Those skills are the basics of design and development engineering. The EE that emerges from this sketch is one who works in multiple technical arenas, from analog to digital, from hardware to software. And as the systems-integration response shows, he or she has to put it all together into a functioning unit.

Why aren't the percentages even higher than 36 to 56 percent? When you add the readership's software man agers, group leaders, research directors, chairmen and scientists to the survey base, the percentages are diluted. Their jobs call for a different skill set-including business skills.

Less common, but vital to certain specialists, are the following technical skills cited by those surveyed:

• ASIC design, mentioned by 19 percent
• Deep-submicron IC design, by 6 percent
• Network design, 12 percent
• Wireless design, 12 percent
• DSP, 21 percent

You may have noticed a pattern here. All of those less-common skills are the tools of the higher-paid respondents. They are also the passport to a new job.

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