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Getting Shot at Preferrable to Engineering? - RF Cafe Forums
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Kirt Blattenberger
Post subject: Getting Shot at Preferrable to
Engineering? Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:12 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts: 308
Location:
Erie, PA
Greetings:
I just read the following in the 12/1/2005
edition of Electronic Design. It is a pretty sad commentary on the state
of engineering in the U.S.
"I am 40 years old and have an MSEE.
I am so thrilled with this career that I have chosen that I am trying
to get back in the military. I would rather have people shooting at
me than work in this profession anymore. The U.S. is now allowing more
than 30,000 H1-Bs in. We are in real trouble." -- ED reader
For
those interested in doing the same, the rule I heard from a recruiter
type is that the maximum age for re-entering the service as an officer
is around 40 years old (varies with branch of service) plus the number
of years previously served. So, if you are 47 (like me) and served 4years
(like me), then you do not qualify because the maximum age would be
44. If had served for two tours (8 years), I would be eligible.
The issue relates to the latest RF Cafe online poll on the effects
of outsourcing.
_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
Top
Guest
Post subject: Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:34 am
The reason there
are so many visas for engineers is because an RF engineer born in this
country is becoming a rarity. If you do not believe me just look at
the enrollments into enginnering schools across the country. It is even
worse in graduate school. When I was going for my masters in EE, there
were 3 citizens and 65 forein nationals. The problem begins in primary
, and secondary schooling in this country. Alot of teachers emphasize
social issues which steer students toward those careers. Also, the lack
of "qualified" teachers to teach math and science in a fun and forfilling
way adds to the problems. Students at a young age learn to dread math
and science because they find it difficult and without purpose. What
they do not realize is that mathamatics can be applied to actual useful
purposes. I came from the same school system and did not make this connection
until I was in electronics school in the military. There, for the first
time I realized that I actually liked mathematics and electronics despite
taking courses in high school. As far as forfilling engineering jobs
in this country, their are good and bad companies to work for. I am
fortunate that I have been able to work for good copanies that always
through me cutting edge and exciting work. We are presently desperately
trying to hire people for engineering positions but have found that
it is a challenge to get a resume never mind a person to walk through
the door. Yes, we have many engineers with visas, not by company choice
but by neccesity. No the salaries are not lower for these engineers.
We need to graduate more engineers or else we will most certainly be
in trouble. The engineers in China are presently inexperienced and lack
many skills. But this will not last forever since the Chinese are determined
to be a technological power house. Well I rambled on enough. What are
your thoughts?
Top
Kirt Blattenberger
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:57 am
Site Admin
Joined:
Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts: 308
Location: Erie, PA
Anonymous
wrote:
I came from the same school system and did not make this connection
until I was in electronics school in the military. There, for the first
time I realized that I actually liked mathematics and electronics despite
taking courses in high school.
Greetings Guest:
Good
input. I, like you, had what I call my "enlightenment period" while
in the military. I always loved science, especially aerospace, meteorology,
and electrical/electronic topics, but for whatever reason, never caught
on while in school. It's a real joke to look in my high school yearbook
where I listed aerospace engineering as my future path, when at the
time I could not even factor the simplest equation. I will have to take
the blame for it, since my time was filled with building model rockets
and airplanes rather than studying.
After electronics tech school
in the USAF (radar maintenance), I began a self-study program to educate
myself in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and even literature and poetry.
In-between deployments, I managed to squeeze in a couple college classes.
After separation from the service, I went to school at night to get
my Associate degree, then a combination of full-time and part-time college
(University of Vermont) to earn my BSEE. Afterward, I took some Masters
courses part-time, but never completed the graduate degree – way too
busy with kids, job and other life necessities.
So, what to do
to stop the bleeding of U.S. students from our engineering and science
curriculums? While a lot of the blame rightfully is laid at the feet
of the junior high and high schools, the colleges and universities also
are culpable. Many students do not want to suffer the professors that
are openly hostile and discriminatory against those that do not buy
into the extreme liberal, anti-American theme that pervades campuses.
Substantiated stories abound about students whose grades are unfairly
lowered for not pumping the professor’s egos, and the general atmosphere
of hatred by nearly entire administrative bodies toward even moderately
conservative students does not make one feel welcome. Since, according
to the last couple elections, fully half the country does not conform
to the establishment liberal system, that means a lot of people are
left out. The situation has reversed from the pre-1960s era and the
very people who protested against “the man” are now the new “man.”
What I would like to see is for the minority CITIZENS of America
to start flooding the colleges as engineering and science students.
The proven path to success in this country is to earn a college degree
and enter the professional workforce. Many go on to start high-tech
companies. With all the government money that is thrown at trying to
solve the poverty problem, many more resources should go toward mentoring
(preferable by, say Black and Hispanic volunteers) to promote college
attendance. Those mentors should eschew the entitlement and the hyphenated-American
mindset and promote patriotism with the accompanying desire to better
the country by becoming premier citizens in academia and industry. It
is a crime that people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are allowed
to discourage the minority population from participation in the upper
echelons of society by fomenting discontent and anarchy directed toward
the very system that could make them successful.
Well, this is
certain to rankle some people’s sensitivities. Let me know your thoughts
(not your feelings).
_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
Top
Guest
Post subject: .. so you can become a teacher, and teach it ..Posted:
Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:37 am
An anecdote regarding the teaching of
mathematics in Canada.
A classmate of mine in the final year
of high school (circa 1980), asked our Calculus teacher why we learn
Calculus.
In all seriousness, his response was: "so if you become
a teacher, you can teach it".
