Can you make over 200k as an EE?
Apple as an example has a research department developing the next big thing. A buddy was the director of the wireless power supply division (he still used a soldering iron regularly) and made far more than 200K . Closer to a million a year.
Your buddy may touch hardware from time to time, but their EE skills are secondary to the skills required to land director-level at FAANG. That’s a heavy management position with a lot of demands. Anything EE is basically base/background knowledge at that point.
Also, those jobs are extremely rare in the market overall.
As a contractor you can make that easily and more. Get some experience first, and if you don’t have any connections apply to contracting agencies. One of my friends from undergrad does this and is pulling in 250k+ in his early 30’s. Oftentimes, working OT gets him even more.
Downside is he gets 0 benefits, 0 insurance, and 0 PTO. He has essentially no job security and has been laid off just 2-3 months into some of his contracts sometimes. Luckily his wife works and pulls in a steady income so it isn’t that big of a deal when it does happen.
Overall, basically any engineer can get into it and a lot of contracts can be remote these days, you just have to be ok with the above.
Edit: Real beauty of contract work imo is once you’re experienced enough you can basically set your own working hours and look for part time or just 6-month contracts.
