Electrical Engineering Employment Declines Nearly 10%, But Developers Up 12% 154
dcblogs writes The number of people working as electrical engineers declined by 29,000 last year, continuing a long-standing trend, according to government data. But the number of software developers, the largest IT occupational category, increased by nearly 12%,or a gain of 132,000 jobs. There were 1.235 million people working as software developers last year, and 271,000 electrical engineers, according U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The profession is in decline (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's be honest about this. Electrical engineering can now be outsourced fully, as companies do not see the value in EE or more importantly that the skills are transferable to other areas such as programming. Furthermore, ageism is rampant in most of the technical field now, as HR types will want to hire someone their own age.
decline of uni into financial scam (Score:2)
Decline? It's been like that for decades now. That, and a means for otherwise arbitrary classing:
Job: Keeping 20 or so PCs running.
Requirement: 2-year degree
Reason: [crickets]
etc.
Re:decline of uni into financial scam (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll give HR the benefit of the doubt and say HR is trying to use a degree as a proxy for the ability to see a project through to completion [sloperama.com].
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I'm just going to go ahead and call you a raging optimist. :)
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Re:The profession is in decline (Score:5, Interesting)
Electrical Engineering is still in demand, if you're willing to travel a lot and be a manager/"architect" type. It is not, however, sustainable as a career, you will forget almost everything important about the field within the first 5 years after leaving college, and then just be another faceless middle manager pushing spreadsheets around. There are a few companies that still want EEs: like em or hate em, Apple hires them and they do actual EE work. Defense still wants them, and signal integrity/RF guys are still in heavy demand (although they must fight the push I note above).
If you want an engineering degree just to get a job and be a corporate drone, it's still a great degree to get. But don't pay a lot of money, your wages will not justify it and you'll end up paying college loans the rest of your life. If you want to be a real engineer, analyze your chances of being in the top 10%, if you don't think you can be or won't work hard enough for it, get out, find something else you enjoy more.
Re:The profession is in decline (Score:5, Interesting)
Electrical Engineering is still in demand
Sure, but there are many areas of EE where demand has fallen. Programmable logic has drastically reduced the need for boards full of TTL chips. FPGAs, and even many ASICs, are designed with fully synchronous digital logic, that requires zero knowledge of most EE concepts, and can be done by any kid bright enough to master Verilog/VHDL. My company has done several successful FPGA projects, none of which involved anyone with an EE degree. ADCs, DACs, PWM, and DSPs come built into many microcontrollers, which themselves increasingly come on standard PCBs, with free downloadable libraries to handle all the interfacing.
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True, you may not need an EE degree. But if you can't draw a K-map and cover glitch cases, just as one example, then you are not qualified to develop programmable logic. While the FPGAs and micros come with a lot built-in, you still have to understand circuit principles when designing the surrounding support components and proper interfacing of signals, ratings, timing specs, etc. We need to understand power consumption in components to best manage it from software. So typically, the requisite skills ar
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But if you can't draw a K-map and cover glitch cases, just as one example, then you are not qualified to develop programmable logic.
Of course you are. That's what the tools are for. Nobody writing HDL needs to mess with Karnaugh maps, and once the tools get a bit smarter, they won't have to worry about domain-crossing glitches either.
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That's a load of crap. Yes, nobody writing HDL needs to mess with Karnaugh maps, but they need to understand to some degree what synthesis tools are doing under the hood. Even if you're implementing ECOs, you still need to need to know what gate(s) to insert for the fixes and minimize the logic as needed to minimize impact if it's on a timing critical path. Don't call yourself an RTL designer if you don't know what/where the fuck your clock domain crossings are either. You're not going to put a bloody synch
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That's like saying to a software developer that he/she doesn't need to understand what memory leaks and segfault exceptions are, and how to prevent/fix them, because it's the job of the compiler to compile code in a way such that software never crashes.
And in a sandboxed, garbage-collected language, that would be exactly correct.
