Engineers are commodities. We've done it to ourselves, which is my personal opinion. Many of us don't ask for more. As a profession, we don't take care of it the way doctors and lawyers care for theirs. It isn't for lack of smarts. I know doctors and lawyers, who couldn't cut engineering, that aren't too smart in their chosen profession. They have great memories but can't translate or correlate knowledge and ideas too good. Yet, they've made a lot more than I have. Part of the reason is licensing. They have to be licensed to practice. Very few US engineers get the license, which indicates to many that our profession is easy, unregulated, and not to be taken seriously. Years ago I heard the stat that roughly 2% of all engineering graduates get the license. I doubt that has changed. I've met young and not so young graduates that have never heard of Engineer-In-Training or Professional Engineer,.
Many technicians and technologists are quite happy to denigrate the engineer because engineering is easy. Anyone can understand it and EE is the easiest of all. I've heard it many times. One maintenance hand criticized me greatly for one of my solutions. I had budget constraints and unsuccessfully lobbied to get more money to spend. A solution was not worth more money than they had budgeted. The maintenance hand convinced the Process Engineer to spend more money. He had greater access to him and they were buds. He then exclaimed loudly to anyone who would listen that he could do EE and much better than I ever could. I let him go on and kept silent. He enrolled in engineering and dropped out the first semester because he couldn't handle math. He had the courtesy and grace to apologize to me for his criticisms. I had the courtesy and grace to accept.
But that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our profession is viewed by too many people. They cannot see the value we bring through building materials and products, buildings, transportation, fuel, computers, appliances, food products, medications, medical equipment, entertainment, etc. We, collectively and individually, do a very poor job of educating the public in all the ways we touch their lives.
I doubt too many people with mental illness, cancer, depression, epilepsy, etc. would want to do without their medications. Without engineers, their medications would not be possible. I doubt they ever consider this throughout all the years they pop the pills, take the injections, etc.
One of the fundamental problems is that people are so entertainment oriented today they don't want to be bothered with how products are made and reach their periphery. But, I digress......
Many technicians and technologists are quite happy to denigrate the engineer because engineering is easy. Anyone can understand it and EE is the easiest of all. I've heard it many times. One maintenance hand criticized me greatly for one of my solutions. I had budget constraints and unsuccessfully lobbied to get more money to spend. A solution was not worth more money than they had budgeted. The maintenance hand convinced the Process Engineer to spend more money. He had greater access to him and they were buds. He then exclaimed loudly to anyone who would listen that he could do EE and much better than I ever could. I let him go on and kept silent. He enrolled in engineering and dropped out the first semester because he couldn't handle math. He had the courtesy and grace to apologize to me for his criticisms. I had the courtesy and grace to accept.
But that, ladies and gentlemen, is how our profession is viewed by too many people. They cannot see the value we bring through building materials and products, buildings, transportation, fuel, computers, appliances, food products, medications, medical equipment, entertainment, etc. We, collectively and individually, do a very poor job of educating the public in all the ways we touch their lives.
I doubt too many people with mental illness, cancer, depression, epilepsy, etc. would want to do without their medications. Without engineers, their medications would not be possible. I doubt they ever consider this throughout all the years they pop the pills, take the injections, etc.
One of the fundamental problems is that people are so entertainment oriented today they don't want to be bothered with how products are made and reach their periphery. But, I digress......
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