How many engineers

[skyline]

Things will cycle back, although it's hard to see when that will be. While I was in school in the late 70s and early 80s, the petroleum industry was red hot. Brand new chemical engineering graduates were averaging 10+ job offers. Recruiters were calling people at home and roaming the halls to try to sign people up. The bottom started falling out in 1982. All but a couple of people in the class that graduated the semester before me had a single job offer. When I graduated in the spring of 1983, one person in my class of 13 had a job and it was worse for people actually working in the petroleum industry. A lot of them ended up in Florida looking for a job, any job, just so maybe they could make their mortgage payment. By all means they should take the money while it's there, but they better be putting a fair amount aside for the downturn. Boom and bust has always been the name of that game.

My college roommate was a petroleum engineering major. When we were in high school, the Pet.E's were getting the best job offers by far. By the time we graduated from college in 1984.... He wallpapered his bedroom walls with flush letters. He finally wound up getting a job on a workover rig in order to get some experience. After a year, he went into materials stress, strain, etc... working for the aerospace industry. You're right, make hay while the sun is shining in the petroleum business!

 

[Dusty Britches]

My dad is a civil engineer and does stress design on aircraft. He retired from a well paying contract job in Ft. Worth and moved back home with Mom. He worked 80-90 hours a week. Within 4 days of coming home, someone called him with a job offer not 10 minutes from the house. He says that company won't pay what the industry is paying and they've been looking for a dozen engineers for a year.

Shortage? Absolutely.

The Universities are recruiting foreigners who are trained here and then go home. Those foreigners are taking enrollment spots away from US citizens. (Most quality universities have capped enrollment.) And, most kids today don't seem to grasp math and science. Video games and computers, they get.