It's time for HDL developers to hold their tool vendors to the same standards that software developers expect.
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If you know for a fact that your toolchain covers every case for you, that is great. I have worked on one project where someone took some really great synchronous design from the tool's libraries and put "just a simple set of logic gates" on the output signals to convert the output to gray code. That was fun.
So of course it would be a waste of time to whip out a K-map for everything. But the point is, could you? Or does a designer at least know why glitch cases happen, and what specific actions the tool
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You just need to follow some simple recipes and follow the datasheet. EE is mostly solved problems, with known solutions that can be applied by anyone.
Ooooo, college (Score:3)
You will know almost nothing important about the field when you leave college. If you manage to work for about five-ten years actually doing engineering -- as opposed to being mired in meetings, committees, half-finished projects, retreats, and seminars -- you'll probably pick up enough to actually feel like you own that degree. Related, you run into an engineer who has real chops right out of college,
Re: The profession is in decline (Score:1)
Re: The profession is in decline (Score:1)
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The other day I was corresponding with a retired EE about the dram rowhammer bug, and he's an EE that didn't get to see a transistor until after he graduated.
He worked in power distribution but when minicomputers came out he had to assemble and run a few under adverse conditions, then he kept up with the field from then onwards.
Re:The profession is in decline (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a working Electrical Engineer. I know at least the domain I have worked in (Systems, PCB, IC package design, Signal Integrity), and i know the reasons I've been trying to recreate myself as a something else, and why doing that that jacked my salary by 30%, in spite of not being qualified for that move.
If I discourage anyone from pursuing this degree, I have done both them a favor, and those who really love this and will do it anyway. Once upon a time I wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer, and at career day someone explained the situation almost exactly as I have. I was angry, thought bad things of them, but they were right, and I listened and did well for myself. In truth, Aerospace Engineering was neat, and I probably would have done fine, but I didn't really love it like my friend who works at (big helo company) loves it and who endures the interminable layoffs and uncertainty.
If you have the intellectual capacity to succeed in this field, chances are you enjoy many things and can succeed in ANY field, you just need the intel to know what the smart decisions are. If you're flexible, then you should exercise that flexibility carefully.
In terms of that article, that's just about placement rate. That doesn't mean you'll get a job you want, or that explains to you why you dealt with years of differential equations, phasors, and the 15th different explanation of the Fourier Transform just so that you can create a spreadsheet that lists outstanding manufacturing defects that Foxconn is responsible for, almost certainly because they insisted on using local part sources rather than those from Western companies that still design things right (what few still exist). The highlight of your career may be creating a powerpoint explaining how to create an engineering model that maximally leverages your western designers to train their replacements in asia, in a fashion that guarantees timely product delivery. This isn't bitterness, this is real life.
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I remember during first dot-com bubble programmers were in high demand and many EEs shifted to programing, and ever since... I was EE myself and didn't want to do coding... but I had to eventually, and many of my coworkers are programmers with EE background. There's some work for EEs in engineering firms, but programmers are needed by pretty much everyone.
EEs have became what mechanical engineers were before them: not obsolete, but kind of niche profession.
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That and the digital design world has made it so most EE knowledge isn't valuable on a day to day basis. The software guys get the object oriented nature of system verilog and the newer stuff like UVM. We were working on an asic design about 2 years ago when they brought a software guy in to "help". Granted he was pretty comfortable (driver background and smart as hell) but he stood up a whole mostly-generated UVM verification environment, implemented a co-simulation environment, and fixed a bunch of bugs
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I grew up in the bubble, and knew I'd be good with computers - but I assumed that with programming being such a glamorous role, everyone would be getting into it. I aimed for a duller tangential field in networking.
My career still flopped, though. I'm too risk-averse, refuse to leave my very stable but low-paying entry-level job and try to move up the ranks because I fear I'd screw up horribly somehow.
