Well, not completely. Despite the improving conditions, the level of satisfaction design community members feel with their career and jobs has dipped a bit; they're sweating over the outsourcing trends they see in the industry (see "Work" chapter); and they hold surprisingly gloomy opinions about the state of the U.S. technology industry (see "Opinion" chapter). Nevertheless, the net outcome here is that readers tell us they'd recommend engineering as a career to their kids and that their companies are good to work for. They also call their field something that other professionals might envy: "fun."

Ever since the early 1990s, when widespread layoffs swept through even the most solid of defense companies and such "lifetime" employment advocates as IBM Corp., engineers and managers have understood that job security lies not with employers but with an individual's ability to keep his or her own own skills up to date.

Some 21 percent of our 2004 respondents are more secure in their jobs than a year ago. That's up from a bottom of 11.6 percent in 2002, after the crash in communications. Two years ago, nearly 44 percent of U.S. designers and managers responding to the EE Times "Salary & Opinion Survey" were looking over their shoulders, wondering when the next layoff would be. Today, that's shrunk to 24 percent of the sample. That's a far cry from the late 1990s boom, when even engineers admitted there was a shortage of people, but at least the trend lines are pointing in the right direction.

Here are some of the answers we got when we asked respondents whether they were worried about the possibility of a layoff soon:

"Almost a year ago, this was a large concern," a designer wrote. "Our industry has improved

lately, and I believe we are safe for the next one to two years."

"Looks like the last cycle is over," reflects another engineer. "Next time around there will probably be incentives for early retirement before the bloodletting starts."

Security weighs heavily on some readers' minds, however. "I recently left a very good, high-paying position in the commercial sector to take a job in the government sector. I was willing to take a salary reduction for the promise of greater long-term security," wrote one.

Our survey reveals that readers in the military/aerospace sector have worked at their employers an average of over 11 years, about two years longer than our overall average of nine years. But like the engineer above, they earn less, on average — about $10,000 less per year than our designers in the computer and components industries.

Unemployment figures slid from more than 9 percent last year — our highest ever — to 6.2 percent this year, a bit higher than the July national average of about 5.6 percent. Some EEs are finding their way back into the work force within four to five months,though half of the furloughed engineers took longer than that.

"I was laid off from August to March," wrote one. "Now I'm working at a new company with far less job satisfaction, poorer benefits and marginally the same base pay. Getting laid off again in this improved job market might be a boon. Notwithstanding, getting laid off twice in 12 months does not bode well on a resume."

Others take a philosophical view of the prospect of layoffs. "At the moment, as the telecom industry starts to bounce back, I have little concern," said one respondent. But he remembers the boom and bust of 2000. "As the economy takes off, companies find it easy to overextend and run into trouble. Then I will be much more concerned."

Readers see more hiring occurring at their workplaces. Nearly a quarter of our 1,453 respondents reported more new people being brought in this year. In comparison, only 9.6 percent were hired in 2002 and 11 percent in 2003. So we're heading in the right direction. Or are we?

Job security isn't just about the economy; it's about long-term trends in the industry. One of those trends is the recruiting of engineers from India, China and other traditionally low-wage countries. One "very concerned" engineer sums it up this way: "My company feels it can hire three to four foreign engineers for the cost of myself. They are not seeing the larger picture."

Another "concerned" engineer is more worried about his job than in the past, and that worry is more one of "being replaced by new workers here than being outsourced."

While the economy is rebounding, layoffs aren't over yet. "Ha," one reader wrote. "My last day is next Friday. I am not joking."

Satisfaction
Though the atmosphere in the workplace appears to be improving, readers satisfied with jobs and employers slipped in 2004 to 65 percent vs. 71 percent last year. Why? Surprisingly, career satisfaction can tail off in better times because other issues come to the surface.

"The performance review process is extremely ineffective," griped one engineer. "They boast a low attrition rate, but management avoids taking any measures based on employee performance, positive or negative. Thus I am getting stuck with a lot of low-quality superiors."

In a slow job market, dissatisfied employees hang on to their jobs rather than explore new opportunities elsewhere. Stagnation sets in; dissent festers.

"I can gripe about not having had a raise in two years and my insurance costs rising," said another respondent, "but overall, I am satisfied with most everything except the probability that I will either be laid off, be forced to take on a nontechnical role or never be able to advance past my current position."

Nevertheless, two-thirds pronounced themselves satisfied, and eight out of 10 raised a thumbs-up for their employer as "a good place to work." EEs on the whole are pleased with their situation. In fact, more than 90 percent call engineering "fun."

"When everything comes together, engineering can be a blast," one commented. "There are times when there is tedious, boring work to do. . . but every job has its dull moments."

"Seeing projects come together to produce change for the good is a fun thing," wrote another. "The political hassles and organizational shortfalls are what make engineering very unenjoyable at times." Indeed, detesting office politics is a tradition among engineers.

