Salary
Average Salary: $66,437
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,773,612
Engineering is not an easy job, but it makes up for its difficulty by being pretty worth your while. Average pay for engineers is more than double what the rest of the United States workers have to look forward to every couple of weeks.
The average salary is around $67,000 a year, while the lowest 10% still make about $50,000 a year―the amount many in the workforce can only hope they'll make after working at the same job for twenty years or so. And if you're one of those hot-shot mechanical engineers, you can make more than $121,000 a year (source).
Of course, you, lucky possessor of a skill of which some of us can only dream, will get medical benefits. That's right, you get medical. What's more, most of you will even get dental and vision coverage as well (source).
But before you go throwing extravagant parties every night, remember that you'll also be working incredibly hard for it. You'll absolutely work full-time, sometimes exceeding the standard forty hours a week by double digits. We'd feel bad for you, but you're the one making six digits a year, so can it, Warren Buffett.