This is terrible news. I feel bad for anyone starting off their careers in engineering fields. I hope I can make it 10-15 more years. There's only going to be a few major companies left or you'll have to get on engineering welfare (DoD work). The only problem is the DoD will have to buy all it's technology from Asia. This is the white collar equivalent of all the steel mills in town shutting down.
Unless you are at a company like GE or Boeing (which is in of itself in a risky position right now) the broad engineering field never really guaranteed a long-term position at a single employer. Even the public sector, long considered a mainstay for job security, has very high turnover of engineering talent (I used to work at Argonne National Labs as an intern for 3 years while at University of Chicago for my EE) and everybody I knew there had moved around only a few years later, including my old boss who essentially built the department I worked in. That was a combination federally funded\education funded department so there were numerous grants to fall back on from both sides if funding came up short.
The fact of the matter is engineers don't really 'like' to stay in one place. The mindset of an engineer is perpetual curiosity, and they will inherently get board at some point if they aren't able to flex their mind muscles on diverse projects.
Which is why I said the exception were mega-engineering houses like GE and aerospace, because there is such a vast spectrum of engineering diversity that you could likely move around to different projects within your realm of expertise, instead of designing one type of thing over and over again for decades like you will at, say, Ford, as a materials engineer, electrical engineer, etc, where you have little freedom to make your job exciting.
That’s a good point but it’s still bad no matter how you look at it. If you’re a skilled IC designer looking to bounce around and get good work you’ve lost a lot of options the past few years. If your resume is so-so and you were just hoping for job security, then your services are no longer needed. We used to have a lot of great small companies in my area during the cellular boom. Everyone bounced around every few years and got great pay. It’s pretty much all gone and I’d say 90% of the EE’s in the area are now working for the taxpayer in one form or another. This pace of consolidation is not a good sign.
"The fact of the matter is engineers don't really 'like' to stay in one place."
Not quite correct...Engineers are willing to stay in one place but the glass ceiling is hit pretty quickly. If an engineer wants to move up or make more money they quite often have to move on. A lot of it is the personality type (see Meyers-Briggs, DISC or whatever) and management does not understand what makes engineers "tick". Many companies are willing to hire fresh grads at exorbitant salaries but step on the incumbents. Take away the incentives and the engineer will move on. Note: I am a 35+ Year Chemical Engineer on my 12th or 13th job...Some I have moved on by choice and some not by choice.
I saw this as an eventuality in the mid-late 2000s when I was in school... decided to switch out of EE. My only regret was wasting a year in that track.
I agree with all points here. I guess naturally anybody would like the security of employment as long as they are happy. But as stated, that glass ceiling. Few engineering houses have the scale to accommodate. And most certainly few companies understand engineer mindset, which is why they are most often happiest as median-income positions in education where they have a LOT of freedom and little micromanagement.
In reply to drexnx, having an EE in the USA is difficult, because rudimentary designs are outsourced to India and China, and complex designs are often a one and done project that doesn't occur enough at one company to keep engineers on staff.
Which is why I've been a consultant for over a decade. I bid out my talent as needed and have on rotation about 20 companies throughout Chicago that call me when they 'need something done' or need assistance with a design, often overseeing or tweaking a design built by younger engineers who no longer have the mentor-ship they would have traditionally received previously through companies. As JCB stated, incumbents are cast aside and they (we) are incredibly important to bring the missing experience of problem solving and legacy design talent to the table, both things obviously fresh grads lack.
We've seen what happens when vertical/horizontal integrations happen at markets with reduced number of relevant players. If left to their own cross-eyed devices, SarahKerrigan's point could be just one of many undesirable potential effects, including product's price increase, innovation stall, product diversity (and their applicable solutions) reduction. Which might have additional effects in other industries and markets... Some technological sectors affect economic and entrepreneurial multipliers deep in, this might be the case.
This is happening in every field, every company. There is just no more room left with all of the consolidation going on. Thank god I only need to earn good money for 5 more years... and it will honestly be some of the toughest 5 years. I'll sell hotdogs at 55.... done with all things computer and engineering.
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Oxygen12 - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
No editor on this one?"the main the main"
and
"The new consolidated Analog Devices and Maxim Integrated entity will have the breath to compete against big players such as Texas Instruments."