But "It has been great being a part of the technological advances in electronics," declared another reader.

Then there are the 10 percent who've seen the fun go away.

"Electronics engineering is going away in the U.S. because of outsourcing, unless you work for a military- or government-related company. Time to look for another industry that has a chance to be sustainable for American workers. So no . . . it's not fun."

Countering that is this cheerleader for the profession: "I was a nerd back in the '60s and have remained one. We make things. We improve lives. Without engineers, we'd still be living in caves. Engineering is about applying physical laws to make living easier, safer, more expansive, more fun, more interesting. Doing design engineering is the fulfillment of my boyhood dreams. Physics rules!"

There are some side benefits to engineering, we're told.

"If you're in it for the money you're in the wrong job," chides one reader. "That's not to say one cannot make reasonably good money. Most engineers do this because they want to know what makes something 'tick,' not because the stock options are expected to be worth something."

"Haven't used an alarm clock since becoming an engineer," said a reader. "Look forward to going to work."

"For over 30 years, someone has paid me to have fun!" enthused another respondents. "Started out working on large mainframe computers, and now [I'm] into wireless data. Field engineering is my passion. And [since I am] a field engineer, no one expects me to wear a tie!"

Career issues
With a blossoming employment scenario, it's not surprising that the job security/unemployment issue has slipped from its No. 1 position last year to third in 2004. Our top career issue for the U.S. sample, with 73 percent, was work/life balance.

Juggling family and work priorities requires choice integration skills. Overall, the mean number of hours respondents work per week comes to 47 hours in the U.S. In Europe, they average 42, though staffers do better, at 40 hours, while managers clock 49 hours.

Vacation time, of course, is a key differentiator between the American respondents and the combined British, French and German samples. Europeans receive more vacation time, with 72 percent of the overseas group taking four weeks or more, or 3.6 weeks on average. The U.S. design community's mean vacation time amounted to only 2.4 weeks. Only 18 percent of the Americans hit the road or lounged in their hammocks for four weeks or more. Like the Americans, the French, German and British design community rated work/life balance highly, in second place.

The issue of salaries, which often tops the list, takes second place this year in the U.S. career issues poll, cited by 70 percent of Americans.

"It is tough to compete with Third World salaries, and it is not quite fair when most of my friends from school have 'easy degrees' and make as much as or more than I do," a respondent wrote. "The engineering base pay is diluted when we hire engineers from overseas (via visa programs) or promote a tech to engineering status."

Salaries came in third in Europe. In the United Kingdom, one engineer complained that "salary has not kept in line with inflation for many years, causing effective salary to keep dropping."

Fourth on the U.S. list is technical obsolescence, followed by offshore outsourcing and professional ethics.

Seventh on the U.S. list is pensions, particularly with our over-50 group. It's no surprise that while 38 percent of engineers under 35 checked it off, 66 percent of the over-50 group are worried. One reason pensions are getting so much attention is that the value of stock options has shrunk at a number of locations, as with this reader: "I know a lot of my options are not worth much right now because many stocks tumbled, including ours, in/around 2000."

Interestingly, the top career issue among European engineers is pensions, no matter how old they are. Some 61 percent of younger engineers listed it, along with 66 percent of the veterans. Pensions have come under fire at some European employers seeking to cut costs and be competitive on the worldwide market. The Economist said demographic patterns, stock market volatility and legal standards raised concerns among all age groups in Europe.

Kids and women?

Seven out of 10 respondents would recommend the field to their kids.

"They pay me for this?" one enthusiast crowed. Others agreed, but only up to a point.

"Although I am very happy with my engineering career, I hope my son plays baseball for a living," observed a sports fan. Even ordinary players corral $1 million a year, so who can blame him?

"It's been a wonderful ride (almost 30 years as a processor designer)," a proud father wrote, "but I'm very concerned about the long-term prospects for future generations, including my daughter who's a college senior majoring in computer engineering."

And here's one reason why, from another reader: "We haven't hired many new engineers in the U.S. in the last few years, though hiring is heavy in India. That makes it hard to recommend the profession to young people."

"I am emphatically and strongly steering my kids away from any chances of becoming an engineer," declared one father. "I've been unappreciated, bruised, made to feel job-insecure and barred from career enhancing or expanding with relentless cost controls. My visions and dreams are all lost in the dust behind a car on a rough road."

"Engineering as a profession is fine," another dad noted, "although I am discouraging my sons from careers involving any specific skills that can be sourced in India, China or any other Third World country by a penny-pinching CEO."

Only 4 percent of our respondents were women. At least two declared that it is still a predominantly male profession.

"This field is still unfriendly to women," wrote one. "The old boys' club is alive and well. Regardless of the job a woman does, she stands a high chance of being passed over for rewards and recognition."

Related chart: