Dispiriting days for EEs
David Roman
http://eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=173602087
EE Times
(11/14/2005 10:00 AM EST)
The creators of technology aren’t feeling very appreciated these days. Their jobs are being sent offshore, pay raises are paltry at best and neighbors think they’re geeks.
Equally dispiriting is the fact that most engineers in the United States remember a different time, when they were valued by employers and respected by others. Those days seem long ago to many of the 4,083 respondents to EE Times’ Insight 2005 online survey. Conducted in August, it explored engineers’ attitudes about work, politics, religion and other topics.
“We just don’t have any class or status,” said one engineer at a bioscience firm. “Someone with a bachelor’s or master’s in electrical engineering or software, he’s just a flunky. There is no respect for them.”
Public attitudes are reflected in the perceptions of Google co-founders Lawrence Page, who received an engineering degree from the University of Michigan, and Sergey Brin, who earned a master’s in computer science at Stanford. They are feted more for being instant billionaires than for their technological innovations.
Adding insult to injury, engineers seem to have it better in China and India, the two nations seen as the largest threats to U.S. technological leadership, according to our survey. “People over there [in China] in engineering probably will be treated more respectfully than here,” said one design engineer. “Over there it’s more concentrated in science and math than here. People tend to be more respected when you become a scientist.”
“This is a wake-up call,” said Kerry McClenahan, a principal with McClenahan Bruer Communications (Portland, Ore.), co-developer of the survey with EE Times. “Engineers believe the profession is undervalued. Society in general labels them one-dimensional geeks and nerds. We think this is partly why kids are not going into engineering. The average age of engineers has been creeping up, and it does not look like we’re preparing replacements.”
The next generation of engineers is another concern uncovered by the survey. Where will the newbies come from? Probably overseas, according to Insight 2005. China, Japan, Russia, India and the European Union all graduate more engineers than the United States, according to the National Science Foundation. Moreover, most Insight 2005 respondents said they believe foreign high schools and colleges are doing a better job than U.S. schools in educating tomorrow’s engineers.
Indeed, 65 percent called improving the U.S. educational system a priority. “If this country wants to continue to be a mover and a shaker and a leader in the world, you won’t get that by having a country that is mostly all gardeners or people working at Wendy’s,” said another design engineer. “Right now, it seems like, what the heck do I want to go into this profession for? There’s no money in it; there’s nothing but layoffs and it’s all being outsourced to India.”
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they are concerned about outsourcing (see graphic, page 30). Only 10 percent believe the United States will maintain its position as the world’s technology leader.
Even the tradition of encouraging one’s children to take up science is weakening. One software development manager said he wouldn’t recommend engineering as a profession to his kids. “They’re living in the wrong country,” he said.
Engineers believe they have more brains and more-demanding jobs than other workers, but receive less support from employers. “Engineers are smarter,” said respondent James Boros, an engineering consultant in Albuquerque, N.M. “I think most have IQs between 120 and 140. I am up there too.”
The scope of the Insight 2005 survey provides a broad picture of engineers’ personal beliefs and concerns, and shows how these compare with other Americans’. One finding: Engineers think of themselves and their fellow engineers as different from nonengineers. For example, 84 percent of those surveyed consider themselves physically “plain” and 55 percent call themselves “introverted,” the survey found, but 48 percent consider their nonengineer colleagues plain and 14 percent introverted.
In addition, only 39 percent of engineers called themselves extroverted, but considered 81 percent of their nonengineer colleagues outgoing; 12 percent see themselves as “stylish,” but they characterized 49 percent of their nonengineer colleagues that way.
“Having faith in God” is important to 44 percent of surveyed engineers, the study found, vs. 63 percent of college-educated males between 21 and 65, according to the General Social Survey conducted by the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan.
“I am one of the engineers that acknowledge God but am still progressive technologically,” said Brad Culter, an architect with Hewlett-Packard Co. in Houston. “I believe all inventions require a kind of ‘magical thinking’ — a willingness to disbelieve something that is obviously true now, and believe something else. This childlike ‘pretending’ opens the mind to creative solution concepts.”
Nonmaterialistic EEs
Almost 60 percent of polled engineers said being married was important, similar to ICPSR data for the U.S. overall, and 58 percent and 31 percent respectively cited having children and “being cultured” as important, identical to the ICPSR’s numbers. Respondents also described their political and religious beliefs (see By the Numbers, page 30).
In other findings that show differences, 69 percent of engineers said “having a fulfilling job” was important, vs. 84 percent in the United States overall. Only 13 percent of engineers said “having nice things” was important to them, compared with 23 percent of the general U.S. population.
In judging intellectual capabilities, however, 80 percent of respondents said that engineers have above-average intelligence, vs. only 30 percent who said their nonengineer co-workers are smarter than the norm. “Engineers seem to have more in-depth knowledge,” said John Kettler, a program manager in Kansas City, Mo.
The survey also provides a detailed picture of how engineers approach risk. Thirty-eight percent of respondents call themselves “risk takers,” 21 percent are “risk averse” and 41 percent are “on the fence.” Beacon Technology Partners LLC (Maynard, Mass.), managers of the survey, identified four distinct personality types that differ in their approach to risk. “Cowboys” are self-motivated and less concerned than others about relying on colleagues. “Pioneers” are self-confident and better educated. “Nervous Nellies” are worriers and somewhat older. “Homesteaders” are nonconfrontational and driven by stability. Each type showed a willingness to take on situations that others found “highly risky.”
Attitudes toward risk
Engineers tend to be systematic and fact-based: “They look below the surface of a problem,” said one respondent. This information-based decision making is reflected in their approach to risk. “We don’t always have all the information to make the right decisions,” said Doug Mayfield, a software engineer for Trimble Navigation Ltd. in Sunnyvale, Calif. EEs compensate by steering clear of risky situations. For example, 79 percent of respondents said it was “highly risky” to start your own company. The second-riskiest situation, taking a job at a startup, was cited by 49 percent of respondents.
A lack of mastery or control gnaws at most surveyed engineers. Less than half said they have “a lot of freedom” in deciding how to do their work. Fewer than a quarter said they have all the information they need to complete a job, and only
8 percent feel they have enough time. These percentages are well below the U.S. averages reported by the ICPSR.
Only 16 percent said job security was “good,” vs. 51 percent of workers in the general population. Many factors related to professional or personal success were seen as beyond the control of the surveyed engineers. Asked why a person’s life turns out well or poorly, 27 percent of engineers said it was “just a matter or chance,” while only 15 percent of the general population feels that way, according to ICPSR data. A difference was evident in another explanation — 29 percent of engineers said “such things are decided by God,” but 40 percent of ICPSR respondents felt that way.
The demands of the workplace and the lack of support EEs receive from employers were highlighted by the survey. Forty-four percent said there aren’t enough workers on staff to complete all the work; 27 percent of the general population feels that way, according to ICPSR data. While outsourcing might provide some relief, only 9 percent of respondents said they “welcomed” design outsourcing, and most took a dimmer view. “Outsourcing is bad for engineers, since their jobs are targets. This decreases wages,” said consultant Boros. “Also, the quality of outsourced work is questionable. I can see some grunt work being outsourced, but critical work should be done here.” In fact, more critical work is being sent offshore than in the past. Thirty percent of respondents said their companies outsource high-level hardware or software design work, and 39 percent said outsourcing makes their engineering projects “much more complicated.”
And for some, there’s no refuge: 22 percent said the demands of their job interfere with family life (compared with 15 percent of the general population, according to ICPSR data), and 7 percent said the demands of family life interfere with their jobs (vs. 5 percent of the general population).