Job at Intel/AMD

[TopDollar]

I live in NYC, and a store manager earns more than that here. You have no idea of the cost of living in the city.

I do actually. Locality pay is different for every place. Cities like NYC, DC, LA, San Diego are generally going to have higher starting salaries to compensate. I'm also talking about starting salary here, not mid career.

[dalekphalm]

I live in NYC, and a store manager earns more than that here. You have no idea of the cost of living in the city.

Engineers in NYC will generally earn more than the average wage for engineers. Plus, as an Engineer, you should expect that you might have to move around for your career, find the right job in the right place for the right pay. $30,000/year after taxes is a hella-lot if you live in a smaller city.

[MrDynamicMan]

For High School courses, take as many of the advanced math courses your school offers as you can squeeze in - stuff like Calculus, statistics, etc.

Also take Physics, grade's 11 and 12, University Level.

Furthermore, take Computer Science every year of high school that is offered (Most schools generally offer grade 10 to 12, some offer 9 to 12).

If your school has any electronics, electrical electronics, or engineering courses, take those too.

As for University itself, you should be taking the Computer Engineering program to start:

https://uwaterloo.ca/find-out-more/programs/computer-engineering

You may also consider doing a bachelors in Computer Science first, but that would only be if you are really dedicated to taking university.

After completing the Bachelors in Computer Engineering, you can start searching for job prospects immediately, but if you really want to "one-up" the other entry-level candidates, you could consider getting a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering.

When it comes to what the companies like Intel and AMD actually want, job experience is obviously the highest on the list. They often hire recent grads for entry-level positions, but it'll be extremely competitive. Having a higher degree of education, or having that extra couple years of in field engineering experience can make the difference.

about that last part, what kind of experience would you recommend?

[TopDollar]

about that last part, what kind of experience would you recommend?

Any professional experience is good. This includes summer internships or semester long coops at engineering companies, working on a research project under a professor, taking a leadership role on a team such as formula SAE, DBF, electric snowmobile, etc.

Working for an engineering company is probably some of the best experience though. You get to see what it's like in your field in the real world, and make a good amount money while doing it (making $10k over a 4 month internship is not uncommon).

For example as an Aeronautical/Mechanical engineer I worked on a UAV research project to aid in wind energy development, did a semester coop and a separate internship at a company specializing in industrial centrifugal compressors, and took a lead role on our senior design project of designing an airplane from the ground up given an RFP. It was the engineering company experience that made the most influence on getting my current job though, which is working on ships.