How much should new P.E's make??

I have 2.5 years of work experience and I just passed the Electrical P.E exam. I have no idea of how much money I should be making since I now have a licence in California. Also I live in the Bay Area (CA). Any ideas??

A million six a year, but my boss doesn't buy it.

jo9el said:

I have 2.5 years of work experience and I just passed the Electrical P.E exam. I have no idea of how much money I should be making since I now have a licence in California. Also I live in the Bay Area (CA). Any ideas??

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You probably will get a 10% raise if you are lucky enough in this economy. I personally think 5-6% is fair base on the amount of experience you have. I have 3.5 years of experience and I don't think I know as much as the non-PE guys in the office with 10 years experience. The point is you need to have more years of experience and take more responsibilities to become valuable for the company. Until then you can ask as much raise as you want.

it all depends on the situation...

if you find a place that needs the PE to conduct their business, it's worth a lot...

if you work in a place whose owner(s) already have their PE, not much...

I'm one of 2 in my firm (30+ people), the other is 65 yrs old...

although we have a guy about 1-2 years away from getting his...

I've been made president and given a nice chunk of the stock...

I only got mine 2 years ago, although I have extensive experience...

find the right place

on a side note, in the year since I've been in charge, we raised profit from 100k to 400k on 2.2 mil, this AFTER 200k in bonuses!

better yet, we have the cash to support our profit, ie, it's not only on 'paper'...

and our backlog is good for 2+ years...we project a 10% increase this year, it could be more but we can't produce more work and want to be conservative in this economic climate...

we hear thru the grapevine (funding agencies, RUS, etc.) that much $$$ is coming...

in fact a solicitor for a borough I rep called it the 'engineers' retirement act of 2009', lol

Art, are you hiring?

mudpuppy said:

Art, are you hiring?

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lol, as a matter of fact, yes...

but I do the electrical/controls, which only keeps me busy ~10% of the time, if that...

it's a small portion of municipal work: water/wastewater...

although I do miss it at times

the balance is spent on PM, pump stations, plants, and client management/business development...

we are looking for some people:

land development & storm water

enviornmental & governmental compliance permitting

we do a lot of gas well & wind farm stuff...

not enough!

Art said:

lol, as a matter of fact, yes...but I do the electrical/controls, which only keeps me busy ~10% of the time, if that...

it's a small portion of municipal work: water/wastewater...

although I do miss it at times

the balance is spent on PM, pump stations, plants, and client management/business development...

we are looking for some people:

land development & storm water

enviornmental & governmental compliance permitting

we do a lot of gas well & wind farm stuff...

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I know of this guy who is God's gift to stormwater modeling, which, in case you didn't know, is the most difficult engineering work ever.

I know of this guy who is God's gift to stormwater modeling, which, in case you didn't know, is the most difficult engineering work ever.

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rlyflag: Care to tell us how you know this?

Chucktown PE said:

I know of this guy who is God's gift to stormwater modeling, which, in case you didn't know, is the most difficult engineering work ever.

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Is it? You being a Civil and all, I would think it should be simple.

This is the EE Technical Discussion forum. Reviews of Orlandos Finest Stormwater Modeling probably belong in the General/STB or other relevant areas.

Art said:

we hear thru the grapevine (funding agencies, RUS, etc.) that much $$$ is coming...in fact a solicitor for a borough I rep called it the 'engineers' retirement act of 2009', lol

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I like that!

^ Every time some new permit or hoop to jump through to get a project approved came out, an old boss of mine referred to it as the "Consulting Engineers' Full Employment Act"

^ It's pretty much the same in the nuclear industry. Chaos breeds opportunity.

VTEnviro said:

rlyflag: Care to tell us how you know this?

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How I know it's the most difficult or how I know of a guy? I read the background posts to this revelation when I was bored at work a couple months ago.

Flyer_PE said:

Chaos breeds opportunity.

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and Cash.

I would say you are worth exactly what you make for your company. A PE doesn't change that relationship.

SSmith said:

I would say you are worth exactly what you make for your company. A PE doesn't change that relationship.

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I agree with the first sentence, but depending on the type of business, a PE can definately change that relationship. My company, an A/E, charges more for a PE than for a non-PE.

chaosiscash said:

I agree with the first sentence, but depending on the type of business, a PE can definately change that relationship. My company, an A/E, charges more for a PE than for a non-PE.

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The relationship is exactly the same (in a general sense). Its just that now your company can make more because of you. The OP had it backwards.