sms
Mechanical
- May 10, 2001
- 787
In many of the recent threads there has been a generally negative attitude toward engineering, and a generally negative view on the future of engineering. In the thread titled would you recommend engineering to a high school graduate I wrote:
“Maybe I am just lucky, but the negative attitude toward engineering in this thread and several of the others just amazes and confounds me. Engineering has been very very good to me, I have never been without a job, and in fact I typically get one or two offers a year to move to another company. I make excellent money, on par with or beyond the sales people, MBA's, and even some of the lawyers I know. I have been at it 20 years split between three companies, and I have never regretted it for a minute. I have done interesting work that has taken me all over the world. I have also had the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in the world. And I graduated with mediocre grades from a little known cow college in southern New Mexico, not MIT.
Being an engineer kept my grandfather employed through the depression and kept his 8 kids fed and clothed. As an engineer my Dad was able to raise our family in a very comfortable middle class setting, and it has supplied him with a very comfortable retirement.”
As a result of this post I was challenged to present a positive view on engineering in the next five years. So here we go!
Will there be job loss, consolidation, layoffs, and other uncomfortable aspects of the engineering profession in the next 5 years? In the next 10 to 20 years? There is no doubt in my mind there will be. But I don’t think there is any job category or industry that will escape this. This is also nothing new, as the economy and the political realities of the world shift so does every other aspect of culture. If you were a steel worker in Pennsylvania, or an IT professional over the last 20 years you know this. But is it realistic to make blanket statements like “the profession of engineering is in a tail spin”? I don’t think so. Will outsourcing to India or China change the kind of work available for engineers, and the salary structure of engineers in the first world. Yes surely, but that also leaves some tremendous opportunities for engineers living in the US, and Europe. Instead of dealing with the mundane tasks associated with most engineering projects, this labor pool allows engineers with leveraging skill sets to tackle the most interesting and challenging problems. As a result salaries for engineers with those skills will increase, as their differential value becomes increasingly apparent. This will be accelerated by the mass exodus of baby boomers from the labor pool over the next 5 to 20 years. There is a lot of experience leaving the engineering profession for retirement, and at least in the US, the number of students interested in taking on the rigors of an engineering education appears to be shrinking.
But, if your skill set does not differentiate you from the engineer living in Bangalore making 5 dollars an hour, then as the engineering labor pool becomes more and more global then your salary will indeed push toward the 5 dollar and hour level. And if you are not willing to move, then you are at the mercy of what drives your local economy.
I’m sorry, but it is hard for me to have much empathy for the guy that whines about being been laid off because the local coal mine in Soggy Bottom West Virgina closed down, but he’s not willing to move elsewhere to get work. Go do a search on engineering at Monster.com, and you’ll see that there are good paying engineering jobs of all kinds all over the USA, but if you are not willing to relocate, then your choices are going to be very limited. I live in Houston Texas. I was raised in New Mexico. I would love to be living in New Mexico, but I live in Houston because right now if you are a mechanical engineer Houston is the center of the United States. I even know ME’s that have turned down relocations from Houston to elsewhere, for the very reason that they know the opportunities are greater for ME’s in this area. But this aspect of career management is only going to get more global as well. I have recently interviewed for positions in Australia, Singapore, and China, and the companies involved were more than willing to pay the relocation costs, and a competitive salary. That will very likely become more common, but again only if you have skills that are in demand.
So if you are willing to invest in your skills well beyond what was learned in college, if you are willing to relocate, even to the extent of relocating globally, and if you are willing to keep a positive attitude, engineering has in my opinion a huge potential for providing a satisfying, rewarding, and financially acceptable career. But you guys with the negative attitudes, have all ready limited your potential.
“Maybe I am just lucky, but the negative attitude toward engineering in this thread and several of the others just amazes and confounds me. Engineering has been very very good to me, I have never been without a job, and in fact I typically get one or two offers a year to move to another company. I make excellent money, on par with or beyond the sales people, MBA's, and even some of the lawyers I know. I have been at it 20 years split between three companies, and I have never regretted it for a minute. I have done interesting work that has taken me all over the world. I have also had the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in the world. And I graduated with mediocre grades from a little known cow college in southern New Mexico, not MIT.
