Posted on 03/04/2008 11:51:20 AM PST by central_va
Because, like, it’s so hard to do math and stuff! and why do twe need to learn this junk anyways? I got a job at them mall and they like give me free health insurance and everything and I get $300 per week on minimum wage, but whats thi FICA stuff. And the governbemnt took out a lot of moeny for taxes so when I get it all back at the end of the year i will like be so able to quit for a while and spend the summer at the beach and some junk.
Unfortunately, there is a viscious cycle...
If you want a technical culture from which to hire, you need technical parents to bear future technical children (mostly). However, the companies pay technical people jackshit wages and do next to nothing to cultivate and train the engineers they have. Technical guy with poor wages knocks up technical gal, can’t pay for family becuase the f’ing corporations are so greedy and cheap he can’t earn enough money, she aborts...end of story.
Meantime, they can’t resist pressing down on tech wages with H whatever visas. It’s pathetic and they talk out of both sides of their mouths.
Previous military experience isn’t necessary to get a job in the defense industry. Though getting a clearance without it is time consuming (have to start at a less sensitive position then wait the months for the clearance to come through).
A smaller number of engineers just may eat into that "process" side, leaving the design/manufacturing types to work with much fewer meetings and a lot less paperwork.
Of course, the real crying need is for good technical management....
Being and engineer for LMCO I can see why so few new engineers want to work here.... The benefits are always taking a hit, the pay scales suck by comparison, the management treats us like crap, the Government treats us worse. I could go on and on... the upshot is that unless business practices change for defense contractors... they will become extinct. Simple attrition will start, and as they pile more and more work on those who remain and pay them less and less while treating us as servants more of us will leave to sell insurance. At least there we might get a little respect for the time and effort it takes to get a engineering degree.
Amen to that brother.
It has been a long simmering issue where the corporations have taken advantage of the devotion of most engineers. Well, that forest is getting drier. Someone strikes a spark at the right time, the tech corporations are going to have a forest fire they can’t put out.
There have been BS efforts by some corporations to create parallel promotion ladders to management, etc. But these are band-aids.
They worry about engineer shortages, but fail to do the obvious, just as you mention above. It really is a pathetic situation long overdue for change.
I’ve written “Raising an Engineer”, on Amazon.com, a humorous essay on this very concept.
Maybe not for all, but for a good many of them it is true. My husband has several different security clearances, including DOD ones, yet far too many positions that don’t even require them are closed to him because although he has all other required job experience, he has no military experience in the form of time served.
“Technical guy with poor wages knocks up technical gal, can’t pay for family becuase the f’ing corporations are so greedy and cheap he can’t earn enough money, she aborts...end of story.”
I cannot buy your explanation here. It’s all wrong.
I can sympathize: we have the same problems at Boeing, and the constant cutting of jobs leaves none of us with any job security.
Then we see idiots we went to school with, who partied and drank their way through college, making 3-5 times what we do. . . not exactly an encouragement to go into our line of work...
Maybe if the US government lets in another 20 million Mexican 6th grade drop outs......
Oh, I see your plant got to hang the ISO900x Banner out on the front of the building, too!
You got it! Plus between HR and Safety regs, the people who’s job it is to make sure nothing is getting done are winning.
Same here in DOD agency. Since computerization Engrs.& Architects have become ‘hacks’. Whatever 20+ icons
on their screen they should be xpert at.
Timekeeping + reports + email + endless training + travel docs + budgets=
leaves a little bit of time for DESIGN.
I heard that 80's "Two Ladder" buzzword in my Fortune 500's.
It was a lie, a fraud, and a scam then, and it still has not gone away.
"We have to tell them SOMETHING, or they'll escape, and there go the bonuses and stock options we make on them!".
When the hosts leave, the parasites die.
President Obama’s Pacifist economy won’t be needing any “Doers”, just “Helpers”, like his wife said. Men who know Physics, make bombs. So, no more Physics for boys.
Statistics support that Engineers actually do better as insurance brokers than any other skill set. Odd but true
The customer complained about the Ada productivity and insisted on switching to C++. That was a bigger mistake because the unproductive "Ada engineers" were retained on the project to write C++...a language they were totally incompetent to handle. A tragedy of errors.
.
“The Knack - He’s Going to be an Engineer” - Dilbert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOtoujYOWw0
Pay them and they will come. Stop outsourcing the freaking jobs and provide for some stability, and they will come.
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