What's the Future of Engineers? 5

[lb4paris]

I heard in the news recently that some engineers have started working as plumbers and technicians and pay is good in that profession. I just wonder in this changing world what's the future of Engineers. I myself graduated with an Honours degree in Electrical and Electrical Engineering but moved on to work in Mechanical Environment using my Programming and Data Management Skills.

I wonder what are the other options available for me especially and for other engineers in General.

 

[StoneCold]

ib4paris
You are correct in stating that the pay for engineers is the same as for trade labor skills. You are just a better educated slave. The only way to make the big money is to be working for yourself.

 

[TheTick]

If you got into engineering simply because you wanted more money than a plumber, then both engineers and plumbers will laugh at you.

I am a mechanical design engineer because that is what I want to be. I have been and I could be many other things (machinist, programmer, teacher, manager, PLUMBER). This is true for just about all engineers. It's impossible to be a competent engineer without having the talent that would allow one to do many other things.

Someday, someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

 

[JAE]

I just read an interesting article in Engineering News Record on the increasing use of 3D models by the whole design/construction team. Soldier Field stadium improvements in Chicago used this technique where the designers created a 3D computer model of the stadium and shared the model with the fabricator who used it to develop connections and shop drawings.

They claim it saved them a lot of time and that this was the future of engineering (i.e. 2D drawings and shop drawings would be a thing of the past).

My concern here is similar to the posts above: what is the future of engineering as software develops into a cyber package of information that others have total access to.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not living in the past...just concerned as to how a project is developed, communicated, and built while maintaining the quality of design that an engineer brings to the job. Liability is also a concern here. Right now, in the U.S., state engineering laws are quite specific about sealing plans for construction and leaving the control of the content of the plans in the engineer's hands. With a 3D model "out there" where others can use it...and abuse it...what will happen to that control of content?

 

[TheTick]

You can be jailed for falsely identifying yourself as a doctor, attorney, CPA, or policeman. Anyone can call themselves an engineer. That ain't right.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Bro,

If you went into engineering for the money, you need a time machine.

The money profession is entertainment. Then banking and finance.

Those professions will make you a lot of money and you can work for someone else (security of a big company). If you want to make a lot of money by working for yourself, go into marketing and sell, sell, sell!

I'm sticking with engineering because a) I love it (well, it's what I am pretty good at, at least), b) I only make $10k/year more than a bus driver, but my job is a lot more fun, and c) I haven't finished my great American SF novel. Once (c) kicks in, I'll be the next Michael Crichton (I'd prefer to be the next L. Sprague de Camp, but MC is the road to riches).

 

[StoneCold]

We all work for money. If you say that you don't you are lying to yourself. If they quit paying you, how many more days would you come in? One maybe two? So engineering is about money. My point is, that despite the level of knowledge you posess it has very little impact on the value of your effort in society. Actors and Football players make tons of money. They are "valued" highly in society, yet there contribution to the development of society is negligible/detrimental at best. If you want to have more money than the amount "allotted" to engineers you have to change professions. Despite what we may want to think, the world will not fall apart without a few engineers. You may be a great engineer but it is hard to feed your kids drawings. So take your vast talents out and market yourselves to the highest bidder. Console yourself that you never get to design anything by driving a Porshe to work!

 

[sc]

Many engineers don't make good money because they are content and happy with what they do, and to a certain extent are not in it for the money. I run my own practice and have set as one of my goals to make money for early retirement as I don't wish to finish working at a time when my health is heading down hill. So one of the goals has to be to make money.

To do this I don't undervalue my work, I don't compete for work on fee basis at all. I don't haggle over fees, if a client wants to I suggest they go elsewhere as I am not interested. Can I aford to do this? Yes because I make a point of delivering each project on time and with the client fully informaed as to where it is at. I will admit that some times projects are not completed to the original date but if the client is informed then it is generally not a problem.

I often take the time out when talking to people to explain that my job is a professionally trained job and that I am not just a monkey doing a trained (on the factory floor so to speak) job. I can think independently and look for real alternatives to problems and then check via theory that it will work. I am not putting down fabricators, machinists, etc as many of them are excellent at their jobs and can quite often think a problem through to a solution for their specific area of expertice. What I can do as an engineer is look at the whole project and find a whole solution (well I like to think I can).

