Analysis of a Sample of Engineering Job Advertisements

ENES 100G - Section 0102
GEMSTONE
Introduction to Engineering Design


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In our class meeting on Friday, Sept. 5, groups of students summarized 20 randomly-selected engineering job advertisements from August 1997 issues of The Washington Post. Dr. Brubaker assembled the data . On Wed., Sept. 10, students worked in pairs to examine different fields of the database and make some statements about engineering jobs. The following are the class's findings:

Job Title, Salary, and Sector

  • Heavily imbalanced toward Electrical/Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
  • The private sector dominates over public sector in terms of numbers.
  • Ads don't give numbers for salary.
  • Although they avoid giving $ figures, they still make the jobs look attractive.
  • The only salary given as actual $ figures is a 1st-year Fire Protection Engineer (Public sector), and the salary is high for entry-level.
  • More competitive jobs have higher salaries.

    Job Duties

  • Many involve designing, supporting, etc. electrical/electronic systems.
  • Duties are diverse, including studying law, surveying, and semiconductors.
  • Work with people and work with things.
  • Cover a range, from development & design through support and service.
  • This set of jobs reflects more hands-on, less management, work.

    Requirements

  • Generally require B.S. at least.
  • Generally require 2 or 3 years experience, at least.
  • Proficiency with people and things.
  • Many list specific software applications.
  • Professional certification.


    Comments: Even from this small sample, the students were able to extract some important knowledge about Engineering practice. If I were to repeat the exercise, I would have them work in smaller groups -- probably pairs -- for the data collection; it was not an appropriate task for a group of 4 or 6. Also, more and smaller groups could have collected a larger sample. The raw data are available as a MicroSoft Access Database, Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and MS Excel Spreadsheet. Please contact me if interested. KB

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    by Kaye Brubaker
    Last Modified 13 September 1997