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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: People Who've left High Tech
Message-ID: <669@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 22:23:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.669
Posted: Fri Sep 19 22:23:33 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Sep-86 07:10:01 EDT
Reply-To: hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill@hplabs.HP.COM
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 28
Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <639@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from tektronix!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!bill (William Swan)
 and was received on Wed Sep 17 00:06:38 1986
 
This has been a recognized situation in electrical engineering for the
10 years I've been in the field. About five years ago there was a study
published (and referred in one or more trade journals) claiming that,
statistically, the half-life of the EE is only five years. Many EEs go
into marketing, sales, or management.. a few (as mentioned above) leave the
field entirely.

I had a discussion recently with a friend, a very bright engineer who has
also survived two half-lives, who is wondering whether he really wants to
spend the rest of his life doing this work (or.. what he wants to be when
he grows up :-).

Having had similar questions on occasion, I wonder: What's wrong with a 
profession that is typically abandoned after about the same amount of time
as is spent preparing to work in it?

I might add that the people in that study were largely not those lured in
by the prospect of high-paying employment, that many of them began their
studies during a time of recession in the industry, the early 70's, and 
hence must have been motivated by other factors such as the technical
challenges.

Any thoughts?

(I would like to read that article.)