Thank you for your latest post. It was informative and presented facts. What this thread needs is facts. Ergo, you get a star. I'm from the U.S., but we face a similar employment situation.
The statistics I would like to see (if anyone has them) is unemployment or under-employment of engineers. Jobs are easier to get when you're young and relatively low paid. Also, younger people are more enthusiastic and more easily conned, layoffs and stagnant salaries tend to dampen enthusiasm and increase skepticism.
For a pessimistic and humorous treatment of engineering employment go to Career Guide for Engineers and Computer Scientists or
A quote from this website which I find pertinent is “We are all migrant workers in the data fields...”
From my experience, when an engineer gets older and reaches a higher pay level, he is likely pushed out of an organization in favor of a younger (cheaper) employee. Following his or her expulsion and if the engineer is over 50, the engineer typically accepts a lower paid position and remains under-employed until retirement. Also, retirement generally comes when he cannot find another engineering job and refuses to work at a fast food restaurant. Some engineers still enjoy a traditional career followed by retirement but this situation is becoming rare for the typical engineer.
The common “tuity-fruity” response is that an engineer must constantly increase his skills and remain current. A prudent engineer realizes that even if he remains current, there is a maximum skill set that any particular engineering job requires. To possess multiple skill sets and to be able to do many different jobs may increase employment flexibility slightly, but an employer will only pay for the specific skill set he needs. A glut of engineers reduces engineering services to a commodity market and in a commodity market price, and only price, govern.
I have a problem with people who present engineering in an optimistic but unrealistic manner. Showing a high school kid the CNN Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge and telling him that, if he becomes an engineer, he will design structures of this magnitude is less than totally honest. Planning a career on such information is tantamount to gambling with the same odds of payoff. You might as well him that he can grow up to become president of the United States (or Prime Minister of Canada). It is possible but not very likely.
A very, very realistic presentation of the engineering situation is given in a book “ The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder. This book should be required reading the first semester of any engineering education. It presents engineering in a realistic light. The book presents a true story. Data General Corp. enters into a “crunch” program to catch up to and exceed a new line of computers introduced by Digital Equipment Corp. Data General's survival depends on the success of this project. Following a truly heroic effort by the engineering staff, management and marketing take control the product and the engineers are quickly pushed out. You feel their pain. They save the company and all they get is a paycheck. They weren’t even paid for overtime!!!! If you’re in computers or software, you will identify with this book!!!! I did.