ARE you an engineer? Are you happy? Well you should be, according to two surveys published last year. The City & Guilds Happiness Index, which is compiled to track the satisfaction of the UK鈥檚 workforce, found that chartered engineers are the happiest professionals around. When it comes to job satisfaction, they beat lawyers, scientists, architects and accountants. This career contentment is echoed in a report from the Training and Development Agency for Schools that found the graduates least bored with their jobs work in engineering and healthcare.
It can be hard to convince outsiders that engineering is a worthwhile profession, however. Perhaps that鈥檚 because the name 鈥渆ngineer鈥� has come to be attached with men (rarely women) in overalls, fixing phones or mending bits of machinery. It鈥檚 a familiar story for engineers: you are at a dinner party or family gathering and someone asks you what you do. When you tell them, their eyes glaze over and they quickly change the subject.
This wouldn鈥檛 happen in much of the rest of Europe, where the perception of engineers is quite different. In Germany, France and Italy, for example, engineers are respected in the same way as doctors or lawyers, and engineering is associated with ingenuity, hard work and intelligence.
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鈥淚n some European countries, engineering is thought of as the top job,鈥� says Barry Cleasby of the UK鈥檚 Engineering and Technology Board (ETB). 鈥淭here is a standard that is maintained by all engineers. In Germany, for example, you have to be registered with an institution in order to practise as an engineer, rather as doctors in the UK have to be registered with the General Medical Council. You can be struck off for malpractice. This again helps to raise the public鈥檚 perception of engineers.鈥�
It鈥檚 a similar story in Italy, according to Aeneas Massara, a British engineer who spent a year working there. 鈥淵ou get a lot of respect and even a title, like in Germany. They call you Engineer Massara, instead of Mr Massara.鈥�
British engineers can take some solace from the fact that their American colleagues suffer from a similar negative public perception. In the US, scientists are thought of as more prestigious than engineers, according to the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). A survey last year showed that the public perceives engineers as 鈥渂uilding and planning鈥� rather than 鈥渋nventing, discovering, researching or pioneering鈥� as scientists do. In the American public mind, engineers don鈥檛 save lives, don鈥檛 work in space, and they are not involved in creating innovative materials. Clearly both nations have work to do on improving the public image of engineers (see 鈥淐hanging perceptions鈥�).
So why are UK engineers so happy with their lot? Salary is the obvious first place to look, and the pay of a British engineer appears competitive. The average salary for a chartered engineer in the UK is an impressive 拢53,000, according to the ETB鈥檚 2005 Survey of Registered Engineers (see Graph). 鈥淚 think this figure is higher than most people would have expected and shows how well engineers in the UK can earn,鈥� Cleasby says. 鈥淲e are very pleased with the increase in engineers鈥� salaries since 1995鈥his is a result of companies waking up to the fact that we are in a global marketplace, and that in order to keep their best engineers they have to offer competitive salaries.鈥�
Cleasby recognises, however, that the vast majority of the survey鈥檚 respondents were over 45 years old; chartered engineers in their 30s would be lucky to be earning this kind of money. Nevertheless, starting salaries for engineers are comparable to, and often beat, those in law, accountancy or IT, according to Association of Graduate Recruiters (see Chart). Chemical engineers are the highest-paid graduates of all the engineering disciplines, closely followed by mechanical and electronic engineers. A chemical engineering graduate can expect their salary to at least double over 20 years, and the median salary is 拢40,000, according to the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). 鈥淭here are relatively fewer chemical engineering graduates, compared with the rest of engineering, and demand is high at the moment, especially in the oil, gas and process industries,鈥� Cleasby says.
聯In Italy a slightly higher salary leaves you with less buying power than a similar job in the UK聰
Despite salary hikes in the past decade, there remains a widespread perception among UK engineers that they are paid less than engineers abroad, according to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This observation came from a review panel of 26 prominent industry and academic engineers from the US, Europe and Asia who were invited by the EPSRC to assess the quality of engineering research in the UK. The delegates were impressed by what they saw, but lamented that engineering, computer and materials researchers around the country complained of lower pay compared with other industrialised countries. Whether this view is accurate or ill-founded, the UK engineering sector should take steps to address the perception of low pay to avoid a graduate brain drain overseas, the panel concluded.
The validity of this view is, it turns out, tricky to prove. It may be straightforward to compare individual salaries like for like, but factors such as cost of living, tax and social security will determine if an engineer really is better off in another country. The net salary and relative buying power better reflect how well off somebody will be in a new location. In Italy, for example, a marginally higher gross salary leaves you with less buying power than you would have in a similar job in the UK, according to an international salary survey carried out this year by human resources consultancy ECA International. Unless engineers pick their location wisely, they could find themselves worse off than they would be back home.
Massara, who is now a product engineer at Cambridge Silicon Radio, developing single-chip wireless devices for mobile phones, found little to tempt him to go abroad again when he looked at jobs in a number of European countries. UK salaries, he discovered, matched those he saw in Europe. 鈥淭here were plenty of job opportunities for me here and I am very happy with my salary at the moment,鈥� he says.
