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Switching from Comp. Sci. to EE?
kedalion asks: "For the past five years, I've had a good job doing perl programming for the same company but I'm starting to worry. With the current trend in the marketplace to send programming jobs overseas, I'm beginning to wonder if my job will be 'exported' in the near future. With the glut of good programmers out of work, hiring salaries will be depressed as well. About a year ago, I started going back to school to finish my computer science degree. Now, I'm starting to wonder if it would be better to abandon the CS path, and go into either computer or electrical engineering. As an older student, this choice is made even more difficult because I would need to drop to part-time to take an engineering track. Also, I'm concerned that I would only qualify for an entry-level position if I took an engineering job. Anyone have thoughts/suggestions?"
Reuters has an interesting article today on the "popularity" of CS degrees.
High-Tech Degrees Don't Guarantee Jobs
What's so different between what an EE does and what a Software Developer does from a business manager's perspective that they wouldn't offshore that as well.
From what I've seen, there might be more interest in offshoring EE's since they command larger salaries than CS or no major Software Developers. If you want something safe, go into Health Care, sales or politics. Everything that doesn't require your physical presence in the US can and will be offshored without some legislative fix.
Asia has a booming number of Engineers who are doing work that US Engineers used to.
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
I did carpentry for several months after I last the next to last job. It is fun at times and I learned a lot. However I don't want to go back. Every day you are outside doing physical labor. 95 degrees, and you get to run in the sun carrying a heavy load. Then winter comes and you get to truge through a foot of snow when it is -10. (Our cut off for working was -20, and then only because the power tools quit working, humans can work colder than that if they have to)
Bricklayer is worse. Bricks are heavy, and you get to carry them up a ladder, and lay them one at a time. Looks easy enough, but it is hard on the back.
There is a reason most construction crews have a lot of young kids with one old guy watching over it all. The old guy is lucky to have a body that can take it, along with the ability to supervise (He doesn't do quite as much physical labor, but few of the kids will beat him in any move materials race when he puts his mind to it.) The kids still have a young enough body that they can abuse it in the trades. PLumbing and electric seem to be exceptions to this rule, old guys are fairly common in those trades.
I'm not being sexist when I use the term him, and I'm not using it in a gender netural manner. Nearly all the people in construction are men. Genetics means that women cannot keep up hormons (testorosterone?) ensure that they just don't get a body that can do the job. You will see less girls on the job. OTOH, it is a sexy job, so the few girls you do see are staring at you.