"Curse these metal hands!" Salary: $44,666 

You did the worst thing a robotics engineering student can do: you graduated with honors, but never spent any time with your hands on the hardware. The internship nickname "circuit-snapper" was funny the first couple times, but the twenty-eighth time? Not so much.

Circuit jerk. Salary: $70,541 

Congratulations on breaking in to the business. You've done consistently solid work on some good projects, but nothing totally groundbreaking yet. That's okay, there's plenty of time to continue learning from the best.

"But master, I love you." Salary: $93,307 

You've become well-known in the industry for your programming chops and your theoretical AI work, so you were an obvious pick to be brought on to the Friendbot project. Now if you could only figure out how to keep them from getting so clingy.

GM Robotics Manager. Salary: $105,101 

You make a good living maintaining the bots on GM's manufacturing line and have plenty of time on the side for some extra design work on a contract basis. Life is pretty good, overall.

Director of Robotics. Salary: $175,969 

Ever since freshman year at Cal Tech, you've been a hot commodity; between your innovation and your outright gumption, you're a valuable asset. All the big companies compete for your attention, and students everywhere write you to see if they can get an assistant butt-kisser position in your lab.