Category Archives: Career

Information on jobs and careers in science and engineering.

Science and Engineering in Global Economics

The main point of The Global Race – Is America Still a Contender? by James Schultz is that the United States is too complacent: thinking its past success guarantees future success. I have stated that I believe the economic comparative advantage the USA has enjoyed due to science and technology leadership is almost certain to shrink and we should take steps to slow that decrease. Also see: Engineering Education and Innovation, The Future is Engineering, Engineers and the Economy and The Science Gap and the Economy.

From the article:

The hungry don’t dither, and neither do relatively lean economic adversaries. Worldwide, up-and-comers are integrating economic development with governmental practice, teaming eager, growing-wage, and increasingly skilled workforces with coordinated national policies. If laws get in the way, they are changed; if labor movements demand too much too quickly, they are quashed…

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Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

PECASE recipient Eugene Billiot and two students work on molecular structures.

Twenty recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers have been announced for this year. The photo, shows of one those awardees, Eugene Billiot, with two students, working on molecular structures.

Awardees are chosen from 350 to 400 assistant professors who have received grants from NSF’s Faculty Early Career Program (CAREER) in the same year of their nomination for the president’s award. CAREER awards range from $400,000 to nearly $1 million over five years to support career research and education.
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Diversity Focus

White men, white coats, little change by Nancy Forbes. Commentary stating that NAS’s Rising Above the Gathering Storm report (unfortunately NAS doesn’t seem to understand web usability but if you fill out this form they will allow you to get a pdf – hopefully they will learn to apply better web usability soon) does not address the lack of women in the science and engineering workforce and doctorate graduates.

as a scientist and longtime advocate of women and minorities in the field, I was surprised – and dismayed – to find diversity issues missing from the four key challenge areas.
…
I would like to add a fifth recommendation to the four already put forth in the academies’ report: that all members of our science and engineering community, particularly those nonfemale and nonminority members, make a personal effort to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering and math. Suggestions include:

• Mentoring female or minority students through encouragement, guidance or emotional support. Studies show that those with mentors have higher salaries, more advanced positions and greater confidence in their ability to succeed.

Yes, there have been gains. Women now hold more than a quarter of all science and engineering jobs, compared with 13 percent in 1980. They now earn roughly half the doctorates in biology and degrees in medicine. Numbers are also up in physics, computer science and engineering, traditionally male domains.

Diversity in Science and Engineering

Internship with Bill Gates

IIT-M boy wins Microsoft internship

Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd today announced that Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has been selected for a one year internship with Bill Gates and will work directly with his technical assistant’s team in Redmond.

The official code4bill site doesn’t have the final selection posted yet.
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Survey of Working Engineers

Working hard for their money by Elizabeth M. Taurasi, on the annual Design News salary survey:

Engineers earned an average of $73,000 last year, with the majority receiving a 3 percent increase over last year. Eighty-three percent of those surveyed stayed in the same job.

On average, engineers are working 46 hours per week and more than 40 percent have a bachelor’s degree in engineering. But to earn that paycheck, you’re doing more than ever.

From taking on supervisory and budgetary functions to learning new skill sets, to broadening their responsibilities, today’s design engineers are doing far more than they ever had before.

This is one more confirmation of the idea that engineers have to learn and practice not just engineering concepts but many management skills (as do other specialists). The workplace is becoming continuously more integrated and all specialists have to adapt to this reality. All specialists are having to work increasingly with those outside of their specialty.

And, as in the past, though even more toady, as more responsibility is gained often this means needing new skills outside of engineering (or whatever the specific specialty is).

The article provides more interesting thoughts relating to the survey.

USA Engineering Jobs

Jobs Update: The Death of U.S. Engineering by Paul Craig Roberts

The alleged “shortage” of U.S. engineering graduates is inconsistent with reports from Duke University that 30 percent to 40 percent of students in its master’s of engineering management program accept jobs outside the profession. About one-third of engineering graduates from MIT go into careers outside their field. Job outsourcing and work visas for foreign engineers are reducing career opportunities for American engineering graduates and, also, reducing salary scales.

The number of students that go into other fields does raise questions. However, I do not think the data provides answers on its own. Given that engineering majors are the highest paid graduates it is not a case that the students options are poor. It could well be that the engineering students are very capable in many ways and find jobs that are not focused on engineering (say management, finance or …).

Engineering curriculums are demanding. The rewards for the effort are being squeezed out by jobs offshoring and work visas. If the current policy continues of substituting foreign engineers for American engineers, the profession will die in the United States.

Once again the whole area of engineering jobs and the future is complex. But once again I disagree with the thinking presented here. The competition from abroad will increase greatly going forward. That is because every country that is focused on competing with the most successful economies is focused on improving their engineering capabilities. They all want the high paying and economically valuable jobs.

See more posts on science and engineering careers.

Engineers in the Workplace

Vivek Wadhwa again addresses the question: Engineering Gap? Fact and Fiction. This is a question that deserves a continued look – I still believe we do need more focus on educating more engineers:

Additionally, the positive macro-economic effects of a strong scientific, engineering and technology community to an economy are not necessarily directly correlated to high salaries for those workers. That is one positive factor, but even if those salaries were not high the other benefits of innovation, manufacturing leadership, invention, etc. would still benefit the economy. So a country that is investing in the future could sensible target investments in science and engineering education even without increasing salaries pointing out that the supply and demand in the market was indicating a shortage of those workers.

From Vivek Wadhwa’s most recent article:
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Lucrative college degrees

Lucrative college degrees, CNN article on NACE’s latest quarterly salary survey of recent college graduates.

Once again Engineering is very well represented with average starting salaries for:

Chemical engineering: $56,335
Computer engineering: $53,651
Electrical engineering: $53,552
Mechanical engineering: $51,732

The article lists no other degrees with an average above $50,000. Engineering education continues to pay off well.

Google Jobs in Michigan

Google brings in new jobs and hope (Update: Detroit Free Press removed the page so I removed the link – The NY Times has learned how to use the web so you can view their article – news on the Office location) to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Google will open a new research and support center in the University of Michigan home town. It is not a coincidence that Larry Page, of Google’s co-founders graduated from Michigan’s Engineering school. Google would not locate this facility in Ann Arbor only for that reason but his familiarity with the area and a desire to take advantage of the University of Michigan played a role, I believe. This is one more example, for how good schools aid economic development.

Listen to Page’s address at the 2005 commencement for the Michigan College of Engineering.
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