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Is your job in danger of being outsourced?

February 19, 2008

This is a really common topic when engineering is being discussed, especially for the younger generation that is looking to begin engineering studies or at the start of their engineering career. While the outsourcing of engineering jobs IS happening, there are still many engineering disciplines and jobs that have not been, and may never be, outsourced to other countries.

Brian Wood writes a great article for EDN.com discussing this very topic. He begins…

Engineers have taken a few shots in the past 20 years, especially those in the United States of America. It has become a popular sport for the collective group that brought us microwave ovens, satellite imagery, cell phones, and high definition to be stereotyped as introverted Dilbert-emulators who are long on brainpower but short on social skills … and soon on the street due to outsourcing.

Now isn’t that the truth. Later in the article he goes on to say

First, it’s a great time to be an engineer. The venture capital and financial markets are awash in investment capital earmarked for technology-focused businesses that have the prospect of earning higher-than-average return on investment. Engineers are the engines of these high-growth/high-tech companies, developing and delivering daily innovations in response to perpetual market demand for more, more, more. With product lifecycles (and attention spans) compressing at the pace of Moore’s Law, the forecast for continued engineering output is clear and sunny. The trick is managing financial market expectations so that marketing and associated “get-rich” hype doesn’t outpace product development and the laws of physics. Hopefully, we’ve all learned a few lessons from the dot-bomb debacle.

There are definitely many areas in the engineering world that will remain safe from outsourcing for many many years, especially those jobs related to national defense and the military. The real key is to research current trends for your field of interest along with the history of engineering employers within that specialty. With the right amount of due diligence it shouldn’t be too hard to find an engineering job that you will be able to keep for a long time without the worry of being outsourced.

Read Brian Woods’ complete article HERE

Written by bradley · Filed Under Engineering Commentary, Engineering News |  

Automotive Industry Exporting Engineering Jobs

February 15, 2008

NORIHIKO SHIROUZU of the Wall Street Journal wrote a sobering article relating to the export of engineering jobs in the automotive industry.

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In the Feb. 7th piece, Shirouzu digs deeply into the various automakers and the seemingly growing trend of moving design and development engineering jobs to low cost countries such as China, Romania and Vietnam. Historically, these highly skilled jobs have stayed in industrialized nations.

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As the need to pander to a global economy and foreign customers becomes more prevalent, we are likely to see a significantly increasing number of engineering jobs exported out of the country. Not only to cut costs, but to promote the product itself in those countries, as Shirouzu mentions.

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How soon we will reach the critical point where there is relatively little engineering and technical expertise required and/or left in the United States?

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Read Norihiko Shirouzu’s article at the Wall Street Journal HERE.

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Written by bradley · Filed Under Engineering News |