“jobs are outsourced to India because the workers are cheaper. period.”
The cost of labor is cheaper there because of the available talent. There are over 1.5 million engineering graduating every year in India, the supply drives the labor cost down. The local govt provides tax haven to the international companies and makes investing there a lucrative possibility for these businesses.
I feel this is somewhat related to the political climate, we are in a global economy and to compete with the other STEM-focused countries like India, china, and Germany we need engineers. If manufacturing is sourced back to the USA as some politicians promise to and if we can have enough talent here to stop outsourcing then engineering won’t be a bubble.
I think the best path (for pretty much anyone) is be flexible. No matter what path you start on, very likely you will change paths down the line at some point. Likely multiple times.
A lot of companies do start coming back to the US because they want simpler logistics. Problem is, they build more modern factories that are far more automated than their older counterparts and so they need fewer engineers (among other workers). So those jobs aren’t outsourced - they just don’t exist anymore.
This is an economics issue the world over and there’s no solution that anyone has really managed to come up with.
The US manufacturers a lot now. Second in dollar output. As noted by @NeoDymium its just with a lot fewer people than it once was. Mills that employed thousands at one point now employ hundreds with higher overall output.
No doubt it will be a societal issue to be addressed at some point down the road. Machines take over and no one has a job. Ban farm machinery and everyone has one. Somewhere in the middle is a good balance. May be the biggest (certainly one of the biggest) balances to strike in the coming years.
The most successful engineers I know in terms of pay work in the investment management/finance field. Second highest pay work in international sales jobs for things like semiconductors and computer chips (lots of travel involved).
Assuming you mean financially successful, wouldn’t this also apply to people in many non-engineering fields, due to the financialization of the economy (i.e. where finance has grown in its share of the economy and economic gains)?
My intention in posting was to show high paying career options for engineering majors that aren’t a more “typical” engineering job. Yes, the finance industry is high paying. Engineering degrees are valued for certain positions like quantitative analysis.
My DH is an EE and chose it because he liked the combination of disciplines. He loves his job.
He says when he’s hiring engineers, he’s often amazed at the applicants who want a job and don’t have the “mind set” that it entails. He says he can tell immediately, when he’s conducting an interview, which “new hires” just “went through the motions”. He’s often said he prefers to hire the “lower” GPA candidates with the motivation, vs. the “perfect” candidate that can’t follow a process. The long-term employees tend to be those that “intrinsically get” what they are supposed to do.
Will the bubble burst? Yes, but not for those that know how the algorithm is supposed to be and can be applied in other disciplines.
I believe the best path to maximize prospects is to dual major in English and Mathematics or Physics.
I personally believe that Engineering is career limiting. For a vast majority it will lead to a good middle class life. But it will rarely make anyone rich unless they win the start-up lottery.
Indeed. The select few who are educating themselves on a broad base will, though. A dual major in English and Physics/Mathematics is a flexible pathway to the elite professional services jobs, viz. Investment Banking, Sales and Trading, Quantitative Finance, Management Consulting, and Law. More importantly it is classic Liberal Arts education that trains and opens the mind.
Was just talking about this with chemical engineer husband who works in the petroleum industry last week! Our conclusion…too many kids are planning on engineering as a major but have absolutely no idea what an engineer actually does.
Many will wash out because they can’t keep up with the courses or necessary gpa. Or they quit once they figure out what an engineer does in real life (lots and lots of new grads work for a year or two and then quit engineering for other careers). He says, for his career, they are having a really hard time finding qualified, capable or experienced young engineers. He is in his late 40’s and he is one of the “younger” engineers.
Such jobs in consulting and finance are not everyone’s goal. Also, some of these tend to recruit and hire in a school elitist manner, so students at schools other than the super selective ones face an even more uphill climb to get to these jobs.
“I personally believe that Engineering is career limiting. For a vast majority it will lead to a good middle class life. But it will rarely make anyone rich unless they win the start-up lottery.”
Not everyone’s goal is to be rich. Money != Happiness. Lack of money can lead to unhappiness, but once past a basic threshold it doesn’t lead to true happiness. For me, a balance between time and money is key. Being able to do long bike rides, long runs, race, coach kid’s sports teams - I wouldn’t sacrifice that time for another $100K.
That of course is fine. Everyone should do what they want to do. But if a kid asked me what they should study in college, I would suggest English and Physics/Mathematics dual major.
Engineers in finance can be separated into “front-office” and “back-office” roles. The front-office people who interact with customers tend to be from “elite” schools, although not always so. The back-office people who deal with technology seem to come from just about anywhere. Both groups are quite well paid (a senior-level back office person can make $300K including bonus), but the front-office gets more.
I never implied that it should be everyone’s goal. In fact I don’t think it should be anyone’s goal. I was merely pointing out that engineering students have other options due to the nature of their degree.
By the way, could a finance, marketing, or management major ever get a job as an engineer? Nope.