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Furthermore, ageism is rampant in most of the technical field now, as HR types will want to hire someone their own age.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen older people in HR in my career so far (and I'm later in my career) so maybe ageism is rampant in HR as well.
Ageism is probably rampant in every job function except top management, because age is thought to correlate somewhat with compensation, and upper management wants to keep a lid on expanding costs to the business everywhere but their ranks, of course.
(That is, everyone in every job function is keenly aware of the value they and their peers bring, so n
astronomer / radio astronomer (Score:2)
Electrical engineering is not in decline.
As tech advances we will need more engineers than ever. Outsourcing is not a solution here...it's low quality work that hurts your home market.
Here's the problem: ontology.
The distinctions between "electrical engineering" and "software engineering" are breaking down because so much of engineering work is software.
Look at astronomy. All astronomers are radio astronomers now. That doesn't mean we still don't need 'old-fashioned' regular-light astronomy skills...just th
But if you look at unemployment... EEs beat CS (Score:5, Interesting)
However, while this might be true for the work roles people are performing, the article at the end shows that EEs have lower unemployment than CSs.
This is my experience: When interviewing EEs and CS degreed employees, I'll chose the EE over CS 9 out of 10 times for a software job. In general they have a stronger grasp of the big picture, hardware, software & firmware. In fact I've been downright disappointed with the level of CS expertise by CS grads lately. It is as if the universities are training them for javascript, web site production, and IT support as apposed to a deep understanding of the CS field.
What we can say about this article is: there are more software than hardware jobs, but EEs are dual purpose, and overall have lower unemployment.
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If I was hiring programmers, I would be very inclined to hire real engineers (of any stripe) than degreed "computer scientists"
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The question is why.
There are lots of really interesting and hard problems in CS. But very rarely do I interview a CS grad that has any experience in them, or more frustrating, doesn't even know the nomenclature (e.g. define "heuristics").
They can't even address simple on-the-spot software solutions (e.g. write a simple C function that flips the order of a link-list). All that time spent doing stuff in java has rotted their brains.
Interview questions (Score:1, Flamebait)
"But... but... isn't there a library for that?"
lol
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(e.g. write a simple C function that flips the order of a link-list).
Is there any way to do that faster than O(n)? (besides having a doubly-linked list, of course). I can't think of one.
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Of course not - that's trivially provable by the fact that for a list of length n, n pointers must be rewritten.
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The question is why....All that time spent doing stuff in java has rotted their brains.
It has nothing to do with Java, it does, however, have everything to do with the laziness and absolute incompetency of what schools are teaching their students. Any engineer in my day that dealt with computers learned about algorithms, memory management, and how to optimize problems for the hardware you were running on, which included understanding what hardware you were targeting. I swear they don't teach any of that anymore, especially to CS majors. I think their text books must be Sam's How to learn PHP
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Exactly. Maybe the trend is that CS simply builds on the existing languages and solutions so that underlying principals are less relevant. There are new and higher-level concepts being taught in CS. However, prospective students should carefully weight this against their career goals and what is employable vs. academic study. Employers will care more about the domain knowledge first, and programming ability second. i.e. a math or physics major that can follow good programming practices and has a rough
Hired for not answering question during interview (Score:2)
They can't even address simple on-the-spot software solutions
I was once hired because I did not answer an interview question. In the written eval there was a question with 8-10 sorting algorithms listed and I was asked to state the run time complexities. My answer was that I purchased Knuth vol 3: Sorting and Searching so that I would not have to memorize such things.
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How do you know you could get any "real engineers" to work as programmers?
I consider good programmers to have deep interest in software engineering principles and techniques. My experience has been that it's a real crapshoot to find this in CS degreed people, and almost impossible in other degreed people. (YMMV.)
