Project Engineer/Software Engineer Overview
Project Engineer/Software Engineer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a project engineer/software engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.41 an hour? That's $84,063 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Project Engineer/Software Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many project engineer/software engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and creativity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a project engineer/software engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 14.1% of project engineer/software engineers included software development, while 8.4% of resumes included project management, and 6.3% of resumes included python. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the project engineer/software engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most project engineer/software engineers actually find jobs in the technology and manufacturing industries.
How To Become a Project Engineer/Software Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a project engineer/software engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 74.1% of project engineer/software engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 16.1% of project engineer/software engineers have master's degrees. Even though most project engineer/software engineers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a project engineer/software engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a project engineer/software engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on project engineer/software engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a project engineer/software engineer. In fact, many project engineer/software engineer jobs require experience in a role such as software engineer. Meanwhile, many project engineer/software engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as senior software engineer or project engineer.
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Project Engineer/Software Engineer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of software engineer you might progress to a role such as systems engineer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title manager, systems engineering.
Project Engineer/Software Engineer Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Project Engineer/Software Engineer
Best Paying Cities For Project Engineer/Software Engineers
Recently Added Salaries
Company  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Ball Corporation Project Engineer-Software | Ball Corporation | 08/04/2021 | $126,50008/04/2021 |
Ball Corporation Project Engineer II-Software | Ball Corporation | 07/01/2021 | $142,00007/01/2021 |
Dematic Corp. Software Project Engineer | Dematic Corp. | 02/23/2021 | $77,58402/23/2021 |
Intelligrated Services, LLC Controls Project Engineer I-PLC Software ENG I | Intelligrated Services, LLC | 02/11/2021 | $78,00002/11/2021 |
Leidos Holdings Inc. Software Project Engineer III | Leidos Holdings Inc. | 01/13/2021 | $71,50001/13/2021 |
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Top Colleges for Project Engineer/Software Engineers
1. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
3. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Private
6. Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN • Private
7. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Pomona, CA • Private
10. University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA • Private
Online Courses For Project Engineer/Software Engineer That You May Like
Software Engineering 101: Use Software Engineering to Plan and Build Amazing Software + Learn SCRUM Framework!...
Accelerate your career by improving your project management skills. This Specialization delivers a rigorous exploration of the best practices for planning and delivering these major engineering projects. You'll learn about the measures of success, how to resolve challenges of governance and typical financing approaches of these projects. If you are an engineer or a project manager and you aspire to get involved with major engineering projects, or you are already working on one, then this Special...
This specialization is intended for software engineers, development and product managers, testers, QA analysts, product analysts, tech writers, and security engineers. Even if you have experience in the requirements realm, this course will expand your knowledge to include new viewpoints, development styles, techniques and tools. For anyone seeking a graduate degree, certificate, or professional degree in computer science, these courses will additionally give you a broad understanding of how requ...
Top Skills For a Project Engineer/Software Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 14.1% of project engineer/software engineers listed software development on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Software Development, 14.1%
- Project Management, 8.4%
- Python, 6.3%
- Hardware, 6.2%
- Java, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 60.0% See All Project Engineer/Software Engineer Skills
Best States For a Project Engineer/Software Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a project engineer/software engineer. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, Utah, and Nevada. Project engineer/software engineers make the most in California with an average salary of $138,359. Whereas in Washington and Utah, they would average $106,905 and $101,556, respectively. While project engineer/software engineers would only make an average of $99,748 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$138,359
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$106,905
Avg. Salary
3. Utah
$101,556
Avg. Salary