The automation and robotics industry suffers from the forest ranger/ zoo keeper problem. Years ago these jobs paid significantly less than other engineering fields because they were perceived to be more interesting and more enjoyable compared to work in areas such as stress analysis, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, field service, purchasing, and product support. In the 1990's the salaried pay rates were about half what one could earn in the semiconductor capital equipment industry or in aerospace. Zoo keepers and forest rangers have the same problem. There are many people that are willing to do this work for free.
The second problem is the ever shrinking demand for engineers. In the 1970's there were approximately 2 million engineers in the US. Every year about 200,000 new graduates entered the market and pushed out the engineers that were considered too expensive or perceived to be essential. Modern business theory requires that essential employees be eliminated whenever possible. The average career length was 10 years.
Since that time the actual number of engineers in the US has decreased due to industry consolidation and the outsourcing of research and development.
Government statistics still show about 2 million engineering jobs. The number has been inflated by the inclusion of software engineers, application engineers, field service engineers, purchasing engineers, and any other occupation title that has had the engineer label glued on.
A career in automation and robotics is possible if your long term goal is to be a contractor rather than a employee. The process involves hiring in at a company, staying no longer than one project or two years, whichever comes first, and then jumping to the next employer. After about 10 years you will have gained sufficient experience and industry contacts that you will be able to enter the world of the self employed and compete for the outsourced work.
Companies that are cost conscience will outsource their design. build and install automation work rather than maintain a bloated staff of software, electrical, and mechanical engineers. The reason for this is that a successful product or process may have a life of decades. It may only take months to produce a prototype once the need for the product or process is defined. Once this happens the engineering staff is no longer required. You just need a few workers for product support, field service, sales, and incremental improvements.
The salary trends of the 1990's are still true today. It will be worthwhile to look at starting salaries in the oil and gas industry, the semiconductor capital equipment industry, aerospace, and the life style software companies and compare it to the starting salaries offered for automation/controls work at companies such as Caterpillar, Ford, General Electric, or Amazon.
If you would like to get a idea of how insecure a career in engineering is you can spend some time reviewing the posts in one of the layoff websites.
Layoffs Discussion, News and Rumors. Ask, answer, speculate on layoffs in your company...
www.thelayoff.com
There has been one important change in the engineering market over the years. In the distant past the responsibility on who to interview and who to hire was made by department lead engineers. A competent engineer can spot a fraud in minutes.
The common practice today is to assign the hiring responsibility to human resources or program managers. These are people with little or no engineering background. They base the decision to hire on credentials rather than knowledge or skills. Credentials include what school you attended, what you did at your last job, what your previous salary was and whatever pieces of paper you have collected certifying that you have received specialized training. If you want to advance (or survive) in the industry you will need to maintain your credentials even if they seem unimportant.
