Re: i believe this answers chris'' question , why dont good engi

From: <Christopher>
Date: Tue Apr 27 2004 - 22:57:00 EDT

>This means more problems for engineering companies who might want to
>keep good engineers.

I doubt this will mean trouble for engineering companies, but it probably means that companies in the business of selling techy stuff and who use engineers, might have trouble keeping engineers. However such companies aren't interesting in keeping engineers--they're interested in turning engineers into middle managers.

>Technology also makes it easier for small
>engineering firms to compete effectively with large firms, or for engineers
>to take their skills out of engineering altogether
Very important observation. Computer savvy engineers have a lot better chance at some sort of autonomy, or at least staying in the business of engineering, than was the csae when I started off. I can do work in solo practice that would have required a whole battery of support people and a lot of very expensive machinery. That allows me to be in the engineering business, not an overhead item in a corporation that thinks of itself as being in the business of selling mechanical devices. My own feeling is that engineering never will only become an actual profession when its practitioners have the ability to practice autonomously.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=xPeCrZQc5Hfdni7NC3HIv0cMYhY4zkTbSmsoBYqV0MxvKU4b41xV5IAQsCTE1rD7c7tfr4_vnSz7H09UF60">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Tue Apr 27 22:57:00 2004