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Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

theregister.com

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Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#11

Post by aerostable_slug »

Daishiman wrote: post #4

In a software engineer. My cousin is an electrical engineer working at a large power distribution firm. For all intents and purposes his job is absolutely critical to society. I basically fumble around and do a few projects for my clients. I get paid several times more than him. I am happy for myself but it makes no sense to me how society is mispricing our work.

Mechanical engineers are similarly low-paid.

Some time back I hired a few MechE's (with advanced degrees) to write simulation code for a startup. I paid them what I thought was fair for a Bay Area coding role, which turned out to be a significant amount more than the same job would have paid if they had a different title (they would have been doing substantially the same work at Honda/John Deere/Ford/Boeing/Lockheed/etc.).

Strange.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#12

Post by fleventynine »

0x20cowboy wrote: post #9

I loved tinkering with electronics when I was younger - still do to a smaller degree. I built my first computer by fixing some blown capacitors on a motherboard I found in the trash. Back in the day, lots of products came with schematics, now you might get a lawsuit if you dare to take something apart. It was way easier to take apart and tweak through hole components too - now everything is surface mount or on chip a…

Surface mount isn't that big of a deal. A cheap hot air gun, a soldering iron, flux, and some solder paste are all you need to work with most BGAs, QFN, and other modern packages. PCB prototype manufacturing has never been cheaper thanks to companies like JLCPCB. With all the fantastic learning material on YouTube, open source tools like KiCad, and inexpensive chinese test equipment, the kids these days can do WAY more than I could dream of back in the 90s.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#13

Post by schlauerfox »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

The tools for EEs are old, creaky, text-based stuff from the DOS days. Time to finally turn EE into a software discipline. Then some decent tools will be developed and normal folk will be willing to design stuff.

A poor workman blames his tools.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#14

Post by jaygreco »

I graduated with a BSEE and worked as an EE for 6~ yr in hardware design, mostly as a generalist before switching outright to embedded FW. I make more money and have greater autonomy. I like hardware but enjoy firmware an equal amount and would only switch back into a role that encompassed both (like engineering lead, etc)

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#15

Post by SilverBirch »

I graduated in EE and this is no surprise- hardware is hard and Google will throw you $500k a year to tweak the font on their internal compiler. Optics, Power engineering, ASIC design, it’s all fascinating and * really hard * and * really underpaid *.

It’s worrying in the long term, the industry’s been built on underpaid geniuses. We need them, but you can’t begrudge them moving to the money.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#16

Post by supertrope »

shswkna wrote: post #5

The article is basically saying that there is a focus on commoditising tech talent for what builds shareholder value, and a loss of the passion, imagination and richness that tech can add to the world. My own relationship with tech reflects in that: I despise some of the things that tech is used for and has managed to amplify in our species. I still pursue my passion because somewhere deep down I know that it could a…

Intel cancelled their sponsorship of Intel Science Talent Search. That was a relatively cheap way to build goodwill and cultivate the talent pipeline.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#17

Post by supertrope »

Daishiman wrote: post #4

In a software engineer. My cousin is an electrical engineer working at a large power distribution firm. For all intents and purposes his job is absolutely critical to society. I basically fumble around and do a few projects for my clients. I get paid several times more than him. I am happy for myself but it makes no sense to me how society is mispricing our work.

Supply and demand is a cruel mistress. If power electronics could scale up to hundreds of millions of customers with relatively flat headcount and capital intensity you might see unicorns too.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#18

Post by tekla »

I moved into IT from "formal" engineering and its always frustrated me that a job that involves working on extremely expensive engines using upper level college math gets paid almost nothing compared to people who change colors on a webpage every once in a while. I've been on floors where multi-million dollar pieces of equipment are used to produce parts with obscene levels of precision being used by expert machinists making 80k a year who risk their own personal safety making these parts.

I have EE friends with master degrees who design PCBs that are printed millions of times that struggle to afford rent.

It makes no sense. Why is web software so easy to make money in? Why do we value hard engineering so little?

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#19

Post by ramesh31 »

tekla wrote: post #18

I moved into IT from "formal" engineering and its always frustrated me that a job that involves working on extremely expensive engines using upper level college math gets paid almost nothing compared to people who change colors on a webpage every once in a while. I've been on floors where multi-million dollar pieces of equipment are used to produce parts with obscene levels of precision being used by expert machinist…

Profit margin. It's all profit margin. Software is reliably >25%, where physical manufacturing is in the single digits.

Re: Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

#20

Post by JoeAltmaier »

schlauerfox wrote: post #13
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8

The tools for EEs are old, creaky, text-based stuff from the DOS days. Time to finally turn EE into a software discipline. Then some decent tools will be developed and normal folk will be willing to design stuff.

A poor workman blames his tools.

So you'll sign up to use crappy tools to design hardware with millions of elements?

This isn't about chest-beating. Its about attracting people to a discipline which is currently arcane because of obtuse tools.

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