How bad is it in the US? 4

[corus]

In today's Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1542985,00.html

it is reported that engineers and scientists are being sent to movie school in order that their ilk can be portrayed in a more flattering manner to offset the dramatic decline in the number of students entering the profession in the US.

Will we see remakes of famous movies such as 'Bridge designed over the river Kwai' and 'Titanic' - a story of romance, love, and brittle fracture under impact loading?

corus

 

[duck0601]

Brian Keith on "A Family Affair" was a Civil Engineer

 

[rb1957]

is this how bad it is in the US ... that we need to find media models ?

perhaps it's better that way. people who want to join our profession will ... look at ourselves. people who want to do engineering will find a way, maybe that's an initiative test !? and if people can make more money doing something else (like issuing IPOs or tele-marketing), let them; i expect that most of us are happy in our jobs (if we weren't we'd be selling IPOs) despite the non-engineering things we have to put up with.

and if john q. public thinks more highly of lawyers and accountants, let him ... we know the truth ! (well, our truth).

and if we are stylised as nerds ... remember nerds are becoming fashionable ! ... are we going to side-step our claim to popularity ?

i am an engineer, even if i don't have a pocket protector or an iron ring; and i'm proud to be an engineer, even if other people think i'm "nerdy".

 

[HgTX]

Back to an earlier theme in perhaps another thread--how the public perceives you has a lot to do with how much you can get paid, and how much effect you (or your profession) can have on laws such as those governing pecking order between engineers & architects. Much as we might like to think we're above caring about what others think, real life dicatates that we can't afford to be.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[Tobalcane]

A star for you HgTX

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

 

[JTreglio]

One of the largest surface engineering conferences, the International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films, has seen a drop off in attendance in recent years. The meeting is held in the US (San Diego), so you would think it would be due to a drop in international travel. Not the case -- the drop off has been in attendees from the US. There may be other reasons for this, but I think the public perception of technical personnel has led many managers to try to increase profits by reducing funds for scientists and engineers to attend technical meetings. How many of you reading this have been prevented from attending a meeting in the past few years that you would have been able to go to in the past?

Jim Treglio
Molecular Metallurgy, Inc.

 

[HgTX]

I have, but it's a state government thing. A lot of state governments can't understand why anyone would possibly have any legitimate reason to travel outside the state. Forget professional development, forget participation in specification committees so you actually have some say in the documents that govern you...

My state is relatively lenient as far as that go. It comes in cycles and we hit bottom a couple of years ago and are now better. Other states sometimes won't let their employees travel out of their own districts, so even if a meeting were held in their state but another city, they wouldn't be allowed to attend.

Small-minded people.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[casseopeia]

My company routinely posts/emails information on useful conferences and seminars, but then suggestes that we pay for it ourselves. I have a philosophical objection to that, so I don't go.

I think all this whining about how engineers are portrayed is pitiful. As an architect, look who I've got as TV role models.

Wilber Post was an architect consigned to design homes from a working barn, and he talked to his horse.

Then there's Mike Brady......did he ever actually DO anything?

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[ewh]

Didn't Mike Brady design a factory shaped like an open powder compact for a make up company?

 

[ARenko]

Mike Brady was an architect, but not too good considering he designed their house with 2 bedrooms for 6 kids.

On the conferences I've been prevented from going to technical conferences related to our process machinery, so salesman who have nothing to do with the processing of our products, but the applications of the finished products, can go play golf with each other. Their not at all interested in the seminars or vendor booths and have no clients there to meet.

 

[whyun]

casseopeia,

I can see why have a philosophical objection. The company wants something extra at your expense. Realistically, companies can not afford to send all of their technical staff to all of the seminars related to their industry. But, I expect a company to pay for at least the following: License renewal fees, at least one paid membership for a professional society/organization, designated number of paid seminars per year (at their discretion, they can choose the number and maximum fees).

Didn't Matt Dillon play this character from There's Something About Mary who pretended to be an architect? He was pretty good actually when he came out of his car with all those "blueprints".

 

[monkeydog]

djv,
Mike Brady may be smarter then you think. If you had 6 kids living with you, wouldn't you want to make their stay as uncomfortable and short as possible?
;-)

 

[ARenko]

Good point monkeydog. He even made them all share a bathroom. And letting cousin Oliver stay with them really proved he wanted to make them uncomfortable. But those kids could've been his meal ticket with that "Sunshine Day" song.

 

[sms]

As someone with 5 kids (4 teenagers) let me give monkeydog a star! I constantly work at giving them incentives to be upstanding, self sufficient, members of the community so that I will have some hope of not having to feed them for ever.

People complain about the price of petrol, but when you buy 10 gallons of milk a week a $3.00 a gallon that racks up too...

 

[vooter]

sms,

Have you considered buying a cow?

 

[BillPSU]

Wow vooter another incentive to move out. Having to milk the family cow.

 

[RDK]

Brat Pitt used a civil engineering firm as his cover in Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion

http://www.kitsonengineering.com

 

[Slugger926]

SMS

Buy some goats to milk. They do a great job of keeping the yard mowed as well. You just change where you have them staked out. Your kids will have a daily chore of milking a goat with less chance of getting hurt by being kicked or stepped on by the cow.

I grew up with neighbors that had goats for milking. There is nothing better than fresh (cold) sweet goats milk for your cereal. It will save you on the sugar bills too. Fresh cows milk is also a lot sweeter than the processed stuff they sell in the stores. Your kids can learn to churn butter, and seperate cream.

I am ready to move out of the city limits myself.

I can easily make 5 times what I do as an engineer by just training retrievers for duck hunting, rescue work, and as drug dogs. Its crazy...... I wish I knew about all of this before going to college.

 

[Boathouse]

Didnt Michael Douglas play a disgruntled engineer with an AR15?? Can't remember the movie title though....

 

[mgage]

Falling Down

 

[wes616]

It was called, FALLING DOWN

Wes C.