'Brain Drain' resurfaces as Europeans eye U.S. jobs

By Peter Clarke

While the number of foreign-born engineers working on H1-B visas may be a big issue in the United States, Europe has no such problem. There is no comparable scheme for bringing engineers into Europe on temporary work visas and, indeed, it seems there is little desire among foreign engineers to move there.

If they are of a mind to move, those engineers are likely to choose the United States, partly for the higher salaries and stock options, but also because it is seen as doing much of the leading-edge work.

Indeed, those factors lure European engineers as well. If anything, European companies are seeing a resurgence of the "brain drain" that drew ambitious young engineers and scientists from Europe to the United States in the 1960s.

The good news for the vast majority of engineers who remain in Europe is that their services, across the spectrum of electronics activity, are in high demand and their wage packets are reflecting that.

Average wages in U.K. electronics businesses have risen 20 percent in three years, a salary survey reported in Electronics Weekly, a U.K. trade newspaper.

The survey found software engineers better paid than hardware engineers, with average annual salaries of about $47,000 and $42,000 respectively. That may seem low next to U.S. salaries (about $62,000 to $70,000), but European engineers have never had it so good in terms of pay and they are being courted hard.

The only regret is, perhaps, that the old-fashioned "job for life" has largely disappeared. But for most engineers, there are rewards for the increased flexibility that is being demanded of them.

Though the averages may seem low, recruitment ads quote salaries of up to about $70,000 for design engineers in areas like analog and RF design or with software skills in embedded Java and C++, reflecting the strength of the telecommunications and consumer-electronics sectors.

There is still some discussion over the status of engineers and why managers and salespeople are better-rewarded. Still, it seems that salaries are no longer engineers' top concern. Instead, the chief issue for many is quality of life, and the "quality of job" that buys it.

Although some of the European engineers who left for the States were no doubt eagerly anticipating U.S. salaries, it is likely they were just as concerned about how interesting the work would be. Along with concerns about cash, European engineers also care about getting to use leading-edge tools and developing their professional skills.

"The main thing is the type of work you are being asked to do, assuming you are being offered a reasonable salary," said Jennifer Bray, who manages and contributes to Bluetooth wireless-networking software development at TTPCom (Royston, England), a design consultancy that develops mobile communications systems and equipment.

"The last place I worked became a nightmare because they ran out of design work and I ended up testing pagers all day long," she said. "I think I am paid a reasonable salary. It's a necessary qualifier, but after that it's not a major decision point."

'Overall package'

Tim Regan, who left Texas Instruments Inc. to form Design Resources Ltd. (Olney, England), offering chip layout services, agreed.

"Once you get beyond a certain point salary becomes less of an issue," he said. "Engineers are interested in the overall package; whether it includes medical care or not, in flexible working and in making sure that doesn't just mean driving them hard to meet some arbitrary deadline without a reward."

Bray noted that different-sized companies offer different attractions to engineers at different stages in their careers.

"Smaller companies don't tend to have much time to train the newcomer," she said. "Larger companies tend to send people on a lot of courses, which is good if you are just starting out."

Regan hasn't yet started offering equity in his company but admits he may have to consider it as part of a package of incentives to help with recruitment.

"Too few engineers [are] being chased by too many jobs," he said.

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