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		Careers Paths in Materials Science and Engineering (cont'd) SalaryTrends Table of Contents Introduction Educational Background of Survey Group People in the Survey Group Factors Influencing People to Enter Field Career Path Salary Trends Discussion Salary and Degree Level The median annual salary for degree levels as a function of years since the bachelor's degree is shown in Fig. 5. In general the salary distributions in this survey are slightly higher than those reported for the 1997 maturity curves for all engineers by the American Association of Engineering Societies in July 1997 (Engineers, Vol. 3, No. 3). It is also noted that the salaries in the later years are probably biased to a lower value since a large fraction of reported salaries were listed in the top category of salaries used for the survey. As shown in Fig. 5, there is not a great deal of difference in salaries during the first ten years and they tend to diverge in later years with the Ph.D. median salary more than $15,000 larger than the median bachelor's salary after 30 years. BS Degree Salaries For those whose highest degree is a BS degree, there is a large range in salaries for a given experience level. The range as indicated by the upper and lower quartiles is shown in Fig. 6. The upper quartile for the bachelor's degree level overlaps the MS degree median and is similar to the median for the Ph.D. graduates. The range between the upper and lower quartile is nearly $30,000 for the later years of experience. MS Degree Salaries The master's degree people also have a broad range in salary distribution as shown in Fig. 7. In fact, there is almost a $50,000 difference between the upper and lower quartiles in the later years for the master's degree survey group. It is also interesting to note that the upper quartile annual salary for the master's degree group is about $15,000 above the median salary for the Ph.D. degree group. Ph.D. Degree Salaries Again for the Ph.D. group there is a wide distribution in salaries and a wider difference starting earlier in the years of experience as shown in Fig. 8. There is around $10,000 difference between the two quartiles at the beginning and that difference grows to more than $40,000 at 40 years. Discussion One general conclusion that may be drawn from this survey is that opportunities are abundant for those in the field. Opportunities are broad in job functions, industrial sectors, and as an entry into other professions. Degrees in the field offer a spectrum of opportunities as reported by the survey group for careers such as law, medicine, theology, social work, etc. Open-ended responses to some questions offered some further insight into the survey group. The range of companies employing materials graduates is indicated by the fact that only twelve companies were cited by ten or more people. Most of the other 900 plus companies had only one employee in the survey group. It is also interesting to note that the second most cited employer is 'Self-employed' reflecting the relatively large group that has his or her own company. Position title is another useful input. The top three job titles in decreasing order of citation were 'President', 'Process Engineer', and 'Vice-President'. Further, the most cited response for job change other than the choices in the survey itself was 'Formed Company'. This survey provides some useful insight into the career paths of people who have obtained one or more degrees in the materials field. It indicates the breadth of opportunities open to someone with a background in materials and illustrates the fact that a degree in the field does serves as a basic foundation for many different careers in a multitude of places and companies. Career Path