<p>Marty Nemko on Engineering:</p>
<p>Globalization-Resistant</a> Careers</p>
<p>Ironically, pundits may be pushing us in the wrong directions. We keep hearing a nonstop drumbeat from leaders urging the U.S. to turn out more engineers. For example, former astronaut, Sally Ride in a USA Today article (Mar. 19) exhorts more girls to consider engineering. She cites the fact that in 2004, China and India graduated 700,000 engineers while the U.S. graduated only 70,000. So what? Already, American employers are finding that the engineers that U.S. colleges turn out are often inferior (not to mention more expensive) than those they can hire in India. The aforementioned US News article cites General Electrics Vice Chair David Calhoun: "When we have to look for deep technical talent, not just 10 or 20 people--especially in high technology--the places you can go and know you can hire somebody every day are India and China Half of IBM's 190,000 engineers and technical experts now reside overseas, for instance. And while Big Blue is still hiring modestly in the United States, it has 30,000 Indians on its payroll and plans to add thousands more.</p>
<p>If we dig deeper into the pool, can anyone honestly think well get better engineers? And even if we do a better job of educating engineers so we have as many competent engineers as does India and China (highly improbable given the size and culture of their populations), our engineers will still cost much more. Of course, some engineering jobs will remain in the U.S. but certainly not enough to justify our national obsession with encouraging more students to pursue engineering.</p>
<p>A former engineer advises people to not pursue high tech jobs, instead go for jobs that cannot be outsourced like electrician:
Will</a> Blog for Food: Education, Careers, Jobs, Employment</p>
<p>Train yourself for a line of work over which you have complete control, and a line of work that can't be outsourced. Examples: medicine, law, plumbing, electrician, handyman, barber and beauty shops, franchises such as Starbucks, real estate. Whatever you do, don't go into high tech, cutting edge fields. These are the primary candidates for outsourcing. Take the money you would have spent on college and instead invest it in real estate. Your goal should be not to just be a worker living from paycheck to paycheck with the American dream of a mortgage and a couple of cars. Your goal should be to increase your net assets, your net worth, to the point that you can live off of a return from capital and not just the sweat of your brow. This is what they don't teach you in school where they teach the new American Dream which Friedman totally endorses which is to get better educated, work harder and run faster in the rat race. A moderately successful business man (and I include handymen, gardeners and plumbers in this category) doesn't have to do this. More importantly, a moderately successful businessman does not have to beg a corporation for a job.</p>
<p>I recommend getting credentialed in something that you can do yourself as an independent, self-employed contractor. A credential that allows you to practice some skill or some profession is far superior to a college degree that only allows you to beg in the marketplace for a job. Young, highly qualified Indians are willing to work 12 hour days for a couple of bucks an hour. Are you? Then don't get a college degree except in certain professions like medicine, law or architecture - professions which allow you to go into business for yourself. Better yet become an electrician or a plumber and don't acquire a student loan debt, go into business for yourself and earn $50 - $100 an hour. Have complete control over your life. Students are being led down the garden path because of a myth that in order to be anybody and have a good life you have to graduate from college. That's nonsense. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, one of the richest people in the world flunked out of two colleges.</p>