The 10 most attractive employers for engineering students

According to a recent analysis of data from the American Community Survey by Zippia, five of the top 10 highest-paying college majors fall into the engineering category — so students graduating with an engineering degree are in a great position.

Petroleum engineering, engineering mechanics and physics, naval architecture and marine engineering, mining and mineral engineering and chemical engineering all cracked the list of the highest-paying college majors with average annual incomes between $79,086 (chemical engineering) and $169,680 (petroleum engineering).

Salaries are particularly high for engineering majors because these skills are in high demand and in turn, employers much battle for top tech talent to recruit and retain workers with these kinds of educational backgrounds.

Global research and advisory firm Universum surveyed 10,860 engineering majors about what companies they were most interested in. Here are the 10 most attractive employers for engineering students:

Headquarters: Irving, Texas

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington

Headquarters: Cupertino, California

Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland

Headquarters: Washington, D.C.

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

Headquarters: Mountain View, California

Headquarters: Palo Alto, California

Headquarters: Hawthorne, California

According to Universum, engineering majors anticipate starting salaries around $70,000, but at companies like these, many workers can expect to earn much more.

SpaceX came out on top as the number one most attractive employer to engineering students with 20.93% of Gen Z respondents and 17.98% of Millennial respondents saying the aerospace company was their top choice.

Other aerospace organizations also made the list of attractive employers, including Boeing and NASA.

Universum's survey found that engineering majors were most interested in the aerospace and defense, energy and technology hardware and equipment industries and their top career goals include to have work-life balance, to have and to be dedicated to a cause or feel like they are serving the greater good.

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