How Can We Lure Engineers Back to Engineering?

The American and the Japanese corporate offices for a large multi-national corporation decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance.

On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese team won by a mile. Afterward, the American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommended corrective action.

The consultant's finding: The Japanese team had eight engineers rowing and one person steering; the American team had one engineer rowing and eight people steering.

After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team.

So, as race day neared again the following year, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four

steering managers, three area steering managers and a new performance review system for the engineer rowing the boat to provide work incentive.

The next year, the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American office laid-off the engineer for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.

Wow this is a tricky one, and one that I've personally been wrestling with for some time now. I graduated three years ago with a mechanical engineering degree and have been doing design work since then. I enjoy what I do, most of the time, but there are some very strong incentives to switch careers.

Over half of my graduating mechanical engineering class went into finance. When you are graduating college with $60,000+ in student loans, the prospect of being paid 6 figures in your first year out and paying off those loans in 3 years rather than 20 is pretty captivating. The level of compensation in finance, even for entry level positions, is truly staggering. I saw some very talented engineering students, the ones who really had a mechanical knack, get lured away. In discussions with friends about the decision to "sell out" and go into finance, a pretty consistent strain has come up: "If I'm going to be getting paid to do something I just am not that interested in, why would I go for the lower paying job?" For me the better money has never been a great sell, because I am genuinely interested in what I do.

In the Northeast, entry level engineering salaries are solid, and I live comfortably despite the burden of my monthly loan payments. So I don't think pay is the whole story. Opportunities for advancement seem to be hard to come by in engineering. At least for the best and brightest, the concept of a rigidly set schedule of promotions which plateaus about 10 years out can be quite a turn off. Again, using financial services as a counterpoint, a rockstar employee can earn the title of Vice President within five years of graduating. Who doesn't want that have the title on their business card by the age of 27?

Also, I agree with Ed's point that it is just hard to accomplish "anything to crow about." Engineering is a low glamor career. Anything truly impressive takes years to complete, which again can be a turn off to a rearing-to-go young professional. And if all you are working towards crowing about is a good paycheck, again, why not be in finance?

Still, engineering definitely has it's draws. When I tell people I am an engineer they are genuinely impressed (maybe that's because it's become so uncommon for young people?). There is definitely a desire amongst people in other professions to actually work on a concrete product, and actually contribute something of enduring value to the world. The pride and satisfaction I get from doing this type of work is the main thing that keeps me doing it.

The opportunity to be truly creative is another draw. I can't speak for all fields of engineering here, because I've only done design work, but I get to flex my creative muscles just about every day. This is probably an area where engineering has an edge over other fields, but how to use it to attract people to the profession seems unclear.

I'd say that the best way to keep people in engineering once they are there is to not stifle them. Organizations that let people contribute, grow, and develop at their own pace (aka, faster than the promotion schedule dictates) would definitely post higher marks for higher employee satisfaction. And I doubt a satisfied engineer would change careers.

In my humble opinion,the engineering resources in the USA will continue to decline until management fully understands the asset they manage, what motivates them and how to both challenge & respect engineers for their worth.

Engineering is not a function that can be properly managed without substantial knowledge of the particular field. Most staff management's background today is increasingly more from the finance or marketing fields. One can not budget technical creativity or development efforts properly without at least some engineering experience. Developing engineers need mentors for sustained personal growth.

As an engineer who "grew" into management, I can see the considerable difference in both respect and motivation imparted by managers with and without engineering disciplines.

Musings...

Engineering 50 years ago had a different "glow" about it. Given all the technological advances and engineering "marvels" that people have grown up with in the last 15-20 years, that glow is somehow different, I think... less virgin if it can be termed that way. I think a valid comparison can be made with the making of movies.

The creative juices that flowed in the beginning of the media were so tied up with the exploration of the media, that one could argue that the media itself was part of the Muse. It's like the first time a musically inclined person holds a guitar or sits at a piano. I think engineering has been much the same way. When one grows up with the computer and communications technology we have now it is so ever-present that it becomes taken for granted. Kids of the last generation grew up with video game consoles, went and go to movies which are just extensions of those game themes. Technology pervades our lives to such a saturated degree, that the creative spark is different. At least, that is my opinion. Others may certainly disagree.

The idea of majoring in Engineering and then going on to get an MBA has been around for a long time. These are the folks whose primary goal was the business world all along. It was seen as the necessary credentials to go from engineering to engineering management, on to upper management.

So the question does arise, "How many people really go in to engineering just for the love of engineering? And then, how many find jobs that really allow for the expression of that love?

If there is truth to this assessment, then it may be harder to get engineers to "come back." For a long time I've wondered how it might turn out to get a bunch of engineers from different disciplines together to brainstorm for ideas/projects that would interest them and then hopefully, have some that could also become commercially viable. But at least there would be some people who were eager to pursue those ideas from enthusiasm, rather than thinking of their job as "just another day at the office." Even still, with all the technology we do have, it may be harder for engineers coming up to think they can make much of a difference. They may see less frontiers to "explore."

I think engineers are, at heart, inventors. And inventors will give themselves over to their ideas in a passionate manner. As long as this side of engineers is stifled or ignored, I have my doubts about dispelling the disillusionment that many feel after working in environments where they lost that sense of self-expression. One clear example is cited by Ed of turning engineers into drafters. I worked with one such engineer years ago. He had gotten his engineering degree in India. He was frustrated that his chief work was drafting. He finally decided to pursue a P.E. certification to have his degree "accepted." After certification he left the company.