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in all other engineering since the dawn of time, the engineer was presented a set of requirements, they then drafted a design they felt described the fulfillment of those requirements and presented it to the interested parties. Those parties agreed to it, then the engineer set to work completing the design documentation. Then junior engineers and workers would fulfill that design documentation. Then someone would make sure that the finished product still met the original requirements. Then everyone wou
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I get that you can't unteach laziness and lack of follow-through, but you also can't teach a passion for doing software well. If you're satisfied with people whose interest is elsewhere but can easily learn a couple of languages, that's fine, but I sure wouldn't want to work with them.
tl;dr: "Someone who learns how to design can design anything" is about as true as MBA schools' "someone who learns how to manage can manage anything".
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tl;dr: "Someone who learns how to design can design anything" is about as true as MBA schools' "someone who learns how to manage can manage anything".
tl: "Someone who has a superset of skills can do the subset easily"
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yes, avoid rogue programmers^Wemployees if you can (Score:1)
Attitudes are different outside of Silicon Valley. The worst I've seen along these lines is a few of my peers who've done things blatantly towards adding to their resume vice being a professional at their current gig.
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It's nothing like the MBA that comes in and thinks they can run a flugle horn factory without even knowing anything about music or even manufacturing. It's about someone who knows the complexites of one field being fully aware that when they take on another there is going to be a learning curve.
I think the problem is just a
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How do you know you could get any "real engineers" to work as programmers?
I consider good programmers to have deep interest in software engineering principles and techniques. My experience has been that it's a real crapshoot to find this in CS degreed people, and almost impossible in other degreed people. (YMMV.)
Because every single programmer I have worked with that I respect over the years have invariably turned out to have at least 1 real engineering degree. This is probably highly likely due to the drop in engineers required since roughly 85 compared with relatively high graduation rates for a while. Since ME/EE/CE/ChemE/etc are all relatively much harder to obtain than CS/Comp E degrees at the time, it doesn't take a rocket scientist (another real engineer btw) to figure out that all these disciplines used com
Re:But if you look at unemployment... EEs beat CS (Score:4, Interesting)
If I was hiring programmers, I would be very inclined to hire real engineers (of any stripe) than degreed "computer scientists"
When I started college, only a few Universities in the country even offered CS degrees. Most of my education was in engineering.
Having said that, I am employed as a software engineer, not as EE or Computer Engineer, as I had originally planned. Even so, I don't think many engineers would automatically make good programmers. Even today, despite claims to the contrary, much of programming is still as much art as science.
"Flipping the order of a linked list" might show that someone has rudimentary skill, but it doesn't demonstrate any degree of mastery.
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"Flipping the order of a linked list" might show that someone has rudimentary skill, but it doesn't demonstrate any degree of mastery.
But inability to do it demonstrates that they have neither skill nor mastery.
I would not hire someone just because they can reverse a linked list. But I would not hire someone who can't do it.
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Even today, despite claims to the contrary, much of programming is still as much art as science.
programming is almost 0 art unless you're working in C or some other language that deals with direct memory access. Then you can get artsy. Java, C#, PHP, Go, Dart, JavaScript etc, they're all pretty much putting pieces together. If you don't understand that, then you probably don't have a good enough understanding of your field, or you're trying to be clever. In general, business plans don't succeed on clever code. Even game engines don't seem to really need that anymore as they get commoditized.
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While "software engineering" isn't "engineering" per se (it's a lot of art(isanship)), consider that it's not all just a bunch of phony stuff that doesn't matter a hill of beans. And that those who strive to do software well in languages including C#, Java, and JavaScript would be as adverse to working on a development team with you as you would be with us.
Re:But if you look at unemployment... EEs beat CS (Score:4)
programming is almost 0 art unless you're working in C or some other language that deals with direct memory access.
This is only true if your talking about relatively simple tasks. When you have a large, complex software project, often using several different components and languages, yes it's as much art as science. It isn't all just quicksort vs insertion sort and data structures and the like. You learn tricks, and you use them. And sometimes they're language-specific.
If you don't understand that, then you probably haven't been doing any of that kind of software project.
In general, business plans don't succeed on clever code.
Correct. It's the clever things you DO with the code. Just ask Google.
