Engineers: Future Prospects

Posted on June 19, 2007 5 Comments

In the The Future is Engineering I discussed some of the benefits of engineering education. And previous posts shows that S&P 500 CEOs are more likely to be engineering graduates than any other discipline. The future of engineering looks at what is in store for students of engineering today:

I doubt many of the incoming freshmen at Lehigh who are about to enter the College of Engineering have any clue what they are getting themselves into. I suspect they will end up very pleased with their choice… especially when they realize large numbers of engineering graduates before them did not take jobs as engineers but instead were hired as consultants – as a result many graduates are paid much higher salaries than they would have dreamt of as freshmen.
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But are they waging a rearguard battle, will the US become a services-land where most of the real engineering is outsourced to countries that value science more, and where the so-called engineers are number-crunching problem-solvers who stare at computers all day long? Or will the pendulum swing back in the engineers’ favor after a Sputnik-like incident that will bring engineering back into the list of national priorities?

It is very important to remember that the benefits of studying engineering cannot be measured solely by looking at engineers in the workplace – many go into different job title and are promoted into management… and as stated above CEOs. The second point will be an important determinant of the economic strength of the USA as I have addressed many times I think it is important the USA maintain science and engineering expertise. The multiple benefits of having research centers here, manufacturing engineering expertise… is huge. See: Engineering the Future Economy – Science, Engineering and the Future of the American Economy – Editorial: Engineers of the Future – Engineers in the Workplace and many more posts in the career and economics categories.

I believe the USA will make a renewed commitment to science and engineering and reduce the rate at which the comparative advantage for such work in the USA has been reduced over the last few decades. There are many advantages the USA has but still the trends are not moving in favor of the USA now. See: Diplomacy and Science Research – Comparative National Scientific Strength and U.S. Slipping on Science.

5 thoughts on “Engineers: Future Prospects”

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  5. Armetra

    Agree with this article. I’m also engineers myself, that currently working on engineering consultants firm. And the thing is, I found very hard to progress on my career during my fresh-graduate period. But, after gained some experience in engineering design field, than I realize how much thankful and competitive the engineering career, indeed.

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