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The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

07/31/2014 10:46 AM

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost half the engineering workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next few years. A younger generation of technical professionals will be taking their place, a group that exhibits different (online) work habits compared to their older colleagues"
So what should our replacements learn and hopefully continue ....
and what should they forget?!

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#1

Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 11:30 AM

I hope they learn that they have to move from being good employees to being more like independent contractors. The days when you gave your full loyalty and 24/7 availability to a corporation in return for good benefits and a pension have just about passed.

I hope they don't transfer their music file sharing habits to regular intellectual property, like drawings, specs, etc.

I hope they learn something about the world. The planet is a lot hotter and flatter than it used to be. Nowadays, we not only compete against engineers in Guangdong, but we also have to cooperate with them.

I hope they forget that we ever used Spice instead of real circuits. I hope they all have the chance to write code, solder boards, weld angle iron, and shoot a boundary line around a tree.

I hope that engineers finally get over their fear of cooperation and form something like guilds to standardize education, practices, and licensure (apologies to ABET, but people still don't pay enough attention to you). I hope that engineers develop a system of lifelong learning that is straightforward, affordable, and meaningful.

Finally, I hope that the newbies learn to come to work on time, work while there, and not wear shorts to work.

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 11:58 AM

Wearing shorts in a hot environment greatly increases your energy level....

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 12:22 PM

Darn! Somehow I wasted my whole working life with a bunch of homely, badly dressed engineers. What did I do wrong? Is it too late to start over?

The good news is that whenever I meet ladies like these, they always call me, "Sweetie," as in, "Sweetie, I hope my grandpa is as nice as you when he gets older."

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#4
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 2:11 PM

"Is it too late to start over?"

Have you ordered your replacement android body yet?

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#5
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 2:25 PM

Yeah, but there was a miscommunication and they sent me this model,

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#7
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 2:51 PM

That's a shame, here's me with some other newbies...

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#8
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 6:00 PM

I went for the full biological reboot....

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#6
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 2:38 PM

two engineers were biking across a university campus when one said,"where did you get such a great bike?" the second engineer replied, "well, i was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "take what you want."" the first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
I'd give credit, but don't know to whom. (Or, is it to who?)

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#11
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Re: The changing engineering workforce - any tips to pass on

07/31/2014 11:21 PM

Knock knock!

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#9

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

07/31/2014 6:16 PM

They should know that all computer models are wrong; however, some may be useful.

That testing such as: proof of concept and/or proof of manufacturing is superior to computer simulation.

that you test to learn things you did not know; hopefully, before it gets to the end user or they will find out what you did not know.

That true genus is coming up with a simple solution to a difficult problem.

The KISS principle

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#10

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

07/31/2014 10:18 PM

So who or whom do I KISS .... so much to learn in such little time and pass onto my android self .... it's an engineer's lot .... sitting on the roof, looking out at all those suitably dressed engineers in our getting hotter environment, hoping to be a rich man.

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#12

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

08/01/2014 5:28 AM

If you are developing a product, use/test it yourself, or get your wife/SO to use it...they WILL break it and give you feedback!

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#13

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

08/01/2014 7:14 AM

In Mumbai, India, there are around 80,000 engineering college seats will remain vacant this year. Young boys seem to be not keen to be engineers. Number of engineering colleges are closing down.

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#14
In reply to #13

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

08/01/2014 4:10 PM

I hate to sound like a pessimistic jingoist, but the vacancies in Indian Engineering Colleges might be due to the US reaching saturation level in importing foreign Engineers:

http://machinedesign.com/blog/another-debunking-us-engineering-shortage

105K new STEM jobs

115K new STEM graduates

125K new STEM immigrants

For a net +135 thousand STEM workers unable to find work in their field.

You said 80 thousand vacant seats, how many seats are NOT vacant? Without knowing both parts of the equation (vacant / total) or (vacant / [vacant + full]), the number is meaningless. It's like the old joke of the wife coming home in a new fur coat (back when fur coats weren't considered cruel and barbaric) and the husband says 'How much did you spend on that?' to which the wife replies, 'It's not how much I spent, it's how much I saved.'

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#15
In reply to #14

Re: The Changing Engineering Workforce - Any Tips to Pass On

08/02/2014 6:29 AM

My source is the news paper "The Times of India" dt. 8-1-2014. You can also read on the internet. Total number of seat available are 1,62,000 out of which 82,000 are filled and remaining 80,000 have remained vacant. Head line in the above news paper is "One out of 2 engineering seats may stay unfilled". I hope this will answer your question.

Boys only from Soft Ware engineering course get opportunity of getting job in U.S.

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