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Graduate Special: Make some money
21 May 2008

Jason Palmer

MONEY. They say it can't buy you happiness, and the Beatles didn't care much for it because apparently it can't buy you love either. But with the burden of student loans and the promise that more education leads to a fatter pay packet (see "Higher earnings"), potential income is at the forefront of every graduate's mind.

A professional scientist working in academia or industry pockets an average salary of £33,400 and can expect a starting salary of £21,000. The earnings curve is a little steeper as you rise in the ranks of industry (see "Average salary"), but when asked about benefits and promotion prospects, more scientists in academia routinely rate them as "excellent" than their industry cohorts. Granted, they're not the kind of numbers that lawyers, doctors and stockbrokers enjoy, but then again success and high wages are not one and the same (see "Graduate Special: Making a difference").

According to research carried out at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, economic success doesn't buy you happiness either (see "Graduate Special: Finding Happiness"). Nevertheless, you might like to see for yourself. There are literally millions to be made if you can parlay a good idea into an invention or a business. Just ask Mike Lynch, a University of Cambridge engineering graduate who started with £3000 and a good idea and is now the UK's first software billionaire. Or you could make a quicker buck - if not an easy one - by way of sponsored contests (see "Who wants to be a millionaire?"). And if you like a real challenge, why not aim for a Nobel prize?

Whatever you choose to do with your new qualifications, these pages should shed some light on the monetary rewards.

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