Aerospace Engineer Career

aerospace-engineer-500Aerospace engineers are responsible for designing airplanes, rocket ships, and missiles for use in air travel. They typically work in the private sector for the aerospace or navigational industry or in the public sector for the federal government.

These professionals mostly work full-time and spend their day designing and testing products that have been designed. The average salary for aerospace engineers is high, but with this salary comes a lot of responsibility for designing safe and efficient aircraft.

Aerospace Engineer Career Snapshot

38 percent of aerospace engineers work in aviation manufacturing while 14% work for engineering firms and 13% work for the federal government. They are full-time and primarily work in an office. More than 40 hours a week is expected for aerospace engineers who manage projects.

Further details on a career as an aerospace engineer are listed below (statistics from the May 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics and Onet Online):

$107,830

is the average yearly pay for aerospace engineers.

-2%

increase in employment between 2014 and 2024.

59%

have a Bachelor’s degree while 33% have a Master’s degree.

Aerospace Engineer Education

Aerospace engineers must have their bachelor’s degree in a field such as aerospace engineering. Those who have their master’s degree can instruct as well as design. Aerospace engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.

Students who gain knowledge in using engineering collaborative tools will have a competitive edge in the job market.

Aerospace Engineer Job Outlook

Unfortunately, the job outlook for aerospace engineers is projected to decline 2% through the year 2024. This is primarily due to an overall decrease in manufacturing jobs. However, increases will be seen in the private space industry and on redesigning existing aircraft.

Aerospace Engineer Salaries

The median salary for aerospace engineers in May of 2015 was $107,830 dollars according to BLS.gov statistics. The lowest 10% of aerospace engineers will make below $67,950 while the highest 10% will make more than $158,700. Those who work for the federal government have the highest average salary.

Aerospace Engineer Job Duties

Aerospace engineers will use the engineering design process to create and refine aircraft and spacecraft. On a daily base they may test products, manage a team, or solve a flaw in a potential design.

Aerospace engineers believe in the process of continuous improvement and iterating on previous designs. To be an aerospace engineer you must like to explore, tinker, fail, and try again.

Aerospace Engineer Skills & Traits

Aerospace Engineer Skill Set:Required Abilities:Tools Used by Aerospace Engineers:Typical Work Activities:
• Critical Thinking
• Reading Comprehension
• Science
• Active Listening
• Complex Problem Solving
• Written Comprehension
• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
• Information Ordering
• Problem Sensitivity
• Aerospace cockpit display panels
• Flight simulators
• High end computer servers
• Signal generators
• Vibration testers
• Working with computers
• Processing information
• Analyzing data
• Decision making
• Getting information

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