Engineer Vs Professional

Q: i was having a late night discussion with the wife last night .. it seems my kid wants to go to engineering school but my wife is pushing him to go to a school and become a professional ( like a doctor, or gulp ... lawyer ) and not "just" an engineer ... she believes that steady employment and respect within the community are strong selling points ... the recent engineering employment situation makes my stand a bit weaker ... just thinking out loud .. mike ( background - after 15 years as a semiconductor process engineer my company is offering me a final 3 months of employment if I am willing to travel to India to train the Indian engineers who will be replacing me in the new company R&D facility there as this good ole American company is shutting the American R&D facility down this spring )

A: -i totally agree with your wife. need to be in a profession that is outsourcing proof, and that you can practice without an employer (with low overhead of going it alone). irax (engineer now, though wish i was a lawyer...) -3 months *employment* ?!?! Are you getting a severance package or just being screwed? If it were me, and I could see a way to survive, I'd just say "go f... yourself", and walk. I did just that in 1969 when Motorola wanted me to lay off some of my engineers. I laid myself off and walked. Then all my guys (engineers and techs) quit and joined me at my new place of employment. Aside: In the greatest of American traditions, semiconductor firm "A....", is laying off workers at American divisions instead of at German divisions. In Germany it takes 6 months notice and a big severance package, so it's cheaper to dump American jobs. The main American division of "A...." is now reduced to a skeleton force. -Take the Indian assignment, train them badly. Put M&Ms in the vacuum pumps, or convince them they need an O2 flush in the tubes instead of N2.

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