Don't Just Pay Me - Pay Me Like A Rocket Scientist...

Remember that common cornerstone of childhood mocking growing up?  "What are you, some sort of Rocket Scientist"?

If you persevered though the taunts and actually became a rocket scientist, I bet you thought it would pay a lot more than it does.   From the Wall Street Journal:

The job: Aerospace engineer

The pay: The average annual starting salary for recent bachelor's degree graduates is $54,008, according to a National Society of Professional Engineers survey. Those with 25 or more years of experience average $121,679, the trade group says.

The hours: Eight-hour workdays, Monday through Friday, are common, though overtime may be necessary for time-sensitive projects.

Other incentives: "You get to see a lot of cool things a normal person would never get to see," such as stealth fighters and test sites, says Jonathan Nikkel, an aerospace engineer specializing in navigation theory for Raytheon Corp.

That's still pretty good pay for a college grad.  It's just that after hearing the intelligence-challenged openly mocked as "rocket scientists" growing up, I would think the market would bear more for this position.  After all, it's the standard by which raw intelligence (or lack thereof) is measured....