A detailed salary analysis for industrial engineers

[Zubin Ajmera]

When I was new to the field of industrial engineering, I had zero idea on what the field was about. What do industrial engineers do? Where do they work? What do they do on a daily basis?

These were the type of questions almost everyone has when they start out. But sometimes the hidden truth behind all those questions is that we want to know the salaries of industrial engineers – how much do they earn, which industries within IE are more lucrative, what’s a good benchmark salary for an IE, etc., to see if this field is worth the academic investment.

So I started doing some basic research and I discovered there is no good resource which can provide valuable information on this topic. And it couldn’t have been a better idea to put this valuable information on the platform of IISE – the hub of industrial engineers.

In this blog, we’re going to talk about salaries of industrial engineers. The good thing is we won’t just talk about salaries, but we will talk about the factors behind them.

Ultimately, a salary boils down to the three most important variables –

1. Experience: Are you a new to the industry or have had experience?
   
2. Degree/Education: Have you earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and/or a Ph.D.?
   
3. Location: Where are you working? Atlanta, New York, Mumbai, Chicago, Delhi, Seattle, Boston, etc.?
   

Of course, there are many variables like company size, performance review, interviewing skills, negotiating skills and others, but I consider the three listed above to be the most important in determining your salary.

I narrowed down the best major cities to work in based on a mix of data from reliable sources, references and my experience:

• Atlanta, New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, Seattle, Detroit, Columbus (Ohio).
  

I also took in-depth data from salary.com since it provides reliable information regarding the actual salaries that industrial engineers are offered. I also factored in my experiences after working in four states for seven different employers as well as interviewing with almost 50 companies.

Check the full article here -