[VOA]

Paul Porter is closing the door on his engineering career - even though he's only 29.
In recent weeks, his wife and five close colleagues were added to the more than
50,000 employees axed by his employer, Nortel Networks

I know two Nortel engineers who were laid off over a year ago.
Both have found engineering jobs...but had to move from Dallas to Boston.

As hopeless as the folks in the article sound, I wonder if this is evidence of a
paradoxical phenomenon...maybe it can sometimes be better to be let go in the
early rounds of the downsizing of a company that sometimes had no clues what it was doing.

(One of the engineers said that he never was required to produce any substantive
work-product in his four years with Nortel. It seems the company was so busy shifting him
and lots of other personnel around between divisions that they forgot to ask for any sort
of work that would make a profit for the company. Just In-Freakin'-Credible, as
Andrew Dice Clay would say...)

[jim_trent]

At 29, he doesn't know anything yet. I am a registered professional engineer and am on my second career. I really liked engineering, but I doubt that it was EVER an "employment for life" job (except for late WWII through the late 1960's -- but that was the aberation, not now).

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

There is probably going to be NO secure career in the future. The pace of change will require constant retraining, education and switching of careers.

[hottomale]

Culinary School seems to be the best choice for the younger generation. Maybe special emphasis on Soups and bread rolls.

[fortress]

One time I was a young field engineer on a jobsite and one of our welders came up to me to ask me about my profession and how much I was making.
I told him and he said: "Never mind I think I will keep doing what I am doing".

[tubebender]

Willie, you need to buy all your newly laid off friends the little book "WHO MOVED MY CHEESE" by Spencer Johnson. It's a parody on lifes changes.

[TheDon]

"Lifelong learning is critical in this profession"

So true. If you aren't prepared to follow the above advice, do not become a software engineer!

[Tax Government]

Software skills are about twice as perishable as traditional engineering skills.

The dot-com boom created a Gold Rush for software engineering. Many software specialties-du-jour -- almost any Microsoft 'technology', for example -- have a 6-month halflife. Now that the engineering economy is back to NORMAL, i.e. BAD and HARSH, we hard-core folk can do what we do best -- survive.

Rule #1 for the unemployed: start work INSTANTLY on a new degree.

Rule #2: be prepared to live in a commune or under a bridge, if it means staying employed.

[Buffalo Head]

There you go again! Another doom and gloom story about layoffs. What is your point?

[weikel]

Good news for me lousy job market in everything but accounting for the last 2 years. I need some old farts to die or retire( or the economy to recover but that ain't gonna happen anytime soon).

[185JHP]

I remember reading an essay about why engineers don't make as much money as other professionals. The essay said it has to do with how easy it is for non-engineers to evaluate the quality of their work - did the bridge collapse? how long did the car last? Doctors and lawyers are harder to evaluate, plus they have the edge in jargon. FReegards Willie

[Aracelis]

Looks like it's becoming universal.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

That was the catalyst that prompted the New York native, already disgruntled with his choice of profession, to look into attending either business or law school.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[lavaroise]

"I spent seven years in school, and it resulted in a six-year career," says Porter, who feels his master's degree in engineering is little more than "a base."

Well, engineering does not last without inovation or creativity teams. Secular colleges certainly do not foster personal helpfulness, but little slaves bowing to the god professors. So what do we expect.

[RnMomof7]

Bump

[RnMomof7]

My EE son (out of school 3 years) expects to have to leave the field at some point..He had started his grad degre in engineering (completed one year) . He has now decided to possibly do a combination MBA and Law degree..

It is sad as he loves what he does

When the US no longer has engineers ..kiss what is left of our competitive edge goodby

[pttttt]

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

The above is part of the big lie on engineering in the US. For the effort it takes to get an engineering credential, engineering is not a high-leverage career track in the United States; it's never been a ticket to heaven and generally not to major worldly success either (Lee Iacocca, a decent junior mechanical engineer who designed a working automatic transmission for his MS thesis, saw the light after 6 months at Ford and transferred to sales). A common phenomenon even during the well-paid Cold War days was the "tramp engineer" who never stayed (usually couldn't stay) in one place long enough to get vested in a pension plan and then couldn't retire. One thing you don't get in engineering is a dignified old age.

Anyone who tells a kid the old wheezes about employability, high salaries, etc. is misleading the kid. The only reason to pursue engineering of any kind is because you love it and can't imagine doing anything else. And even then you should be aware of its pitfalls. Most engineers who succeed in a worldly way do not do it as engineers - they do it on career switches such as business, finance, medicine, or patent law.

Major in chemistry. It offers more options (including chemical engineering graduate school, if you insist).