I see my engineering degree every morning. It hangs above my dresser, a badge of honor for five of the toughest, yet most rewarding years of my life. It represents late nights studying, way too much calculus and thermodynamics, and likely an ulcer or two.
I was lucky to have chosen a public institution where even the out-of-state tuition was reasonable. And I was fortunate to have grandparents who were willing to help cover the cost of tuition. Many of my friends graduated with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
But more and more, I ask myself: What is an engineering degree worth these days?
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It is obvious that if somebody takes the degree by spending so much of money,he definetly will need the return thru' highly paid salary.But sometimes it is not happening in the real life.Without having the practical knowledge survival is difficult.But at the same time some people work better other than engineering.I feel during the engineering study a practical session must be included to various factories to have a practical knowledge.During beginning of the job learning is must.Sometimes,due to poor economic condition,people may loose the job.Here no degree is helpful.
In the present scenario everybody should be ready for the diversification of the carrier and saving must be started from the first day of the job to secure future.Selection of the carrier at the beginning is also very important.
Well, James, I'm from the baby bust generation, and when it was time for me to choose a profession, there wasn't any real choice to be made, I simply followed my passion. I did not choose to be an Engineer any more than I chose to be third-generation German-American. I grew up with a belief that Science and Technology would find the solutions to all life's drudgery, that not only was the rate of progress increasing, the rate of the increase was increasing. I wanted to be a part of that, no I needed it, as much as I needed air to breathe.
I never wanted to be rich, well, not beyond 'financially secure enough to have no worries when retirement came,' but I wanted to feel useful, respected. The way this country is treating Engineers, and manufacturing in general, makes me want to weep. Man had walked on the Moon mere months before I joined the party we call life, but now that orb seems as untouchable and unattainable as in the days when stars were thought to be holes in the sky that let the light of Heaven shine through.
And we have another solid hammer-blow right on target.
You may be right about 'Engineer Unions,' James. The 'professional associations,' such as IEEE were all we needed back in the day, when Engineers were in high demand and companies were fighting each other to get the best talent. However, with the current market, the companies hold all the cards, and we Engineers need some way to be seen as something more than a replaceable commodity.
In a way I'm reminded of the shortage of nurses in the US, which is an actual shortage, not a 'shortage of good nurses who will work cheap.' The reason for the nursing shortage is that most prospective nurses will talk with a trained nurse as part of their decision making about entering the profession, and almost all trained nurses will encourage the prospective nurse to look at other fields. The reason for this is due to the way nurses get treated during their 'internships' in the hospitals. The prevailing attitude among hospital doctors is that the nurses are somewhere between slave and prostitute in status (although with the advent of the 'harassment free workplace' laws the latter is not so prevalent.) I have heard stories, directly from a trained RN, about doctors calling the nursing staff for a department into a meeting to state that two nurses in the next shift had called in sick, and so NONE of the current shift will be released until two nurses 'volunteer' to pull a double-shift. The nurses also suffer a barrage of verbal abuse from the hospital doctors, who are typically fresh from their own training and therefore consider themselves as gods because they hold the power of Life and Death in their hands.
I truly fear the day when one of my younger cousins comes to me wanting to be an Engineer, will I tell them 'go for it,' or will I say 'run away while you still can'?
Jim,
#1: most valuable skill (in a business setting) is charisma. #2: Ability to close the sale (# 3 may be golf !). Think of those with the 1-2 punch like Donald Trump.
Imagine having a good salesman as a partner in your consulting business. Not only could they take that sales and marketing role, but they could also get more proposals and close a higher percentage of the proposals.
However I don't think I could ever make enough to pay a person like that for their sales skills. There are plenty of successful examples of technical expertise combining with good sales skills to create a viable entity, but that combination needs to be focused at some high dollar enterprise. Consulting is rarely that, unless in computers.
Which bring us to the computer consultant model. Computer consulting firms can do very well and have a team of programmers, salespeople and other support. They also can get paid a high rate for their expertise. There are a few engineering consulting firms, and often I see them struggling. Others are "virtual" consulting groups like Cecon. I've been on their list for 3 years and got about 2 inquiries and no jobs.
It is always about supply and demand. We are supposed to be in an under-supply of engineers, but correctly stated we are in an under-supply of lower wage recently graduated engineers. There are plenty of underemployed COBs (Crusty Old Bastards) like Jim and I.
James, Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Right now I am 90% pursuing reviving my consulting business and 10% looking for another job. I have 10 years of consulting experience and financial success was about even with employment in the long run. That means I need to do 10-20% better in my consulting to make it work, which is possible. One thing engineers are good at is solving problems, and I am trying to solve this one. Unfortunately consulting requires even more hours than employment. A buddy of mine who was consulting transformed his business into developing and selling a specialty chemical. With many years of hard work he does not now need to put in those long hours. Food for thought.
James has the wisdom of already going down many of these roads. What are the solutions?
I think a lot of the comments here are really interesting, and it is sad to hear about the hard times that so many are experiencing. I have to believe that we are getting close to reevaluating education in this country - we are expected to go to college to get anywhere now-a-days, yet we are also expected to go into debt doing it. It seems really unfair.
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