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Those "tricks" are the worst kinds of crap you see in modern software.
You're assuming an awful lot here, about what kind of "tricks" I meant.
Readable code is a very high priority.
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programming is almost 0 art unless you're working in C or some other language that deals with direct memory access.
This is only true if your talking about relatively simple tasks. When you have a large, complex software project, often using several different components and languages, yes it's as much art as science.
I disagree. It's precisely in the heterogeneous systems that a very patterned procedural approach is the only thing that works in the long term, something understood by database vendors for decades now. Based on your next statement, I believe you've confused the architecture with the actual code.
In general, business plans don't succeed on clever code.
Correct. It's the clever things you DO with the code. Just ask Google.
I believe we agree here, it's the clever things you do with code, the code itself is generally not clever. That is where the art lies. Coding itself is pretty much putting blocks together to build a bridge. The bloc
Re:But if you look at unemployment... EEs beat CS (Score:4, Insightful)
In real production code these days, "maintainable code" is what matters. Sure, on very rare occasions you'll google some algorithm you vaguely remember form college that's not already in your library, but most code just isn't performance sensitive (in an algorithmic sense) or even algorithmically interesting.
What matters is living with that code for many years after writing it, and not hating life. And that is still as much art as science. Sure, best practices continue to be formalized, but the field is still young in that respect, and I don't expect maintainability to settle down into "a set of rules to follow" before my career ends.
If you judge on degree name you are clueless ... (Score:3)
If I was hiring programmers, I would be very inclined to hire real engineers (of any stripe) than degreed "computer scientists"
If you had a clue you might know that Computer Information System, Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs vary greatly from one university to another. CIS at one university may be in the business school and the program oriented towards internal corporate applications, while at another university CIS may be part of the engineering school and be what many would expect a CE program to be. Similarly some CS programs are what many would expect a CE program to be, while some CE programs are pretty muc
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This is my experience: When interviewing EEs and CS degreed employees, I'll chose the EE over CS 9 out of 10 times for a software job.
The trouble is that as a dyed-in-the wool EE with experience in lots of software, I hate working on websites and business systems. And that's my only real choice if there is no manufacturing jobs around.
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I'd rather stab myself repeatedly in the thigh with a fork than write web site software or boring old business apps. Web software is a particular kind of super dull hell, and business apps tend to be the same old thing every time, but without the added crap of having to triple handle all the data to get it from the database onto the screen.
These days I work with the CRYENGINE game engine and are working on making my own RPG game with it. There's a *lot* more challenge, and always something new and interesti
verilog killed the EE star (Score:1)
i find the opposite, some of the EEs coming over to software struggle with change & new ways of doing things. I'm not even talking about bleeding edge, but basic CSS knowledge. They had portfolios stuffed with successful windows apps, but couldn't seem to grasp web stuff.
I play around with FPGAs & microcontrollers as a hobby, and ask what they think; Most of them comment that's why they changed career direction.
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As a graduate electrical engineer... I thank you for the kind words. I have, indeed, worked in IT after graduating, but I always longed for a more advanced, scientifically more challenging job. So I ended up going back to academia, getting a PhD and am now working on microtechnologies for drug analysis and biochemistry.
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I have a CS PhD done in a mixed EE/CS group and I agree: While some CS people have a better understanding of fundamental and advanced concepts of CS than EE people, the EE people actually have an _engineering_ education, while most CS people do not. (Engineers are people that can get technical things to work reliably and cost-efficiently.) In addition, most EE students these days realize that they will somehow work with software and make sure they can actually program. That is another thing: Many CS graduat
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I have the opposite opinion. I have interviewed quite a few EE and CS people for programming jobs. I currently work at a university and while the EE people seem proficient in their favorite language, they don't know anything about design patterns. Trying to get one of them to use a MVC framework is hard enough, but to actually understand what is going on is impossible.
Quite a few of them have limited database experience and they don't know how to use any ORMs either.
No thanks.
