Engineering Careers Short-Circuiting

8BitWimp writes "Today's edition of the Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article discussing the current plight of the U.S. engineering profession. One 29-year-old engineer recently caught in Nortel Network's layoffs said "I spent seven years in school, and it resulted in a six-year career." The article goes on to say a California computer science professor has statistics to show that a programmer's career is not much longer than a pro-football player. What do other Slash-Dot readers think of this situation as related to their programming and engineering careers? Would you pursue the same career path again?"

Comments

Re:Engineering is working out fine for me

[Twirlip of the Mists]

The root word of 'engineer' as in the one who creates is not engine, its genius.

Not exactly. The first known use of "engineer" in English was in 1839, meaning "locomotive driver." Another word for "locomotive" was "engine." "Engine" comes from the 13th century Old French word engin, meaning skill or cleverness. This word came to be used to describe any trick or device, particularly in the military sense. ("Siege engine," for example, means any device or tactic used to wage war against a fortified position.) Engin came from the Latin ingenium, meaning inborn qualities or characteristics. Ingenium came from the root word gignere, meaning to beget or give birth to.

"Genius" was first used in English to mean "person of natural intelligence or talent" in 1649. It came through Norman French from the Latin word genius, meaning the guardian deity or spirit which watches over a person from birth. Genius also came from gignere, to beget or give birth to, but in a different way.

Gignere, through various circumlocutions, gave us many modern English words: ingenuity, for example, came from Middle French ingénieux, which came from Latin ingeniosus, meaning of good capacity.

So while the words "engineer" and "genius" are indeed related, you have to go back 2,000 years to an extremely distant root word to find the relation. "Engineer," on the other hand, is a first-order derivative from the mechanical sense of "engine."

Re:Hmm OED has much earlier uses.

[Zeinfeld]

The Royal Corps of Engineers was active in the Napoleonic wars, and long before that (thats circa 1800 for those who don't know history). So the 'engine driver' theory is total rubbish.

The Engineers were responsible for the placement and use of seige engines etc. That profession goes right back to Roman times.

That is why we have 'civil engineering' as a profession, it is civil as in non-military. The Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent engineering institution. It was established in 1818, and today represents almost 80,000 professionally qualified civil engineers worldwide.

A person who drives a train is called a train driver. They are not an engineer unless they are a member of a chartered institution (unlikely unless they drive trains for fun). Equally the guy who fixes your car is a mechanic, not an engineer.