"Breath"? Really?
drexnx - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
probably meant "breadth"Ryan Smith - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
Right you are! Thanks!Zingam - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
The grammar police got you arrested! You are dead! Game over!GreenReaper - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
Breath of the Wired.webdoctors - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
Wow, crazy big news. That's gonna really reduce the number of big players in the analog IC market. Wonder if regulators will signoff on it.SarahKerrigan - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
Wonder if we'll see another layoff bloodbath at ADI like after Hittite was bought.flgt - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
This is terrible news. I feel bad for anyone starting off their careers in engineering fields. I hope I can make it 10-15 more years. There's only going to be a few major companies left or you'll have to get on engineering welfare (DoD work). The only problem is the DoD will have to buy all it's technology from Asia. This is the white collar equivalent of all the steel mills in town shutting down.Samus - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
Unless you are at a company like GE or Boeing (which is in of itself in a risky position right now) the broad engineering field never really guaranteed a long-term position at a single employer. Even the public sector, long considered a mainstay for job security, has very high turnover of engineering talent (I used to work at Argonne National Labs as an intern for 3 years while at University of Chicago for my EE) and everybody I knew there had moved around only a few years later, including my old boss who essentially built the department I worked in. That was a combination federally funded\education funded department so there were numerous grants to fall back on from both sides if funding came up short.The fact of the matter is engineers don't really 'like' to stay in one place. The mindset of an engineer is perpetual curiosity, and they will inherently get board at some point if they aren't able to flex their mind muscles on diverse projects.
Which is why I said the exception were mega-engineering houses like GE and aerospace, because there is such a vast spectrum of engineering diversity that you could likely move around to different projects within your realm of expertise, instead of designing one type of thing over and over again for decades like you will at, say, Ford, as a materials engineer, electrical engineer, etc, where you have little freedom to make your job exciting.
flgt - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
That’s a good point but it’s still bad no matter how you look at it. If you’re a skilled IC designer looking to bounce around and get good work you’ve lost a lot of options the past few years. If your resume is so-so and you were just hoping for job security, then your services are no longer needed. We used to have a lot of great small companies in my area during the cellular boom. Everyone bounced around every few years and got great pay. It’s pretty much all gone and I’d say 90% of the EE’s in the area are now working for the taxpayer in one form or another. This pace of consolidation is not a good sign.JCB994 - Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - link
"The fact of the matter is engineers don't really 'like' to stay in one place."Not quite correct...Engineers are willing to stay in one place but the glass ceiling is hit pretty quickly. If an engineer wants to move up or make more money they quite often have to move on. A lot of it is the personality type (see Meyers-Briggs, DISC or whatever) and management does not understand what makes engineers "tick". Many companies are willing to hire fresh grads at exorbitant salaries but step on the incumbents. Take away the incentives and the engineer will move on. Note: I am a 35+ Year Chemical Engineer on my 12th or 13th job...Some I have moved on by choice and some not by choice.
drexnx - Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - link
I saw this as an eventuality in the mid-late 2000s when I was in school... decided to switch out of EE. My only regret was wasting a year in that track.Samus - Wednesday, July 15, 2020 - link
I agree with all points here. I guess naturally anybody would like the security of employment as long as they are happy. But as stated, that glass ceiling. Few engineering houses have the scale to accommodate. And most certainly few companies understand engineer mindset, which is why they are most often happiest as median-income positions in education where they have a LOT of freedom and little micromanagement.In reply to drexnx, having an EE in the USA is difficult, because rudimentary designs are outsourced to India and China, and complex designs are often a one and done project that doesn't occur enough at one company to keep engineers on staff.
Which is why I've been a consultant for over a decade. I bid out my talent as needed and have on rotation about 20 companies throughout Chicago that call me when they 'need something done' or need assistance with a design, often overseeing or tweaking a design built by younger engineers who no longer have the mentor-ship they would have traditionally received previously through companies. As JCB stated, incumbents are cast aside and they (we) are incredibly important to bring the missing experience of problem solving and legacy design talent to the table, both things obviously fresh grads lack.
Nexing - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
We've seen what happens when vertical/horizontal integrations happen at markets with reduced number of relevant players.If left to their own cross-eyed devices, SarahKerrigan's point could be just one of many undesirable potential effects, including product's price increase, innovation stall, product diversity (and their applicable solutions) reduction. Which might have additional effects in other industries and markets... Some technological sectors affect economic and entrepreneurial multipliers deep in, this might be the case.
HardwareDufus - Monday, July 13, 2020 - link
This is happening in every field, every company. There is just no more room left with all of the consolidation going on. Thank god I only need to earn good money for 5 more years... and it will honestly be some of the toughest 5 years. I'll sell hotdogs at 55.... done with all things computer and engineering.mikestefoy - Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - link
you should have mentioned analog swallowing Linear Technology las year. This is a bad move for the Analog industry