DFT Digest

Well, I’m back, after a month of hectic crap that had me going in several other different directions. I still want to do this. I still want to dig into DFT practices, advances in related tools, etc. There’s a lot to talk about. And in my opinion, DFT is still somewhat taken for granted and/or treated as a necessary evil. More on that later…

What got me back to writing here is a subject that I’ve participated in discussions previously, in other forums. Or at least those discussions touched on facets of what I’m currently thinking about here, which is the general fate of the practice of engineering in the United States.

There’s been a thread of discussion taking place, in the form of several letters to the editor of EE Times , on this subject. It seems to have spawned from an EE Times article written, titled U.S. engineering not dead, says panel, wherein a few industry execs poo-pooed the idea that outsourcing is hurting the profession in the US. The letter writers to one degree or another, begged to differ. The thread soon changed it’s name to Who is telling kids to avoid engineering?.

But I think one of the better thought out opinions I’ve read so far is one that posted today.

I’ve had the outsourcing discussion before. Mostly about whether to still be an engineer after 50, and how funny it is to get a call from someone who is obviously an Indian national who introduces themself as “Mark”. I agree outsourcing is going to happen, no matter what. I also agree that trying to artifically prop up US engineering jobs by controlling H1-Bs is nonsnese. Propping up any industry, IMHO, is a disaster of agricultural dimensions, if ya know what I mean…

But that bit about “Would you tell your children to get a job in engineering?”, well that’s another, more deeply personal question. I might advise my child about careers if I was ever home long enough from my job to talk to her Actually that question really is “Would you do it over again?” I would, but maybe differently (maybe I shoulda woulda gotten that MBA?). I do regret what the tech bubble did to the industry by creating a handful of insta-millionaires, and legions of those that think that’s what we all deserve. Before that we were all just engineers playing with techie stuff, and looking forward to that yearly raise. Now we’re all working for startups, getting paid minimally, looking forward to our millions…

What say you?