Massara鈥檚 electronics skills could have landed him a highly paid job in the US, but those jobs tend to be in Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is also higher. While UK salaries have a long way to go to match the US, he feels the gap in real terms is narrowing. 鈥淚n the UK we are heading towards the American working model, where there is a high staff turnover and companies offer high salaries to try and attract and keep staff.鈥�
A recent salary survey of chemical engineers revealed a similar picture. The median salary for a US chemical engineer is $92,150 (拢50,200), according to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers鈥� 2005 salary survey. This is 拢10,000 more than the UK median salary, but take a closer look and it appears that some UK engineers are starting to earn a comparable wage. For the age range 46 to 50, for example, the median salary in the US is $105,000 (拢57,000), only 拢3000 more than the median salary in the UK for the same age range.
Rosemary Harper, a 28-year-old manufacturing process engineer at chemical company Solvay in Warrington, Cheshire, earns nearly 拢35,000, a figure she says she would struggle to find elsewhere. But pay isn鈥檛 everything, and she cites other factors as the reason she chose the UK after graduating as a chemical engineer in New Zealand. 鈥淭he real advantages for me are the conditions here in the UK,鈥� Harper says. 鈥淚 get more holidays, a better pension and have more opportunities to develop within the industry.鈥� She believes that young engineers rate promotion prospects, challenging work and training just as highly as the salary offered.
聯In the UK, I get more holidays, a better pension and more opportunities to develop聰
This may be at the root of why UK engineers seem so content with their careers. While those prepared to travel can no doubt find better pay, engineers have chosen to follow their careers in the UK despite the drawbacks. Their positive outlook can be traced back to when they left university, Cleasby says. 鈥淚f you鈥檝e become an engineer鈥ou may have turned down city job offers with high salaries in order to go into engineering and actually apply the knowledge you have gained at university,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his means you are more likely to be happier in your job, because it is something you really want to do and you are not just doing it for the money.鈥�
So while UK engineers have to cope with the occasional frustrating dinner party conversation and a salary that could probably be bettered, the range of opportunities and the challenging work that engineering can provide mean that UK engineers should be very happy people indeed. Go on, smile.
Changing perceptions
A misguided public image of UK engineering doesn鈥檛 just dent the vanity of today鈥檚 engineers; it puts at risk the future of the profession by potentially cutting down the flow of new graduates. For now, there is no shortage of students choosing engineering at university, but just because there are a large number of engineering graduates, that does not mean there are a large number of engineers, says Barry Cleasby of the UK鈥檚 Engineering and Technology Board. Many engineering graduates are being drawn to city or finance jobs, he says, where the high starting salaries soon quash any dreams the students had of becoming an engineer.
鈥淥nly around 40 per cent of engineering graduates actually go into engineering,鈥� Cleasby says. 鈥淲hen you are an engineering graduate with huge debts, it is hard to turn down a 拢45,000 job offer from a finance company that is willing to pay that amount of money for graduates with logical thinking and problem-solving skills.鈥�
In Germany and many other European countries it is almost inconceivable not to practise as an engineer after studying the subject. It takes around seven years to qualify as an engineer in Germany 鈥� around the same time it takes to become a doctor, an architect, a vet or a lawyer. This may be one reason engineers get the same level of admiration and respect as doctors.
But in the UK, it is possible to qualify as an engineer in only three years, and public regard for the profession is correspondingly lower. Chartered engineer status is the closest thing the UK has to the German system, but only around 20 per cent of engineers have trained for it, Cleasby says. 鈥淓ncouraging more engineers to take up chartered status could raise the profile of engineering,鈥� he says. 鈥淕etting chartered status should be seen as an investment, but it is only the larger firms that tend to offer this to their employees.鈥�
Universities are taking steps in the right direction, however, and are now offering four-year MEng courses to bring the UK closer into line with the five-year European courses. In addition, increasing numbers of UK engineering graduates are studying for higher qualifications after their bachelor鈥檚 degree. There has been a 400 per cent increase in the number of engineering master鈥檚 and PhD degrees completed in the last 10 years, and around 20 per cent of engineering and technology undergraduates now go on to do a master鈥檚 degree, more than with most other subjects.
鈥淭he increase in higher degree completions in engineering and technology can be seen as one of the most important trends in engineering education,鈥� Cleasby says. 鈥淭his means a better-qualified workforce, which can only have a positive effect on UK plc.鈥�
However, employers need to do more to reward those with higher academic qualifications to ensure the trend continues. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has expressed concern over the employment potential of students with higher degrees. Graduates with PhDs and master鈥檚 degrees perceive no additional advantage from their qualifications when applying for jobs in industry, according to a report on UK engineering research published earlier this year.
This certainly appears to be the case in chemical engineering. In fact, when directly comparing age groups, chemical engineers with a bachelor鈥檚 degree tend to earn more than those with higher qualifications, according to the Institution of Chemical Engineers. In a survey this year, the IChemE found that chemical engineers with PhDs earn less than their BEng colleagues of the same age, and those with master鈥檚 degrees do only slightly better than that. Graduates with higher qualifications are likely to catch up later in their careers, but the expense of extra years of study with no clear advantage in the industry may deter graduates from taking up higher qualifications in the first place.
Cleasby accepts that making the changes needed to shift the public image of engineers will not be easy, and will take time to have an effect. 鈥淐hanging the public鈥檚 perception of engineers and engineering will take a major economic change in manufacturing in the UK to bring it in line with countries such as Germany. But that is not going to happen overnight.鈥