Interesting you mention this..my cousin who is 24 graduated from MMA in Castine Maine with an engineering degree.

Although he has to pay his union dues, both monetary and time wise to score the more lucrative jobs his first job out of school was overseeing an engine overhaul in a drydocked barge in Alaska. This job flew him out there for four months, paid him perdiem and housed him and he left after four months with 40k, this is before taxes. For his next union job since he has started serving his time with the jobs that the more senior union members do not want will be more lucrative and so on and so forth.

He has recently achieved all of his Coast Guard ratings as far as becoming a ship captain and looking into that venue as well but currently just being an engineer a few months a year in Alaska or on an oil rig in the gulf is more worth while for him.