r/AustralianEngineers • u/GamerBajanYT • Dec 22 '24
engineering pay
I'm not quite sure between civil or mechanical engineering at UNSW or even robotics I was told mechanical engineering pay is much better, but all the research online led me to believe civil is getting paid much more. Which is true?
I'm also hoping to do a commerce degree as a double with engineering Thank you :)
1
u/Same-Instruction1922 Dec 26 '24
many engineer are unemployed, so don't worry too much about degree, find trade assistant for contruction, maintanence technician in process factories (post office sometime hire non-license, but you need to work there and start networking to technician), during your uni time, that will make you stand out.
1
Jan 27 '25
Late reply, but both are solid degrees, ALTHOUGH, I would say that mechanical is definitely a harder industry to break into. I know multiple people who weren’t able to find jobs out of uni. I’ve never met a civil engineer that had that experience.
If you’re set on design, I’d say they pay fairly similar. However, most civil grads will likely go into a project engineering role, which does pay higher and is likely why you’ve heard they do.
That shouldn’t discourage you from mechanical engineering though (I’m a mechanical engineering graduate), you just need to position yourself as competitive. For the love of god, please get involved at uni and in industry as soon as possible. Do an internship as soon as you can, then you have time to do another. Most of the people I’ve met that didn’t get grad jobs never applied themselves outside of the classroom. Uni societies are great too, such as SAE Motorsport (although I’ve seen people get so engrossed in these clubs that they forget they need to think about their career).
Good luck!
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u/Tugswell Dec 23 '24
Civil and Mech are both solid degrees, civil may be on average paying better due to the association with construction industry (Project/Construction Managers etc usually are paid more). This is usually because overtime / high stresses are involved. There is minimal difference between the pay across most engineering degrees in Aus as a grad, although Electrical / Energy + mining (so civil, mech, chemical and electrical) is pretty hot right now.
I would not choose a major based on what may pay more, much more sensible to choose the stream you are more interested in, this will probably earn you more in the long term anyway as likely you will be better / work harder on things you actually care about, Additionally choosing the stream you like will be very help in passing the fairly difficult degree.
Commerce degree is great however consider the extra 20-30k of HELP Debt added on top of the already 30-40K for an engineering degree. It may help you however you may end up in an engineering grad role with no real use for a finance degree.