No shortage of 'engineering shortage' talk
Like a classic Cole Porter tune, the 'shortage' refrain is always with us. Does it ring true?
By Bill Schweber, Executive Editor -- EDN, May 26, 2005
You can't pick up a magazine or paper, or look at a news and commentary Web site, without seeing knowledgeable people bemoaning the "engineering shortage." The presumed causes usually fall into a few categories. Too few students are taking up math and science. Or engineering has a perception problem that discourages students from pursuing the profession.
While I agree with the statements about student skills and lack of professional image, I disagree with what it all means. The commentators are quick to point out the impact of the shortage. Engineering jobs are going overseas to countries such as India and China, where legions of trained, hard-working engineers can do the job for much less. America is losing a vital economic resource. And so on.
I'm skeptical about the entire "shortage" cry. I've been around this industry a long time (though I did not watch Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain as they fired up that first transistor at Bell Labs in 1948) and I have been hearing about this shortage, with varying intensity, all that time. With few exceptions, such as when engineering unemployment reached double-digits and engineers were driving cabs (not that there's anything wrong with that), the shortage story has outlasted just about every other premise in this industry, including Moore's Law.
A lot of the reasoning surrounding the shortage story seems circular. We don't have enough engineers coming into the field, so companies are looking overseas to find the needed skills, which in turn diminishes the prospects for US-based engineers, and so on. But as with all circles, it's hard to say where the reasoning starts. Which is the cause, and which is the effect? Depending on your perspective, you could start your argument at any point on the circle's circumference.
Consider the following points when you hear talk of the presumed engineering shortage. First, the globalization of technology, design, and manufacturing makes worldwide design an inevitable and unavoidable fact. The number of engineers in the US has a limited effect on this global industry. Second, engineering productivity, like that in so many other industries, has increased tremendously in the past decades—even more than the complexity of the projects themselves.
Finally, but most importantly, the people shouting "shortage" often have—and I'm sure we're all shocked, just shocked, to hear this—a vested self-interest in the situation. Schools are looking for students to fill seats, pay tuition, and serve as research assistants. Companies want more engineers to choose from as they staff their projects.
In reality, no one knows how many engineers our high-tech society needs. In addition to the impact of productivity gains, the nature of the design work that's going on also alters the demand for engineers. The industry is devoting itself to high-volume consumer products, which require tremendous manufacturing resources but call for roughly the same amount of engineers as low- to moderate-volume products. Thus, the ratio of engineers to product volume is going down.
Even the IEEE has mixed emotions on this subject. The Institute, which as a whole has heavy academic leanings, speaks of the shortage as a fact. However, IEEE-USA, the part of the IEEE that represents working, nonacademic engineers in the United States, speaks of diminished opportunities, unemployment, underemployment, and uncertainty.
No doubt there is a shortage of engineers—if you define an engineer as someone who has two to five years of experience in the latest technologies, boasts finely honed skills, and is willing to work long hours and solve complex problems for moderate pay and limited recognition. There is also a shortage of gold at $30 per ounce, but far less of a shortage at $500 per ounce.
I think the "shortage" is a myth, perpetuated primarily by the diverging mismatch of interests between engineers in school or industry and those who need their services.
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I used to remember, it used to be the on-going joke in asia, for the price of 1 engineer in US, you can hire 5 engineers in China or Korea.
Eventually one (the smartest one) will come up with the right answer for the design. While that was a joke, there was some truth to it because of the disparity of salary.
No longer is this true.
China is churing out high qualified Ph.D EE candidates by the drove.
An what are these Ph.D's doing? They are doing the work of the BSEE's at about 1/2 to 1/3 of the price.
Unfair, not really (if you take into account the global nature of jobs).
Reality - Yes!
As a previous person commented, the shortage is not of just raw engineering talent. We don't need burger flippers converted to EE's, we need talented people who have a flare to solve complex solutions and sometimes with very little reward. -> This is reality folks.
I never buy it when we (EE) blame management. They are there to make money. Plain and simple.
We are tools in this business (no more, no less) and the more talented we are, the more valuable we are.
What I see the problem is, is that there is no feedback system in the US. Where can a new engineer out the door look for guidence. What do they do out of college. Are they talented, maybe but they need are people (older engineers) to help them. Of course, may this is the place where IEEE should join in, afterall it is a club.
The MBA's have their Alumi to lean back on. What does the engineer have to look forward to?
An engineering experience should not stop at the end of school.
From what I've seen, the best, brightest engineers have nothing to worry about --- not even from the Chinese/Koreans/Indians.
There is always a place here for an talented engineer who can make money for the company no matter what business environment we are in.
Jack Daniels - 2005-1-6 19:51:00 PDT -
Thank you for this comment! It is about time that someone has decided to expose the engineering "shortage" myth. There is definitely no shortage of engineering talent, brains or ability in this country. I think that the main emphasis in today's market is that one must be adaptable, flexible and diverse in different areas within their own field. Today's engineer has to constantly maintain and update their skill sets, keep up with emerging technologies, do their job well and hope for the best - while it lasts, of course.
Brenda Novar - 2005-1-6 16:42:00 PDT -
On a recent business trip to the Bay area, I spotted the following brightly colored bumper sticker on three different occasions between the San Francisco Airport and San Jose:
Engineering - Just Say No
I guess some in the profession are starting to proactively react to the engineering shortage myth you write about in your May 26th article.
Who is printing and distributing these stickers? How can I get a few?
Doug Wendelboe - 2005-27-5 14:31:00 PDT -
Of course there is and going to be a shortage. Just as the market for engineers colapsed in 2001, the Congress approved shipping in 100s of thousands of H1Bs. This created a situation where there was no hiring of Americans for several years (at least if you didn't have a clearance). Of course that meant that engineers left the profession in droves and students quit studying it. Because it takes 6-10 years to educate and train an engineer, this decline will last for many years to come.
If you haven't tried it recently, it is easy to get a job right now as an engineer and it is going to get easier. Our corporations are being hung on their own masts.
Anthony Mendoza - 2005-25-5 20:20:00 PDT -
Another circular argument runs like this: You can talk to engineers all day about the things they want to do, and find that either the work has already been done or there's no market for the product, meanwhile entrepreneurs want to make stuff that is either 'boring' or beyond economic rationality, meanwhile investors want to fund a startup that they can cash out of at 1000% return in two years. The junction of interesting, desirable, and economically viable projects is a tiny fraction of all the things that could be done. People complaining about shortages don't often realize that the various parties are talking past each other most of the time.
Meredith Poor - 2005-5-5 12:32:00 PDT
