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Is Engineering no longer a sexy profession?

Emerson Exchange Industry Forum - Is Life Science no longer #sexy for engineers or is it a common problem across all industries?  What can be done to attract more engineers into process automation?

Chris Amstutz

• 30 May 2012 10:29 AM
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8 Replies

• PCILESSMITH

  

  • 31 May 2012 12:02 PM

  Is it because what we do isn't as visible as say a computer game or and iPhone app (or an iPhone for that matter).

  We've done a pretty good job of hiding our skills and contribution away from the world - and lets face it, we are generally pretty low profile (or as my wife would say, boring) group. Incidentally, this is a good thing as I wouldn't like a "rock & roll" engineer designing a hydrogenation control scheme on a whim!

  But what we do is "magic" - we are the wizards who stay up late (and wear hard hats instead of pointy ones). What do we need to do the get kids to understand that we control the world - everything they touch, play with, eat, drink, make them well again has an automation engineer behind it? Do we need to shout about it or what? Ideas?

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• Chris Amstutz

  

  • 7 Jun 2012 3:36 PM

  Awareness is a good start.  Dawn M. one of the engineers from Emerson actually does a education out reach program at schools.  I think getting the interest out there early is the key.  

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• Jim Cahill

  

  • 7 Jun 2012 4:17 PM

  In reply to Chris Amstutz:

  I tend to be an optimist about having new folks enter the world of process automation. I was in college in the early 1980s. At that time, the oil business was booming. Starting salaries for petroleum engineers were much higher than for any other engineering discipline. This salary differential spurred more engineering students to become petroleum engineers.

  When the boom busted later in the 1980s, the starting salaries normalized among the various engineering disciplines. Many petroleum engineers moved into other industries and learned new skills in areas such as process control and instrumentation.

  As high school age kids begin to think about college, I think that starting salaries remain a consideration in their selection process, as it did a generation ago.

  And, as shortages develop, salaries will rise and smart people will join our process automation ranks.

  Did I mention that I'm an optimist? ;-)

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• Graham Burnikell

  

  • 8 Jun 2012 9:08 AM

  Was engineering ever a sexy profession?

  I think the question is phrased wrong, the reason the industry can't attract new blood is nothing to do with sexiness at least in my opinion but instead to do with the way in which engineers are treated within the industry.

  How many long term good engineers get to earn on a par with a junior manager or have the potential to earn managerial rates without having to change role? New blood comes in, quickly realise they cant remain engineers if they want salaries on a par with other non-engineers in a company and quickly move on.

  I feel organisations need to stop thinking hierarchial in terms of salaries and find ways to invest in showing engineers that their skills are a valued corporate asset. They must be valued corporate assets or else we all wouldn't be so worried about where the next generation of engineers is coming from.

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• Lucinda Bailey-Weaver

  

  • 31 Jul 2012 8:25 PM

  Part of the issue is our children have been raised to be anything they want to be, not anything that pays the bills.   Our parents told us we could be anything we wanted to be as long as it pays the bills, so we went into professions that would earn us the lifestyle we wanted to have. Our children have that life style.   They choose professions that are fun, that doesn't give them a hard college program so they can have fun.  Now they are finding that their chosen profession does not pay the bills or provide them with the lifestyle that they grew up with.   Maybe after ten years when they have paid off that degree in Music Worship, they will go back and get a degree in Engineering.

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• Chris Amstutz

  

  • 1 Aug 2012 10:48 AM

  In reply to Lucinda Bailey-Weaver:

  Really, there's degree in Music Worship?   I never realized that I had a double major in college!

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• Lucinda Bailey-Weaver

  

  • 6 Sep 2012 12:17 PM

  In reply to Chris Amstutz:

  Honest to goodness, one of my Scouts got  the music worship degree and is now working retail.

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• Youssef.El-Bahtimy

  

  • 6 Sep 2012 5:37 PM

  In reply to Lucinda Bailey-Weaver:

  I think the better question might be "Is engineering no longer a lucrative profession?"

  If the work can be contracted out to the lowest bidder, as the global economy demands, won't it be?  We're giving 'kids' the impression that it is smarter to be an entrepeneur than it is to be engineer.

  We all can't be entrepeneurs.

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