So where does engineering lose its value? In our own atitudes, we don't have too many legal restrictions placed on the industries we work in, we don't push ourselves as being a life saving industry.

I don't think highly of the entertainment industry as it filled with passing phases, engineering quite often lasts forever. I have high regard for the medical profession, as they work with very little "exact" knowledge and are expected to be perfect at their jobs all of the time. Banking and finance are to me over paid vultures who feed of other peoples money. Solicitors have helped create the current legal nightmare called PI Insurance through their own vulture attitude of sue, sue, sue.

Why do plumbers and other trades make so much? because they are faced with large demands for their services with so few in the trade. Supply/Demand as a small ratio = large $ in any profession.

Sorry rambling again. Time to get back to work and earn a few $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Regards
sc

 

[k111er]

Ain't it a bitch? Study one thing, end up working doing something else, then something else again, etc. Doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, eh?

Who cares?!

If you don't like your job, screw it! Move on. We all worked hard enough to be the best at what we do, that we deserve that kind of freedom. As long as you aren't cutting your own throat down the road, go do what you want to do, and work where you want to work.

There are a million possibilities to bury yourself in a huge company, ie. become a number. The other extreme is to start your own business. This final option is probably the most controversial decision that I have ever made. But, every time I get stressed about company $$, I simply reming myself that at least I don't work for someone. Either way, it is all about the $$.

You can either chase it, or let it find you, doesn't matter, just make sure you are having a good time, right?

-K-

 

[Nehemiah]

DaveViking,

COOL!! Someone else who can actually mention the name L. Sprague de Camp!! My favorite author, sadly you are correct in that Crichton has him beat in the monetary department.

 

[ornerynorsk]

I had to chuckle a bit at your response Bradstone, as I have had my own business on 4 seperate occasions (squeezed out by city politics, broke, broke, and driven to sell out by foreign competition) 0 and 4, helluva record, eh! I have also been employed by approximately 9 different companies and concerns, I quit counting to save my own sanity. I have been working since I was 10 years old (newspaper delivery), and my lifetime average for hours worked far exceeds what we now call normal (2500 hrs annually). Between stints at self-employment and jobs that I hated and walked off from (never been fired or laid off ;>) ) I have also been able to travel around our great nation (USA, of course!) and to many interesting places around the world. The point that I would like to make, is that we are only a slave to our own attitudes, greed, and pride, not necessarily in that order. When I was self-employed, I worked for peanuts and had to put in hellacious hours just to make ends meet, but I enjoyed it. I am currently employed by a firm, easy hours, best money I've ever made, but I don't get to do what I really love and what I am really good at, which is machining and vendor sourcing (weird combination!). Hence, the old melody "I hate my job, I hate my job" starts popping into my head once in awhile, and I'm actively working on an overseas deal that would allow me reasonable income, travel, and free-time. What I'm saying is, you have to do what you love, otherwise you have to go to work everyday, and that's no fun, is it?

 

[testy]

Ornerynorsk, I believe you are slipping. No response to SC's comments about trained monkeys? I have to believe that as a machinist you may have saved one or two Engineers Ars'es.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Nehemiah,

A digression... I got L. Sprague de Camp's autograph several years ago (I wrote him a letter asking why he allowed the film "Kull the Conquerer" to be so bad... - his response was that I shouldn't worry since he was credited after the second assistant to the hairdresser...). I am tremendously blessed to have conversed with him before he passed. BTW, he was an engineer by training... ...and he wrote several excellent engineering books, like "The Ancient Engineers."

Crighton's only a medical doctor (a 6'-10" MD, at that, too!), so his books, well, they're written like a doctor would write 'em.

I say the future of engineers is to take over the planet!

 

[ornerynorsk]

Hi Testy! Well I guess I must be mellowing with age, ha-ha! I actually feel sorry for the people who are so driven to making a ton of money for early retirement. They may never see the retirement years, and if they do, their stomach will be in such a tight knot from years of stress that they won't enjoy the "down time". If I can make a decent living without feeling the stress and bitterness that goes along with a typical rat race, hey , I'm way ahead!