Re: But if you look at unemployment... EEs beat CS (Score:1)
I have early seen EE embedded code that was better than disorganized spagetti. The one C course they took seems to be all they needed to know. Sad to see that CS is also failing.
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If you needed someone to write device drivers or interact with low level hardware I could see that. If you need someone to write a web application or service based API, not so much.
This statistic is misleading (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm an electrical engineer myself and the BLS statistics for this profession are misleading. The government categorizes electrical engineers into several sub-categories: electronic engineers, electrical engineers, fabrication engineers (silicon folks) and there is another for power engineers (the guys who work for the power company). I'd be hesitant to take this headline seriously without looking into it further.
Re:This statistic is misleading (Score:4, Informative)
That's not bullshit. They really are to some extent different occupations. The guy that designs power grids for a city can't necessarily design an IC and doesn't need to. To him, ICs are components that are on circuit assemblies that are inside systems that he cares about. The IC designer likewise doesn't need to know how to design a power grid. He doesn't even need to know when to use a Y vs. a delta transformer. In fact, he never uses transformers, except to couple RF signals onto the test boards for the ICs he's designing. Power comes from a regulator chip for him, not from a gas-fired generator.
But you get the same nominal degree to do both jobs.
Here's actual data from the BLS:
17-2060 Computer Hardware Engineers broad 77,670
17-2070 Electrical and Electronics Engineers broad 303,450
But the 17-2060 and 17-2070 categories mostly have BSEE degrees, some of them also holding MSEE and PhD's.
Then there's the software folks:
15-1130 Software Developers and Programmers broad 1,442,500
15-1140 Database and Systems Administrators and Network Architects broad 618,480
15-1150 Computer Support Specialists broad 706,360
15-1190 Miscellaneous Computer Occupations broad 196,280
So yeah, there are a lot more people doing software. It figures. A relatively few people are required to figure out how to make electrical and electronic hardware. A lot of that hardware consists of programmable machines that can in principle be programmed to do anything. Naturally there are more things to do with computer hardware than there are needs for different kinds of electronic hardware.
Perspective: I'm an electronics engineer and manager of several of the same. We're staying busy.
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The guy that designs power grids for a city can't necessarily design an IC and doesn't need to.
The difference between them is a tiny bit of experience and maybe reading one short design book. If you made it all the way though university and you can't design both of those as part of your electrical engineering degree then you did something very wrong. The fundamental principles of the two are no different. HV transmission lines have the same issues has high frequency data busses. One just deals with high currents, low frequency and power losses, and the other the opposite.
Likewise the earthing system
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You sound like someone who graduated with an EE degree in the early 1900s who lacks an appreciation for how broad and diverse modern electrical engineering really is. Suggesting that an IC designer should be able switch places with a power engineer is absurd. Each subfield is incredibly complex, and it takes years of specialization to sufficiently understand it and become competent.
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The sub-fields of electrical engineering are not that different. Electrical engineering is about two things:
a) Maxwell's equations.
b) Mathematical Methods to use those equations.
This can be clearly seen if you do a course in Microwave Engineering, and if the course covers Maxwell's equations, capacitance, inductance, and how they are related in transmission line and waveguide theory.
After covering Microwave engineering, it becomes obvious that a significant crossover exists between the following electr
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True. Electrical engineers usually know more about information technology.
Proper designations? (Score:2)
Maybe a number of Electrical Engineers have been re-designated Computer Engineers. By Computer Engineers I mean the people who design computer hardware.
Old CS programs look like CE today (Score:2)
I'm a computer engineer. So on paper I'm both an EE and a CS. Most EE's are doing the same thing. CS majors, nope, you're just CS.
Its not that simple. If you compare the curricula of some CS programs you will find that they are exactly the same as many CE programs, Also you will find some CE programs a bit light on engineering and more like a mediocre CS program. If you are looking only at the title of the degree you are clueless. You need to look at the classes that comprise the program at that university to get a clue.
