Even Tech Execs Can't Get Kids To Be Engineers
Vinod Dham is among a growing number of technology executives warning that the U.S. faces an engineer shortage. To stay globally competitive, he says, the nation must do better at steering its youth toward engineering careers. Mr. Dham knows how hard that is: He can't persuade his own kids to go into engineering.
The 54-year-old Mr. Dham would seem to be a prime role model. His engineering degree lifted him from his humble origins in India into a 16-year career at Intel Corp., where he became well-known for helping create the Pentium chip. His older son, 22-year-old Ankush, is studying economics, and that's fine with Mr. Dham, who says he couldn't get him interested enough to develop the rigor required for engineering. But ever since his younger son, 19-year-old Rajeev, was a boy, Mr. Dham has been urging him to pursue engineering -- and he, too, is going into economics. Rajeev "doesn't want to do electrical engineering," the elder Mr. Dham laments. "He tells me the job will be outsourced."
Silicon Valley is doing a lot of hand-wringing these days about a coming engineer shortage. Tech leaders such as Cisco Systems Inc.'s John Chambers and Stanford University President John Hennessey warn that the U.S. will lose its edge without homegrown talent. The U.S. now ranks 17th world-wide in the number of undergraduate engineers and natural scientists it produces, they point out; that's down from 1975, when the U.S. was No. 3 (after Japan and Finland).
But some of the nation's tech elite -- including many immigrants who benefited greatly from engineering careers -- are finding even their own children shun engineering. One oft-cited reason: concern that dad and his contemporaries will ship such jobs overseas.
Venture capitalist Promod Haque, for example, is in an ironic bind when it comes to advising his own kids. Like many other Silicon Valley financiers, Mr. Haque has recently begun funding tech start-ups in India and urging U.S. tech entrepreneurs to outsource from the start by forming companies that split operations between the U.S. and India. Mr. Haque chuckles about a recent dinner conversation with his college-age daughter, who he hoped would go into engineering just as he did. "She said, 'Dad, I'm not going to take any more computer-science classes,' " he recalls. "I asked her why. She looked at me straight and said, 'I don't want to go to India to get a job.' "
Experts cite a variety of other reasons for the U.S.'s engineer shortage, including poor math and science curricula in public schools. And there is also a persistent image problem. A recent study of 2,800 of Silicon Valley's youth by consultants A.T. Kearney found that 73% were familiar with high-tech careers but only 32% wanted to pursue them. In describing tech careers, students in the study used a variety of unflattering terms, including "intimidating" and "uninteresting." Others said they considered engineers to be "socially awkward" or "obsessed with work." Some female respondents linked computer engineering with work that is "tedious" or "antisocial."
That was the case for Susan Mason's two stepdaughters, Alexandra and Joanna. Ms. Mason, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with a background in computer engineering, says she urged the girls to consider engineering when they were in high school. They ignored her advice: Alexandra became an audiologist and Joanna went into nursing.
"They felt that engineering was too solitary, even if they were working in a team environment," Ms. Mason recalls. "They wanted to have more interactions with people on a 'human' level," she says.
Ms. Mason recalls one talk where she and her husband warned the girls: "You understand you are taking the vow of poverty here? You know there is a big money delta here." The irony, she says, is that many young people in the Valley can opt for less lucrative professions because their engineering parents have done so well.
C.L. Max Nikias, dean of the University of Southern California's engineering school, says another problem is that colleges aren't able to keep students in the field who show initial interest: About 120,000 students start off in engineering in U.S. colleges and universities, but only half ever earn an engineering degree. Mr. Nikias has set up programs at USC -- including an updated curriculum and a career-oriented speakers program -- that are helping to retain students, he says.
But things haven't worked as well at home. Mr. Nikias's daughter, now a 20-year-old junior at USC, initially appeared to heed her father's advice that she become an engineer. Georgiana Nikias is good at math and science. Early in college she took six core classes that engineering students take at USC.
But then she ditched engineering for an English major. "In engineering, you truly have a chance to invent something or push society forward technologically," she says, but "I didn't love it enough to make a huge difference in that field." She wants to write science fiction, instead, or maybe go into law.
Mr. Nikias strongly supports women who pursue engineering degrees. So he felt that "if she trained in this profession, the sky would be the limit in terms of opportunities." he says. "I did try. [But] I'm not a good example of farming my own kids into the profession."
Kanwal Rekhi, a graduate of India's Institute of Technology and former chief technology officer at Novell Inc., says he very much wanted his son to become an engineer. But his son ignored his urgings, saying he thought the work would be too tedious. He graduated from film school instead. Mr. Rekhi says he also tried to persuade his 16 nieces and nephews to go into engineering. He even offered to tutor some of them in math. Not one took him up on that. "They said it was too hard," he says.
For Mr. Dham's younger son, the California lifestyle that an engineering career brought the family is one reason he is spurning engineering. Rajeev Dham worries that an engineering career these days might take him out of the state as outsourcing erodes engineering jobs there. "One of my older cousins is an engineer, and he was shipped out to Cleveland, where it's snowing and stuff," he says. "Obviously that factors into people's decisions. People who live in California want to stay in California, you know."
