Engineering...Beyond the Classroom

I don't care if the Prof. is a man a woman or something in between. I want one that clearly speaks and writes engish in complete gramatically correct sentences. I am tired of third worlders, hillbillies, bostonians. new yorkers that can't pronounce the words they use as well as Barrack Obama or Larry King.

I think the original post has some bad data from too narrow a slice of view. Where I work all of the physics and chemistry professors are female. Our science and technology department is in the area of 75% female.

Perhaps top tier schools don't hire younger people because tenure keeps the old guard around too long.

Outstanding! GA

Thanks! Sort of thought I got slightly off on this one. I just take education and persons actual qualifications issues rather seriously.

My college educated EE experience was a dismal let down (loads of fluff and little usable EE) and I have seen far to may people with 'a piece of paper' doing horrible work because of not actually being able to do the job their 'piece of paper' says they can do. They too are all fluff and no working knowledge.

Both of these topics seem to be common questions or issues with people in my generational vicinity. 25 -40 years of age. We see far to much money being spent on lame educations that don't serve us when we graduate. And then go to work for company's or businesses loaded with inept or flat out unqualified personnel in positions with high pay and power even though they have a general lack of practical experience, knowledge or the general mental working capacity needed for the positions they hold.

For us its simply not a man or woman issue at all.

As a woman engineer, I have found that we do tend to approach problems in a different way and I think having women instructors would be beneficial. I find that combining approaches and ideas generated by a mixed group (male/female, engineer/user, etc) will always give you the best solution.

My issue is more with the fact that the instructors need to have a PhD in order to teach but don't have to have any experience in teaching. In order to teach in a primary school you have to have a teaching certification. However, in secondary schools you have to have the "piece of paper". I agree with the person that said that it would be nice to have instructors that can speak fluent english. However, it would be even better to have ones that actually know how to teach!

Many years ago I knew a male Professor of Electrical Engineering who had a female PhD student. She wondered about her job prospects. His advice was approximately this:

The federal government requires that contractors attempt to hire women. Female PhDs in E.E. are scarce. You could write to prospective employers offering to appear for a job interview for $X thousand dollars, and they would pay you, because they have to document their efforts to recruit women. If you did one interview a week, you would make more than you could by actually working.