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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: People Who've left High Tech
Message-ID: <678@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Sep-86 14:06:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.678
Posted: Thu Sep 25 14:06:09 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Sep-86 03:11:46 EDT
Reply-To: mandel@well.UUCP (Thomas F. Mandel)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 21
Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <639@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from well!mandel@hplabs.HP.COM (Thomas F. Mandel)
 and was received on Mon Sep 22 06:25:52 1986
 
One of the likely reasons for such a short half-life (~5 years)
among EE's may well be the extremely rapid rate of change in the
knowledge base for this profession.  I've heard some people suggest
that it takes an enormous amount of effort to remain current, and
perhaps a good number of EE's get exhausted doing so.

Another reason may be the sheer stress of a profession at the
leading edge of technological change.  You can't play the "soul
of a new machine" game very long and expect to stay healthy (on the
average).

In other words, exhaustion -- intellectual or psychological -- may be
a factor for many early dropouts or career-changers.

		Tom Mandel

	ARPA:  mandel@sri-kl.arpa
	UUCP:  {ptsfa,hplabs,lll-crg,hoptoad,apple}!well!mandel