Distributions can vary widely in terms of pay scale. There are many factors that are likely to be even more important than the specific specialty for EEs…
- Individual
- Motivation and work ethic
- Personality. Are you able to work in a group? Inspire people.
- Technical and Business skills
- Geography
- The West coast will pay more than other areas. However, the cost of living will make a significant difference in compensation.
- While compensation may be higher in certain regions, it is unlikely that it offers a better standard of living. Higher salaries are not always better than lower salaries in areas with lower living costs.
- Pay shouldn’t drive geography in any way. The most important factors should be quality of life, family and opportunity.
- Time and Chance
- It is important to be in the right place at right time. It is rare to get a chance to rise to the top in a senior or management role.
What is your core question? Pay is generally proportional to two factors: industry trend (demand) and technical difficulty (technical difficulty). If the ultimate goal is to be in senior management, this would be an exception. EE is so broad that it is hard to get a full understanding of the entire field. Therefore, in my area of semiconductors I consider these areas to be excellent for achieving both technical difficulty and demand.
- AI
- Software, algorithms, and new processors are all available.
- Systems embedded
- Complexity of new systems. Flexibility of the systems.
- High Performance Analog
- Anything that is close to the limit of speedable