Design and development engineers and managers today are earning more, liking the work they do more and learning more about how to fend for themselves. That's the consensus from our 1999 Salary & Opinion Survey. The 503 respondents to the EE Times "1999 Salary & Opinion Survey" are 19.1 percent of readers who returned completed surveys between June 17 and July 16. Two other publications participated in the survey: Nikkei Electronics, in Japan, and Nikkei Electronics Asia, based in Hong Kong.
Salary
Everybody has money on their mind these days, and engineers are no exception. Veteran Salary Survey editor Bob Bellinger writes that the 1999 study shows the average pay for the vice presidents of engineering and technical directors who responded scaled past the $100,000 mark, to $105,000 and $106,000, respectively. Meanwhile, newly graduated EEs are lured with salaries of $45,000, $50,000 or, for one new PhD with an enviable university research track record, $100,000.
Career
Engineers and their bosses give varied opinions when evaluating their respectful careers. Some 83 percent of engineers and 95 percent of managers agreed that they like their jobs. But when asked later whether they feel adequately rewarded beyond compensation, a hefty 47 percent replied, "No." Nearly 50 percent of engineers grumbled vs. 36 percent of managers, indicating an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in an otherwise satisfied profession.
The Way We Work
The engineer of today has to be able to communicate. He or she has to speak well, write forcefully and nail business skills early in his career if he wants to advance. For engineers, technical skills are a given. What they donıt have today, theyıll learn tomorrow. However, business skills are another matter, as evidenced from the replies to the survey question, "What business or management skill has proved to be the toughest to master?" "Writing," one engineer said. "Clear, concise, fast-written report generation is a difficult art and skill to learn from a book."
Opinion
Engineers, technical directors, software designers and technologists of all stripes and colors in the electronics industry
shake their heads over the quality of math and science education in American secondary schools. Respondents to EE Times' "1999 Salary & Opinion Survey" grade math and science
education today at various levels.They give kindergarten through fifth grade a C; middle school (sixth through eighth grade) a D+; high school (ninth through 12th grade) a D; and college a C+. Eleven percent gave high schools a failing grade.
