View Full Version : US 'Professionals' seek overseas jobs ...
SalsaDancer
01-08-2010, 07:17 PM
I graduated in 2008 with my engineering degree and now I'm stripping. IMHO, Melonie hit the nail on the head.
It took me 4 and a half months to find a job at an engineering firm, entry level, for 40k a year. Nobody has been given raises in the year and a half that I've been there, and there are international competitors whose contracts cost a fraction of what ours cost. Long term prospects for US engineers in terms of globalization are pretty bleak.
So basically, I could either shake my hot 24 year old booty for 10 or 12 years and make smart investment decisions, or I could hope that my 40k/yr salary increases over 35 years to keep pace with the costs of inflation, outsourcing, and gender pay discrimination. Not a SINGLE one of the 5 offices has a senior level engineer who is female.
http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/engineering-pay-gap-glassdoor-reveals-many-women-engineers-earn-less-than-men/
It's a no brainer.
Melonie
01-09-2010, 02:20 AM
^^^ Salsa, I'm sorry for your engineering job situation, but in a way I'm also not sorry. At least you have realized that you can apply your 'hot 24 year old booty' towards earning a maximum amount of money in the short term as a dancer ... as opposed to spending your 'hot' years as an underpaid corporate 'slave' in ( arguably futile ) hope of building job security / pension benefits / future advancement.
flickad
02-15-2010, 07:12 PM
^^^ and one major reason that America has not been producing enough doctors, engineers etc. isn't all that hard to figure out either. Like everything else in economics there is a cost / benefit ratio involved. Becoming a licensed doctor or professional engineer requires investing the tuition cost and lost opportunity cost of the college education to start with. Then both professions require investing a whole bunch of work effort in exchange for not much in the way of a paycheck during an 'internship' period. And once fully credentialed, both professions then face a 'fork in the road'. One option is to become the 'employee' of some big corporation or gov't entity under working conditions and/or philosophies that may not be optimal - in exchange for a 'paycheck' that, while comfortable, is not likely to put one in the 'rich' tax bracket. The other option is to 'hang out your own shingle' to increase income potential and optimize working conditions / professional philosophy, but assume the potential malpractice / liability risks ( and insurance premiums ) that go along with it.
To prove the point anecdotally, I have a reasonably good friend who is a licensed medical doctor. However, about 10 years ago, he chose to obtain a JD and is now practicing law ! He tells me that this yields twice as much income for half as much work effort, and ten times less stomach acid !
It's actually as very similar story in law, at least in my jurisdiction. You have an internship on graduation which was once known as an articled clerkship and is now called practical legal training. This involves working under a senior lawyer for little pay in order to become fully qualified. After this, you may practice as an employee solicitor only for two years and then reach a similar fork - go into private practice for yourself and assume the vagaries and liabilities of that (as well as the profits and freedom to choose your own working conditions) or continue as an employee which will provide stability and decent pay but less flexibility and opportunity to really hit the financial big-time.