My oldest son now in his first
year of medical science at the University of Western Ontario finished
his midterm with 99% in calculus. I have never helped him with his school
work, not once, but I have always pointed out to him and my other kids
examples of where mathematics makes a real tangible difference in their
worlds (computers, games, communications etc).
If you show a
kid from your own experience how and why mathematics is used, and how
important it is, they are that much more interested to learn it. Sadly,
the school teachers we have here in Canada seem mostly to be cut from
a different cloth, and will never provide that vision.
(He did
equally well in both chemistry and biology, is a body builder, and plays
football and rubgy-- so it's not necessary to be a nerd, or Chinese,
to excel at science.)
My second son, now that's a whole different
story .....
Cheers,
ColdMortimer
Top
guest
Post subject: WhatPosted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:00 am
People should stop focusing on the visa situation as mentioned here
and look at Graduate schools: there are no citizens, hardly any in North
America studying in the field. It has gone downhill fast and since schools
need to make money and a reputation for themselves, they take more and
more foreign students. Of course, people naturally blame the VISA situation
but look at your own people: people just don't want to study, young
kids would rather do something that gets them rich quicker, with minimal
work. Stop whining and look around.
Top
AP
Post
subject: Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:52 pm
Kirt Blattenberger wrote:
So, what to do to stop the bleeding of U.S. students from our engineering
and science curriculums? While a lot of the blame rightfully is laid
at the feet of the junior high and high schools, the colleges and universities
also are culpable. Many students do not want to suffer the professors
that are openly hostile and discriminatory against those that do not
buy into the extreme liberal, anti-American theme that pervades campuses.
Substantiated stories abound about students whose grades are unfairly
lowered for not pumping the professor’s egos, and the general atmosphere
of hatred by nearly entire administrative bodies toward even moderately
conservative students does not make one feel welcome. Since, according
to the last couple elections, fully half the country does not conform
to the establishment liberal system, that means a lot of people are
left out. The situation has reversed from the pre-1960s era and the
very people who protested against “the man” are now the new “man.”
I don't think that this has to do with the lack of engineering
students in universities - in my undergrad we took a total of 2 courses
that came from the Arts faculty over 4 years, and there were no politics
in any of the science or engineering courses, nor were there any when
I became a grad student.
Top
guest
Post subject:
duuhhh..Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:17 am
on some forums he says
no politics, then here he injects politics where it's not needed. go
figure !
face the facts, kids are getting dumber and lazier:
too much TV and internet and toys.
Top
Kirt Blattenberger
Post subject: Re: duuhhh..Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:06 pm
Site Admin
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts:
308
Location: Erie, PA
guest wrote:
on some forums he says
no politics, then here he injects politics where it's not needed. go
figure !
Greetings guest:
If you read carefully, you
will see that only on the Anecdotes & Gripes forum do I request
no politics - that one is supposed to be pure entertainment.
Politics affects nearly everything we do professionally, publically,
and privately, so mentioning how it affects topics on the forums is
entirely reasonable and often necessary to make a point. A rational,
level-headed discussion that takes political policies into account is
not discouraged at all. What I discourage is a flame session that exists
purely to incite the tempers of others. If you want that kind of experience,
go to one of the other popular forums.
It truly is hard to lay
the blame for laziness at the feet of entertainment providers. There
have always been plenty of distractions for uncommitted and undisciplined
people. The missing element is commitment on the part of parents and
teachers to sufficiently discipline kids. By discipline, I do not mean
whipping them physically, I mean exercising authority to force, if necessary,
the kids to do the work and to study even the "hard" subjects. The kids
from countries that are running over us are strictly disciplined by
their parents and teachers - it is as simple as that.
Leading
by example is also a good policy to motivate our youngsters - like using
proper grammar (sentence/pargraph structure, punctuation, capitalization,
etc.), even on Internet forums.
_
_________________
- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
Top
mshafer
Post subject: Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 5:12
pm
Colonel
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:49 pm
Posts:
29
Location: Overland Park, Kansas
Kirt - I wouldn't mind giving
my 2 cents based on 10+ years of interviewing RF Engineers (I am an
MSEE and MBA). My opinion can't speak for the entire industry completely,
but hopefully, my comments have a little insight in them that can pertain
someone to many.
The greatest reason why engineers I know loose
their marketability, in my opinion, is that most learn less annually
each year that passes in their career, but their salary expectations
and view of their skills continues to go up.
I don't know if
it's American culture, but it seems most of us once the cash starts
to roll in from our first job, we stop trying to learn at the same rate
we did when we were struggling in engineering school. I too struggle
to keep myself from falling into this downward spiral.
I've had
to hire new grads (best and brightest) and grow them to meet my needs
because interviewing most 7 to 10 year engineers showed they had even
less in-depth knowledge than I could, with much coaching, grow in 18
months in a new grad.
The other thing I've noticed about undergrad
programs is that schools in India really prepare their students well
for careers in RF CDMA/EVDO/System Engineering. Indian schools also
stress presentation and oral comm training far more than it appears
other international schools do, so when their students interview, many
of them score high in the technical knowledge area and ability to articulate.
I have a couple 20+ year CDMA/EVDO Engineers who are invaluable
and highly compensated because they commit themselves for life to intense
learning of the latest and greatest technological changes.
Just
my 2 cents.....
_________________
If you love CDMA, you have
to come join my team!!!!!!!
Posted 11/12/2012
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Copyright: 1996 - 2024
Webmaster:
Kirt
Blattenberger,
BSEE - KB3UON
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
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