Engineers Working Harder for Their Paycheck 268
Editorgirl35 writes to tell us Design News has posted their annual engineering salary survey. While it does offer encouraging results with salaries up a bit from last year it also shows that engineers are, on the average, doing a lot more to earn that paycheck including supervisory and budgetary functions. From the article: "Kody Baker, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer agrees, "Yes, we are doing far more than just designing products," he says. He's a project manager, manufacturing engineer, product designer, R&D engineer, test engineer, CAD systems specialist, CAD instructor/mentor, and more, juggling many roles in his job as a mechanical application engineer at Honeywell."
Re:Welcome to life (Score:5, Informative)
Thats the first thing I thought of when I read this.
re: spending (Score:5, Informative)
In the cases of most people I know (and even in my own case), we're in that majority of Americans who are expected to do more work for less pay - and yet, we're striving to scrape together some kind of lifestyle we aren't ashamed to have around our friends and family.
EG. I could theoretically "put away" more of each paycheck in investments, rather than spending all of it, BUT I'm just about out of corners I can cut. My current salary is thousands less per year than I was paid to do a job involving LESS responsibility, 6 or 7 years ago - and that's after a long stint of unemployment/self-employment and heavy job hunting. Meanwhile, gasoline costs roughly 3x as much as it did back then, and even little things like going out to lunch are about double the cost. (I remember around 1997 or 98, it was quite possible to buy lunch for under $4.00. I used to go to Subway and get a 6-inch cold cut trio sandwich with chips and a drink for about $3.90. To do the same today is around $6.00-$6.50 depending on the store and local taxes.) I get paid bi-weekly and the check I receive at the end of each month is completely wiped out by just my house payment, car payment, and my choice of one smaller bill such as electric, gas, or telephone. The other check is well over half gone just paying for my other utility bills and car insurance. That leaves me with maybe $300-400 for everything else, including groceries, gasoline, car repairs and maintenance, home repairs or improvement, and so on. And I don't even live in a good neighborhood or a "big house" by any means!
I have 2 credit cards, but one has only a $500 balance and the other a $250 balance. Even maxxing those out and paying their outrageous interest rates - that's not going to bury me financially. (And for the record, I have a 0 balance on the $500 limit card and try to keep it that way 90% of the time.)
It just bothers me to get "the lecture" from people about not saving for a "rainy day" -- when doing what they suggest would involve something like going without electricity for a month, or running out of food for my kid. There are a growing number of people out there just like me
In case you don't want to register (Score:1, Informative)
Re:It's a puzzlement (Score:3, Informative)
It seems that the overwhelming tone of the slashdot story as well as most of the comments consider the idea of engineers doing management do be a bad thing. This I fail to understand. I'm only 26 and have only been in the professional workforce (i.e. not a job as a service tech or some crap) for about 5 years. One thing I have learned (and it's a lesson I take from my dad as well) is that it is in one's best interest to do some "management" work.
Likewise, managers need to get their hands dirty on a regular basis. If non-management employee's aren't helping the manager do his job and/or if the manager does not know the field his employees are working in then there is a horrible process inefficiency. A basic college (or hell even high-school where I went) economics course will tell you that in a perfect market it is quite likely that if you're inefficient then another company will come along and eat your lunch.
You see it happen all the time with companies too. Look at Microsoft for instance. At some point they managed (hah) to make a company full of middle-managers. Microsoft as of late does not seem to be able to write good software. They are not working as a team.
Contrast with Apple's software division. It is obvious to this outside observer that the programmers and managers are working together. I could speculate that a lot of this had to do with Avi Tevanian (VP of Software at Apple). Avi is a programmer who worked is way in to an executive position. Unfortunately, Avi has left. However, don't take this too seriously because I read some other rumors/speculation that perhaps it was time for him to go.
It's hard to judge as an outsider on anything and I realize that this is simply two anecdotal examples about software companies (not engineering firms) but I believe it's an accurate enough portrayal for my purposes. The point is that when companies start getting top-heavy and managers aren't getting their hands dirty and workers aren't having active dialog with management then the ability of the company to produce it's products goes south.
Re:Welcome to life (Score:3, Informative)
Point is.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Most Managers have to be teachs to... (Score:3, Informative)
It would be pointless to teach all engineering disciplines AutoCad, because disciplines such as electrical engineering and computer engineering will never use it.