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PCBD-Aug2015

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60 The PCB Design Magazine • August 2015 If you want the best you have to compete for the best. It is not just a cost of doing business; it is the cost of survival. engineering companies do all the heavy lifting to generate steM graduates. Why just let these other industries pick off the cream of the crop? a good competitive starting pay will pay many dividends later in their careers. " " they are keeping their cost low by using North American contractors. They are weighing the cost of doing business due to longer logistics lines that cross multiple time zones and lan- guages. Many of these companies are bringing the design and manufacturing back in house. One company that recently announced this move is General Motors. Earlier this year, GM announced that they would be closing some of their design centers in Asia, and the compa- ny is now planning to rebuild that capability in Michigan. Many have speculat- ed that this move was brought on by all of GM's recalls. GM cannot afford any more bad publicity. One avionics company set up a R&D center in Asia to cut engineering costs. They now are seeing higher costs because of poor quality work and the need to redo many designs. Their customers are now start- ing to feel the difference and the supplier is now wondering if the move was correct and is bringing more critical work back to the US. How can the engineer- ing community attract good young engineers? It starts at the K-12 level. Scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians (STEM) need to be seen as the cool kids once again. (I'm showing my age now.) In the '50s and '60s, when the U.S. was in the race to beat the USSR to the moon, science was cool. All the boys wanted to be an astronaut or a rocket scientist. Universities were graduating STEM-related majors left and right. After we landed on the moon and the USSR did not, interest waned and the perceived need for STEM graduates diminished. Marketing and ac- counting became the hot majors in the '70s and '80s, and these graduates took over corporate America. By the '90s, the move to subcontract- ing manufacturing was well on its way. Since the beginning of the century, offshore contract- ing has taken over. A Way Forward Since 2006, there has been a realization that the STEM-related majors need more emphasis. Politicians are touting STEM programs in K-12 education. The good news is that it is starting to work. The other good news is that more and more young women are getting into STEM ma- jors due to these new policies. So how do we keep these young engineers interested in staying engineers? First, start with good pay. Companies need to realize they are not competing against other engi- neering companies. Young STEM graduates are attractive to Wall Street, marketing, and law firms. If you want the best you have to compete for the best. It is not just a cost of doing busi- ness; it is the cost of survival. Engineering companies do all the heavy lifting to generate STEM graduates. Why just let these other industries pick off the cream of the crop? A good competitive starting pay will pay many dividends later in their careers. Treat these young people as the adults they are, but rec- ognize that they are not 45 years old with two kids and a mortgage. Know what keeps the interest of millennials. This is very important. Recent- ly, a young aerospace engineer whom I know left a Fortune 100 aerospace company and then a small engineering company for a young management software company. Why wasn't the big Fortune 100 Company able to keep this engineer? He didn't see his usefulness at the big company and didn't see being compensated in the near term. He saw he was worth more to the young upcoming software company and now he is be- ing compensated for his worth. Once the engineer is hired, the way to keep them is to talk to them. Not just the HR man- ager, but his immediate manager and his boss should get to know the young engineer. This should not be just a one-time meeting, but a TRAINING THE NExT-GENERATION ENGINEER: WHEN DOES IT BEGIN AND END? continues article

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