I'll give you my 2 cents with about 18 years experience working for various tech heavy manufacturing companies. First off, Raptor or school? C'mon now. Sure you can make decent money in a lot of fields busting your ass 80 hours a week but your mind and body won't hold up. I see it a lot.
Get your engineering degree and get into a sales position that requires it. A lot of people don't really realize that's a thing and engineering schools don't talk about it but you can't send a schmuck off the street in to sell a $MM project to a bunch of engineers. They'll have their ass handed to them 2 questions in.
You'll make 2-3+ times more than Joe engineer in a tech sales job. Many companies have development programs for new grads that will let you gain experience in 6 month increments in various areas (engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing, etc) over a several year period and then let you choose a path.
Pick sales and go for a lower base / uncapped upside comp plan. It's risk/reward. A good sales guy with tech background and experience should be pulling $180k-300k and yes it will vary that much year to year so you plan for it. I've seen guys pull much more in a year. Depends on timing of projects, how/when you get your money , etc.
You also typically have a lot of autonomy once you prove yourself and get to do what you want, how you want, when you want. It also gets you out of the climb the corporate ladder to middle management obscurity BS cycle. You can easily be making as much or more than a VP with none of the headcount or responsibilities. But you might not get stock or a chance to get to senior management if that's a goal.
You need a hunt, kill, eat, repeat attitude and a real passion to help your customers to be tops. It's not for everyone but a great way to make a living.
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