Growing dissatisfaction among career engineers

The Raleigh News & Observer ^ | Thursday, December 26, 2002 | TERRY COSTLOW, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

[Indrid Cold]

I don't know why they'd get sick of driving that cute little train--that's my kid's life goal!

[RightWhale]

It's a pattern that's recurring with surprising, and disturbing, frequency in a profession long known for job security.

Remembering the 70s. This was not a new situation even then. Engineers can expect to be pounding the pavement looking for work at some point. Comes with the territory.

[Thebaddog]

The engineers that work for me are all control freaks with a superiority complex. And the bosses do need to be in control whatever Dilbert thinks.

[gcruse]

So your wife had a little caboose, eh? Oh, wait, that's papoose. Never mind. Sorry.

[Digger]

Just what we need---more lawyers.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The engineers that work for me are all control freaks with a superiority complex.

My experience has shown me that "civil" engineer is an oxymoron.

[Krafty123]

What is your opinion of Engineering Physics Degrees (what I am intending on majoring in)?

[PoorMuttly]

Muttly have black & white television. Easier to not plug in.

[El Sordo]

It must be understood that 'engineer' is an over-used term. And not always used correctly.

Job security is dependant on the particular discipline, as well as overall skill.

Civil, structural and mechanical seem (to me) to be much more stable if you can do the job well. A good civil/structural/mechanical engineer takes 10 years or more to make (not counting school). Fresh young structural engineers give you things like the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

[Cicero]

One of my sons is a mechanical engineer who graduated from Carnegie Mellon in a bad market and had to work for a moving company for a year before he found a job. He's been employed ever since, and seems to be doing very well at an engineering consulting firm.

[Little Bill]

an incredibly exciting and rewarding profession..

It is provided you are not a dot.com type, I like steel, holes, and concrete, spent about 16 months in 35 years looking for a job.

[El Sordo]

Gentlemen, what say you?

Many times it seems to me that being an engineer (mechanical) puts me in the ranks of the lowest paid professionals. And I grant that I have survived a good number of layoffs, but I cannot imagine doing anything else.

[Eala]

Graying engineers who have decades of work experience are as rare as a black and white television. Even those under 40 are often considered old: A computer-science professor in California has statistics to show that programmers have careers not much longer than pro-football players.

Back when I graduated in the 70s it was asserted that the half-life of an engineer (before he moved on to an honest profession, such as sales or management) was only 5 years. That certainly fit my observations of the first decade after graduation. (If it's still true, only about 3% of my class are still engineers...)

[Eala]

but I cannot imagine doing anything else

When I started my education it was in the aerospace crash of the early 70s, which hit Silicon Valley hard. I saw my classes drop drastically in size when the other students realized there wouldn't be work for them. Like you, I couldn't imagine doing anything else so I stayed the course -- and got lucky; when I got my MSEE/CS there was all sorts of work available.

[jimt]

Job security is dependant on the particular discipline, as well as overall skill.

Exactamundo.

Many of the "engineers" discussed are in reality programmers. EE has become a discipline with three main areas: electrical power, electronics and programming. Of the three, programming has had a very large share of the students. The huge surge of folks into programming, and their subsequent layoffs, have a lot to do with the "dissatisfaction" discussed in the article.

There's also a factor related to the quality of education today. I recently met a computer science major who responded "What's that?" when I asked him if he messed with assembly much. Similarly, it is now possible to graduate from a major university with a degree in mechanical engineering, having never taken a class in drafting, or CAD, or in manufacturing methods.

[bobg]

I am a licensed engineer and architect. I am 72 years old and still working. I am semi-retired, having "cut back to 40 hours a week", HA... I have been employed since 1957, and for the last 33 years in my own consulting firm. I have two sons, one an architect with a large fast food corporation and the other has his own firm doing computer graphics and architectural renderings.

I love it because with a small office in a small town every day is different.

[johniegrad]

What is your opinion of Engineering Physics Degrees (what I am intending on majoring in)?

Probably will be a better choice for you than an English major.

[Incorrigible]

 

As an IEEE member for almost 20 years, I've been hearing this whining since the defense layoffs of the late 80's.  When I graduated as an Electrical Engineer in 1987, there was no work.  I was willing to move and did to Maryland for a year before I could get some relational database work in NYC.

Unlike a couple of friends of mine, I knew Engineering had it's limits.  Despite the slackers at the under-graduate business school not being able to add 2 + 2  (I took two business classes as electives so I could get 4.0's and raise my GPA), I knew one day I would be ruled by these inferior cretins if I looked upon my career as only being an engineer.  Instead I got my MBA.

The only problem now is that I have the business ethics of an engineer (from a Catholic Univ no less).  Thus, I can not lie and cheat and backstab my way to the top.  However, I am satisfied with that.

Would I do Engineering again?  Absolutely!  Oh, I missed a lot of partying spending my Friday and occasional Saturday nights in the Science Library but I have independence and control of my life now.  That kind of freedom doesn't come cheap.

[Anchoragite]

"Gentlemen, what say you?"

I'm not an engineer, but spent 90% of the last ten years in the engineering industry in process development. It is just so rewarding when you sit around and think, make a bunch of marks on [real or virtual] paper, and a year or two later.... !poof! -- there's a big machine doing exactly what you wanted it to do.

Doing stuff is fun.