Design News for Mechanical and Design Engineers

It is about the money

Chris Norman, Kansas City, MO

I was irritated by your July 8^th editorial in Design News, especially your one-sided comparison to teachers' salaries. While low teachers' salaries are present in many parts of the nation, many areas (such as NY state) have salaries that are very competitive to engineering. You forgot to compare working hours, vacation time, job security (tenure), retirement and health benefits. All of which are considerably better for teachers. Engineers are frequently asked to work extended hours without pay. Teachers get additional pay for summer school, after school coaching, etc. My teaching friends are retired after 30 years at 70%+ of their final teaching income. That just doesn't happen in industry.

My personal experience as an engineer for 33 years has been satisfactory, but I see a great deal of change in industrial America that certainly contributes to recent dissatisfaction in an engineering career. It is no longer probable to expect a long career at one company. Even direct employed engineers are basically "contract" workers (continued employment is only as good as the existing project). While job security is not particularly important to someone in their 20's or 30's it becomes very important later in life when family and other commitments make job and location switching undesirable.

Also as I look out from my office at the less senior people who occupy the large cube farm, I can't help but feel that engineering has become the blue collar job of the 20^th century. It's no longer a true profession. Engineers are just expensive "tools" to management, no different than a machinist, pipefitter, or electrician. Today engineering should be considered a stepping stone job—not a terminal career at most companies. (I note it didn't take you too long to find an alternate career.)

And it is about the money. Engineering is a difficult and highly skilled discipline, not a social cause. Engineers are still underpaid when you compare the educational requirements and training to other corporate positions such as marketing, finance and sales. Why? Because engineers have historically been passive and have been unlikely to do anything about substandard pay or advancement. I do see a change however, the newer generation of engineers appear to understand the "game" and are "voting with their feet" when a better opportunity arises. Hurray for them!

Stephen Corona, PE

Thank you so much for setting engineers straight. The fact that your magazine exists solely to please the manufacturing sector in the United States doesn't exactly give you the high moral ground to chastise the engineering community.

In fact, 30% dissatisfaction sounds low to me. In case you haven't noticed, the engineering profession in this country is in serious decline. When the baby boomers running manufacturing organizations today finally whine their way into retirement, they will also gut the institutional knowledge of the profession. Their peers in management have assured that a career in engineering is no longer possible by incessant layoffs due to poor, selfish, fraudulent, inept and short sighted decisions. There is value in the knowledge base of the technical personnel in an organization, and this asset has been destroyed with no accountability to stockholders.

Try to find a true engineer (not a project manager, product manager or technician) with 10-15 years experience. They don't exist in large numbers. Many engineers I know have left the profession because they cannot support a family with any stability.

When I chose engineering as a profession, I included compensation in that decision, just as doctors, lawyers, musicians, pilots, truck drivers and all job seekers do. Teaching is a noble calling, and

I think they are underpaid. If they went in with their eyes shut, that is not anyone's fault but their own. That does not alter the fact that an engineering degree is not granted for just showing up. It is HARD to obtain. Compensation used to consider that. Now manufacturing entities just call technicians engineers, or accept an engineering technology degree as an equal alternate.

Your condescending editorial assumes that engineers are stupid and easily misled with twisted arguments. I assure you that is not the case. Get over yourself.

Peter L. Schmidt, PE Carrier Corporation, Lewisburg, TN