Is the engineering meme real?

I'm currently in what you'd call my first year of engineering in France (I'm actually in CPGE, if any French is around). The thing is I've been fed with people telling me I'd get plenty of money with such a major, when the average salary is - at least here in France - around 2k/month (in €) for an insane quantity of work per day, which is rather low after busting my ass for five fucking years. I need counseling, how is it in the US or in other countries guys? Is it really worth it as people keep telling me?

What's the cost of living there?

You should not directly compare salaries and such with the US and other countries. It is much more than that.
If you get an good degree from a post-CPGE engineering school you will be able to find jobs with significantly higher salaries than the national average (especially starting).
If what you want is a lot of money in your bank account, you can still get one of those degrees and have a better chance of getting to work in the US than most for example.

Going to almost any field purely for money will be suffering for you op no matter what.

Imagine there exists people who do engineering purely for knowledge on how thing works, how to make them or how to operate them.

Good luck on your studies!

I just heard in the news a few days ago that we need 9,000 engineers in the future and not enough people are studying it. The average engineer salary is $6,700 a month

I see, this is what I try to think
But when I see the level of abstraction we are in in Mathematics it discourages me, especially knowing half the shit we study isn't actually useful for an engineer, though it clearly is for a future mathematician. I'm in MPSI btw.
What did you do?

It used to be the same with law and business students until everyone went into those fields and now those people cant get jobs because there aren't enough. It will be the same with engineering in 5-10 years. Just do what you really want to do and not what brings the most money at the time because that will change eventually.

MPSI, MP and then a top 20 non-Paris generalist school.
And yes unless if you do ENS or some shit the maths and physics in eng school will be quite different.
If you don't like abstract maths do PSI next year.

I actually am a curious person, and I like understanding how an airplane, a car or a train work, the thing is the studies that come with the engineering degree are really stressful and the way French people get to have access to such a degree is pretty different from other countries, since it includes studying other subjects such as a high deal of abstract Maths, and French/Philosophy.

That's good to know, Norway seems like a nice country filled with nordic qts
And the salary sounds awesome, how is your tax rate?

In the Netherlands nobody studies engineering, so there is a huge shortage.

Everyone falls for the economics meme.

Thanks for answering
That's what I'm thinking about, but won't PSI limit me in my future choice of Grandes Ecoles?

Yes, it is quite different from what people on here usually mean by studying engineering.
That is university.

Btw I'm curious about the efficiency of our CPGE/Grandes Écoles system, are French engineers really more competent than a German/Russian/American one?

No, except for specialized subjects. But in generalists schools at least PSI/PC/MP get the same treatment pretty much.
For example you're going to have to do a good amount of programming whether you like it or not and basically no matter which school you go to in the end.

Is it true that France is considering ditching the prépa ?

No

>Dutch Economists

A lot of people critizice the fact that it's free while at the same time getting access to expensive features such as a limited number of student per class (~40) and its system of khôlles. Other people also don't like the prépa because of it's "social reproduction" and elitist side

I'm not going to make value judgements.
You could see it that way: higher-ranked Grandes Écoles produce technical executives. You have classes of management and shit. The equivalent Anglo-Saxon (5-6 years) degree is more research-oriented, while here you don't really get deep into that unless you want to.

I see, Bonne Chance!
I'm also a prépa student but in here, 1st Grade MPSI, our curriculum slightly different than yours.
At least you have the choice between 3 different National exams, we only have one here.

I see. Are you already working or are you still studying? If yes, how are the working condition and the salary? If it isn't too indiscrete

Is it a French prépa, or is it that you have adopted the same system as here? I'm sorry I don't know much about the Tunisian school system. And is the prépa also criticized over there?

We have a french Prépa system and an LMD system (just like germany) which is a mess, but both are free (Most higher education is free in Tunisia, but you have to put up with the fact that your future is highly uncertain.)
A lot of students despise the prépa system, they think it's too hard and unfair, etc... We were 30 in August, we're now 19 in my class. Most of them bailed out to sit for the Concours de Réorientation, in order to join Med Schools.
A huge portion of those who want to become engineers just go to Germany, which looks as if they're just buying a diploma.
It's basically the same, you can only fail a year once and have to sit for the National exam which decides which engineering school you can join.
My Algebra professor said that so few students are joining the prepa institutes these days that we might achieve a 100% success rate in the national exam at some point in the future.

I see, it isn't that bad here, even though people often leave the prépa, most of us agree that the LMD(even though it doesn't lead to an engineering degree as in Germany)/Prépa system is complementary and works pretty well.
We were 45 at the beginning of the year, only 4 left the class.
But I personally find the athmosphere rather anxiogenic and counter productive as for my case

Well in my case the atmosphere is okay because 1st grade feels a bit too easy, it's at 2nd grade when the "esprit concours" kicks in.
Plus it doesn't feel very different from my High School, (we have some "pioneer" High School which is similar to the Classes étoiles that you have in 2nd grade, a High School you could join after 9éme année (keep in mind we have an extra year of basic education compared to yours) and in which the atmosphere is VERY anxiogenic.)
I got used to the stress after pretty much spending my last 8 years just worrying whether I'd remain in my High School or get kicked to a normal one.
Prépa felt different, since pioneer students fucked off to germany or med schools, I found myself with better classmates.

I see, well that sounds nice. Thanks my man, chatting with you has given me a little bit more motivation, I'll try to hold until the end of this year and then the next one.
Do you already know what school you want to enter in?

What kind of engineering?

Industrial engineering here is saturated as fuck and you earn like $25k mxn monthly (10k usd?) IMO its a fucking meme because it isnt specialized in shi