Being an engineer kept my grandfather employed through the depression and kept his 8 kids fed and clothed. As an engineer my Dad was able to raise our family in a very comfortable middle class setting, and it has supplied him with a very comfortable retirement.”
As a result of this post I was challenged to present a positive view on engineering in the next five years. So here we go!
Will there be job loss, consolidation, layoffs, and other uncomfortable aspects of the engineering profession in the next 5 years? In the next 10 to 20 years? There is no doubt in my mind there will be. But I don’t think there is any job category or industry that will escape this. This is also nothing new, as the economy and the political realities of the world shift so does every other aspect of culture. If you were a steel worker in Pennsylvania, or an IT professional over the last 20 years you know this. But is it realistic to make blanket statements like “the profession of engineering is in a tail spin”? I don’t think so. Will outsourcing to India or China change the kind of work available for engineers, and the salary structure of engineers in the first world. Yes surely, but that also leaves some tremendous opportunities for engineers living in the US, and Europe. Instead of dealing with the mundane tasks associated with most engineering projects, this labor pool allows engineers with leveraging skill sets to tackle the most interesting and challenging problems. As a result salaries for engineers with those skills will increase, as their differential value becomes increasingly apparent. This will be accelerated by the mass exodus of baby boomers from the labor pool over the next 5 to 20 years. There is a lot of experience leaving the engineering profession for retirement, and at least in the US, the number of students interested in taking on the rigors of an engineering education appears to be shrinking.
But, if your skill set does not differentiate you from the engineer living in Bangalore making 5 dollars an hour, then as the engineering labor pool becomes more and more global then your salary will indeed push toward the 5 dollar and hour level. And if you are not willing to move, then you are at the mercy of what drives your local economy.
I’m sorry, but it is hard for me to have much empathy for the guy that whines about being been laid off because the local coal mine in Soggy Bottom West Virgina closed down, but he’s not willing to move elsewhere to get work. Go do a search on engineering at Monster.com, and you’ll see that there are good paying engineering jobs of all kinds all over the USA, but if you are not willing to relocate, then your choices are going to be very limited. I live in Houston Texas. I was raised in New Mexico. I would love to be living in New Mexico, but I live in Houston because right now if you are a mechanical engineer Houston is the center of the United States. I even know ME’s that have turned down relocations from Houston to elsewhere, for the very reason that they know the opportunities are greater for ME’s in this area. But this aspect of career management is only going to get more global as well. I have recently interviewed for positions in Australia, Singapore, and China, and the companies involved were more than willing to pay the relocation costs, and a competitive salary. That will very likely become more common, but again only if you have skills that are in demand.
So if you are willing to invest in your skills well beyond what was learned in college, if you are willing to relocate, even to the extent of relocating globally, and if you are willing to keep a positive attitude, engineering has in my opinion a huge potential for providing a satisfying, rewarding, and financially acceptable career. But you guys with the negative attitudes, have all ready limited your potential.
. Instead I am looking at wentworth institute of technology. I am looking at the part time engineering programs and will go the hybrid route of study part time while working full time. I do feel that this "balance" between leaning and practice will only be able to further sharpen my skills and once I have the B.S. degree i wont just be someone with theory but actual hands on experience. The other thing I have to deal with is within the big picture where to specialize. I know again here i have a few different areas of interests. I like design so I may be able to temper the engineering with enough creativity to go the industrial design route. I like cars alot so I could go the persuit of automotive in the end of high performance and engine components, I also like the chances to address larger issues. One of the biggest there is fuel technologies and alternative to gas powered engines. These typically are the things I think about in terms of the larger spheres that I am looking at. So along those lines i know i need to shape my academic learning and experience to be suited to one of those areas.
