Would you recommend
an EE degree to your child?
Recently I had the opportunity to volunteer as a judge in a science and technology fair for middle-school students. I was so thrilled to be chosen and to use my engineering training to contribute to the education of these students. I was impressed with their creative minds and developing scientific thought.
It is a fact today that the number of Americans pursuing an EE degree has declined.
As I went from booth to booth, rating the projects, I began to wonder how many of these students would choose an engineering career. Will the little girl who presented her “Fruity Electricity” project with such passion�demonstrating the voltage measurement between two potatoes�be a future electrical engineer? Or will she choose a nontechnical degree?
I have a friend with an engineering degree who took exactly two years to find another job with a salary two-thirds of what he was making before he was laid off. Another recently laid-off friend decided to go into landscaping because he didn't want to waste any time looking for electrical engineering jobs that won't even exist in the near future. What a waste of an engineering degree!
It is a fact today that the number of Americans pursuing an EE degree has declined. An EE career used to be highly valued, not to mention high paying as well. What happened?
Global outsourcing of EE jobs is at least partly to blame. Apparently, chip design can easily be done offshore. Intel and TI are already doing it.
About six years ago, I tried to encourage my nephew to pursue electrical engineering. He didn't listen, and he is now graduating from chiropractic school. I am relieved now with his decision. He will work four days a week and won't have to worry about his job going overseas.
It is too early to see the full implications of the outsourcing of electrical engineering jobs. In the meantime, until I see that globalization will make us better off, I will put on hold encouraging anyone to become an electrical engineer. Would you encourage your child to become an EE?
�Christina Nickolas, Editor
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