Go back or go to school
Only a highschool dimploma
Get an associates degree or go to technical school. If you only have a high school diploma you are likely making less than $30,000 a year. Going from a high school diploma to an associates /technical school can bump you up into the $50k range. Check out these associate degrees. US News
Already and associate degree
Go back for a couple more years or several with night classes. A bachelor's degree can move you from the $30k-$50K range into the $50k-to $100k range.
Already have a Bachelors degree
This starts to get tricky. This is where I am starting. I've been working 15 years and I started with a bachelors degree. Yay. I went to school for 6years while having no real life expenses (5 roommates makes life cheaper). The return on my $20k student loans has been amazing. This is because having any engineering or STEM degree will put you in a good place. Great by some standards, but nowhere near medical doctorates or some financial professions.
A masters degree will cost a lot of money. Depending on what you are specializing in; where you go may be more important than just having the degree. A Masters degree starts making you a specialist. There is good and bad with this. You might get paid more, but there are fewer jobs out there. I'll dig into this one and may even make it a separate page because I'm actively looking here..
Advanced degrees that I'm looking into
- Masters in engineering Management or MBA. I've dug into these. If I want to move out of engineering MBA makes sense. If I want to able to move into executive level an MBA from somewhere with recognition makes sense. If I want to move up or have more management opportunity MEM. MEM online is my only real option.
US news has a ranking for masters in engineering management. I compared those rankings to that of the engineering school and program costs under $50k. Here is my ranking based on those factors:
- Purdue = $46k
- Penn State = $33k
- Arizona state =$20k
- UCLA = $31k
- Auburn = $28k
US news has rankings for MBA's online. Just taking the rankings mine would be (to be continued):