Show me the money...

What are typical field service engineer salaries? Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

I've been in medical diagnostics field service for approximately 15 years and in my experience talking with recruiters, interviewing, and hiring for my current employer I will tell you that field service salaries vary greatly. Currently the low end, entry level salary at a large laboratory diagnostics supplier seems to be around 50K and can be upwards of 100K total compensation for experienced engineers. However, you can see quite a bit of variance even between engineers with similar experience and backgrounds. My company has only hired experienced (5+ Yrs) engineers over the past four years and we expect to pay 65-75K as a base for a salaried engineer. I personally know of hourly FSE's that have been around for sometime breaking 120K but I would say that that is the high end. Hourly positions and unlimited overtime are much harder to come by in the current climate.

I think it also varies depending on geographical area, the industry, and the company's market presence.

Was laid off in Nov of 08 and was making 82K with a company car. Took me a year to find another job. This on only pays 60K
I think pay scales have dropped because there are so many people looking. Companies mind sent is to do more for less and with less. That is a good way to burn people out