I/EC
The Professional Side
The Rapid Obsolescence of Engineers Some excerpts from recent want ads: Rapidly growing chemical company: " . . . P r e f e r young man under 3 0 years of a g e Chemical giant: " . . . Prefer age 2 5 to 3 0 Large rubber company: " . . . . 0 to 5 years' experience for junior chemist Apparatus manufacturer: " . . . .If you are between 2 5 and 35 Such ads are certainly indicative of the early obsolescence of engineers. Frank M. Tiller, Dean of Engineering, University of Houston, thinks the situation could adversely affect the reputation of the engineering profession in about 1 5 years.
V Y ANTED—engineers under 35. This seems to be the sign of the times, and a sign which provokes the question: " D o engineers become obsolete like a machine or a piece of equipment?" Before discussing this question, the term obsolescent should be defined. Applied to a machine or a piece of equipment, the term indicates that the machine has depreciated because of newer inventions. An obsolescent engineer, contrasted with a dynamic worker, permits his engineering foundation to deteriorate until he ceases to be able to solve significant scientific problems in a satisfactory manner. There are no doubt many factors responsible for this lack of demand for "older" men. Many companies prefer to hire younger men because they don't have to pay the high starting salaries commanded by older and more experienced engineers. Then too, some companies think it is easier to mold a younger man's ideas and philosophies to conform to the company's way of thinking. Both of these thoughts are not entirely justified. In the first place, the older and more experienced engineers will, in most cases, contribute more to the growth of the company and will not cost nearly so much to train as an inexperienced man. In the second place, no company can expect to remain healthy for long if the employees, especially the engineers, are not independent thinkers. Prob-
ably some of the policies toward older men have been determined by the large numbers of young men graduated in recent years. Many concerns, finding a substantial portion of their engineering staff to be under 35 years of age, establish their policies according to the needs of these men. However, we must keep in mind that in another 15 years the 25- to 30-year old will be in the 40to 45-year old bracket. The eventual result of not employing men past 35 will be the immobilization of engineers over 40. Do engineers continue the learning process after graduation? A great many do not. This is another reason why engineers contribute to their own rapid obsolescence by the time they are 35. If one relies solely on his undergraduate training, he can hardly be considered a well-trained engineer today. This does not mean to imply that everyone should be constantly attending night school and taking graduate courses, but it does mean that the engineer has an obligation to himself and his profession to keep abreast of latest developments in his own and related fields. The dynamic engineer increases his knowledge, and by so doing, his worth to his company. Engineers, when touched by obsolescence are inclined to say, " I never used any calculus in my work so why should I . . ." or, "You don't get ahead by knowing mathe-
Frank M. Tiller received his bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. In between degrees, he had a variety of industrial positions, and after leaving Cincinnati, he taught for 9 years in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He left Vanderbilt to become Dean of Engineering at Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Tex., and director of the Lamar Research Center. After 4 years at Lamar, he assumed his present position at the University of Houston. Dr. Tiller has done consulting and research with a number of companies, is a member of ACS, AIChE, ASEE, and other technical groups, and has won awards for excellence in technical writing. He is very much interested in the continuous learning process.
matics because the real money is in sales or management." These are the remarks of men who are becoming outdated as true engineers. Oliver Heavyside's quotation concerning the first chapter of his book on electromagnetic theory is worthy of note: " T h e first chapter will, I believe, be found easy to read and may perhaps be useful to men who are accustomed to show that they are practical by exhibiting their ignorance of mathematical methods of inquiry. We cannot all be Newtons or Laplaces, but that there is an immense amount of moderate mathematical talent lying latent in the average man, I regard as a fact." A result of engineers' not continuing self-education after their graduation is apparent in the topics which are scheduled for meetings of technical groups. Regularly, program VOL. 48, NO. 12
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DECEMBER 1956
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