catching up). Most typical employment opportunities have been outsourced to Asia, or what also happens is many immigrants have been imported by the industries from India for dramatically cheaper wages just to allow the Indians an opportunity for US citizenship in the process. So to make money you need to manage the immigrant labor force and keep their wages low, invent new technology that will require time for outside labor to be trained to use/apply, or work for Hollywood.

I think you should become a lawyer or a doctor. They make a whole lot more money than you will ever make in engineering. And since it is clear that your only goal is money, forget the PHD, forget professionalism...you are quite right, this is an unusual question. How can we answer it? Not easily, because most of us in this CR4 forum are in it for the satisfaction gained from a job well done. I don't believe that will satisfy you! Go for the big bucks! Let us know how it all worked out in about fifty years!

Good luck!

Hello gdallas2

You want a "large salary" ?

Get into Politics or Banking - They have the most of the

Of course if you have any integrity, and want to keep it, do not enter either of the above fields.

Kind Regards....

Actually, politicians don't make that much money. They just find a way to spend everybody else's money!!