And if you are old like me look at the curricula of a current CS program, even at your old university. Things may
Heart's out to my fellow EEs. (Score:1)
Got hosed soon after 9/11. I survived though barely (and even in between jobs now), but you'll survive too. Sad situation and sometimes life is a b&tch, but life will go on.
This is about the right ratio... (Score:1)
Hardware problems? (Score:2)
No sweat. We'll just fix it in software.
How many of those positions are 1HB visa holders? (Score:2)
EEs in Industrial Plant Design (Score:2)
People in the plant design business have been suffering from offshoring and increasingly-automated data-centric design software.
Expensive, sophisticated [intergraph.com], software [aveva.com] run over the internet by people earning 1/10 to 1/3 "western" hourly rates means that as older, more experienced workers retire, they are not replaced (or at least not on a 1:1 basis).
Most of the problems with offshoring are miscommunication, time zones and cultural.
Tasks that were formerly performed by younger people entering the field ar
It doesn't say there are 10% less employees EE's (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the key parts of the story point out one of the realities of engineering; many engineers work in jobs that are outside of their degree field:P>
Electrical engineers have likely moved into other fields, such as software engineering, or to other engineering areas such as aerospace, or to Wall Street, among other occupations.
While it goes on to say some are no longer employed; with a 2% unemployment rate chances are if you are an EE, looking for an EE job, you have a job.
One of the challenges firms looking to hire engineers, at least a few years back, was competing with non-engineering firms for workers. I remember engineering companies complaining about Wall Street hiring engineers (and scientists) and how horrible that was; well pay salaries like on the Street and you can get all the engineers you want. Shortages of employees is usually from an unwillingness to pay what it takes to get the employees you want rather than a true shortage. That's not always the case but withe employees having had a buyer's market over the last fews years it's usually a safe bet that it is the case.
Offshoring created an apprenticeship gap (Score:5, Insightful)
15-20 years ago there were plenty of manufacturing jobs for EE's. It was a great way to learn how things were really put together, and in many cases it was the foundation of a good design engineering career. Places like HP/Agilent did a lot of their test an measurement RF/microwave career paths this way. A few years of keeping a production line that making RF/microwave widgets was a great way to learn the ropes and see how to (or not) make a good manufacturable design. Virtually all of that type of work is now offshored to Malaysia, China, and similar.
Much of the design work has been eaten up by better ADC's and DAC with gobs of FPGA's doing what used to be an art form. So now the minimum level of skill needed to work as a decently paid EE doing actual EE work is very very high.
Large numbers lost their jobs as the manufacturing went elsewhere and the engineers scurried to other jobs like programming, IT, etc to be able to feed themselves. There is a vacuum now between the EE graduates and the companies who need to hire more EE's. Companies want 5 years experience minimum to make sure you aren't a buffoon (and because they often simply have no entry level work to do), but there are very few entry level jobs to get that experience. So lots of fresh graduates find other work outside their EE degree. So lots of graduates, lots of job openings, and no good way to span the apprenticeship gap.
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EE is a career to avoid. The center of activity has moved to Asia, and will not be coming back anytime soon. It is fricking hard work for decent pay with poor job security. You end up as a nomad going from on dying company to the next, hoping the next job isn't going to wind up at a defense contractor in some crappy town in Texas. You can find better paying jobs that are not nearly as hard, and with a longer half life for you knowledge and skills.
It is fun work if you can get on a decent project, but th
Busy here (Score:1)
The funny thing is ... (Score:2)
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Pity Slashdot doesn't have any good devs anymore.. (Score:2)
Anybody else enjoying the 100,000px wide horizontal scroll bar on Slashdot now?
Some genius put text-indent: 99999px on the Prefs link. Any junior developer that knows how to test their work (or use Google for that matter) knows you need to use a negative text-indent to avoid a scrollbar when hiding text like that.
Maybe they should hire some electrical engineers.
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Kind of makes me wonder... (Score:1)