Another week, another near hysterical article about how there is a desperate shortage of engineers. I hate those articles. Really, truly loath them. If you look at the numbers, and engineers are supposed to be numbers people, we are now producing a greater number, and a higher percentage of engineers since the post-Sputnik years of the 1960s. So why, exactly, do companies keep hysterically shrieking to the pols about the coming engineer shortage/apocalypse? Well, it is 2012...
Seriously, though, the answer is simple - they don't want to pay for decent salaries. Now, I realize that the more money spent on engineer salaries, the less money available for executive bonuses, but I also realize exactly how much money my employer stands to earn from my most recent patent. They're not hurting for cash, and the ROI for my salary is probably on the order of 600:1. I easily pay for myself, hell, I easily pay for my self at 10 times the cost. I got a handsome paper certificate and informed that due to the "financial climate" they have eliminated bonuses for things like coming up with patentable algorithms that they can turn around and market for millions and millions of dollars.
Assuming I don't stay in design engineering, that will make me the 94th of 94 of my college classmates to earn an engineering degree and then go do something else with it. Maybe I'm a slow learner, although I do get to (legally) blow things up with some regularity, so there are perks. Honestly, the company is not doing me a favor by asking me to spend 7 weeks away from family and friends to babysit a $300 million experiment. Rather the opposite, really, since, while Idaho is lovely (really, no sarcasm, it is) in the summer, it's not exactly my favorite place to go in the winter. My favorite place in winter is somewhere like, oh, Puerto Rico or Hawaii. I don't really "do" freezing cold with snow up to my nostrils voluntarily.
At least they've given up on that whole "kids don't like engineering because it doesn't seem cool" piece of nonsense because, honestly, there was never a shortage of tax accountants or insurance adjustors or logistics officers and those jobs (while challenging and interesting to do) don't sound cool to a 10 year old either.
Do I regret majoring in engineering, no. But if I graduated knowing what I know now, would I ever have gone to work in my industry? Not a chance. So, next time you see some old man on TV bellowing about the shortage of engineers and how we're falling behind and the world is ending, remember this: Google, which is a major tech company with all different sorts of engineers working for them on a galaxy of products, has no problem hiring qualified people. Why? Because it makes itself an attractive place to work. If other employers did the same, they too would find that terrible shortage evaporate. After all, in the absence of other factors, a young person smart and disciplined enough to earn a degree in engineering is smart and disciplined enough to know that "work here for low pay and mediocre benefits" just isn't a very attractive sales pitch.
On the plus side, the next time I'm scheduled to go to Idaho, it will be summer and my foot should be healed. I'll definitely have to go hiking!
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