美国面临工科人才荒
越来越多的科技业管理人士警告说美国面临著工科人才匮乏的现象，维诺德?达姆(Vinod Dham)便是其中的一员。他表示，为了保持全球竞争力，美国必须下更大的力气引导年轻人走上从事工程学的职业生涯。但他也知道实现这种转变有多大的难度，因为他有亲身体会──他无法说服自己的孩子学习工科。
现年54岁的达姆其实就是一个十分理想的榜样。凭借工科文凭，他从一个印度贫民变成了一名在英特尔(Intel)工作了16年的员工。他因参与奔腾芯片的设计工作而声名鹊起。他的长子、现年22岁的安库什(Ankush)正在修习经济学课程。达姆说，读经济学也是个不错的选择，因为他无法让安库什养成学习工科所必需的严谨态度。在他的小儿子、现年19岁的拉杰夫(Rajeev)还是个孩子时，他就一直督促拉杰夫读工科。但让达姆失望的是拉杰夫也准备学习经济学。达姆感叹说，“拉杰夫对电子工程学就是提不起精神来。他告诉我，这个行业迟早会被外包出去。”
近些日子来，工科人才紧缺现象的迫近令矽谷人士寝食难安。科技业的领军人物，如思科系统(Cisco Systems Inc.)的钱伯斯(John Chambers)和斯坦福大学(Stanford University)校长亨尼西(John Hennessey)等人都警告说，如果本土人才紧缺的话，按么美国将失去科技优势。他们指出，美国培养的工科本科毕业生和自然科学家的数量在全球居于第十七位，而在1975年时美国还排名第三，仅次于日本和芬兰。
但美国的一些科技精英，其中包括众多从工程学职业生涯中受益匪浅的移民现在发现，就连他们自己的孩子都不愿意读工科。这些孩子经常挂在嘴边的一个理由是：他们的父辈最终会把工科职位都转移到海外去。
例如，风险投资家汉克(Promod Haque)在为他自己的孩子提供人生规划建议时就感到左右为难。和矽谷其他金融家一样，汉克最近也开始向印度的初创企业提供融资，还敦促美国科技业的企业家们从一开始就把业务外包出去，比如说，可以分别在美国和印度组建公司，然后按照业务进行不同的分工。汉克谈到了近期和他准备上大学的女孩的一次谈话。汉克希望他的女儿像他一样就读于工科院校，但他的女儿这样回答道，“爸爸，我再也不想学习电脑课程了，因为我不想为了就业而跑到印度去。”
专家们表示，美国工科人才匮乏是由于公立学校对数学及自然科学不够重视等多种原因造成的。此外，形象问题也是原因之一。科尔尼管理顾问有限公司(A.T. Kearney, Inc.)近期对2,800名矽谷的青年作了一项调查，结果发现73%的受访者熟悉高科技事业，但只有32%的受访者愿意投身于高科技行业。学生们用了一系列不敢恭维的词语来形容科技事业，如“令人望而却步”、“索然无味”等。有一些学生认为，工程师们“不懂社交”、“工作起来就像个狂人”，还有一些女学生甚至认为电脑工程师的工作“单调乏味”、甚至是“危害社会”。
苏姗?马素(Susan Mason)的两个继女亚丽桑德拉(Alexandra)和乔安娜(Joanna)的情况就是这样。主修过电脑工程、曾在硅谷从事风险投资工作的马素说，两个女儿上高中时，她曾劝她们考虑学工科，但她们对她的劝告不以为然：亚丽桑德拉后来成了一名听力矫正专家，乔安娜从事护理工作。
马素回忆说，她们认为学工科太寂寞，即使是在一个团队里工作也会这样；她们都希望从事与人交往更多的工作。
马素还记得当时她和丈夫是如何提醒这两个女儿的：他们说，你们知道自己是在选择贫穷吗？知道吗，（照你们的想法）以后赚钱会成问题。具有讽刺意味的是，硅谷的许多年轻人都会选择不那么有“钱”途的职业，因为从事工程职业的父母已经挣了很多钱了。
南卡罗来纳大学工程学院院长尼克斯(C.L. Max Nikias)说，另外一个问题是，学校很难将起初表现出一定兴趣的学生留住：美国各大学和学院中入学时选择工科专业的学生大约有120,000人，但其中大约只有一半最后能拿到学位。他说，他在南卡大学设立了两个项目，包括一个继续教育课程和一个讲座课程，希望能有助于留住学生。
但尼克斯在自己家里却遇到了困难。他的女儿乔治亚娜(Georgiana)今年20岁，是南卡大学低年级学生，起初她似乎很愿意听从父亲的建议学习工程。她的数学和其他理科课程成绩都很不错。刚入学时她选了6门南卡大学工程系学生的课程。
但她后来放弃了工程学，转到英文系去了。她说，学工科确实有可能发明点什么，或者能通过技术推动社会进步，但她对工科热情不够，恐怕将来很难有什么建树。她想以后写科幻小说，也有可能从事法律工作。
尼克斯强烈支持女性学习工科。他觉得，如果她能接受工程学教育，将有无边无际的发展机会。不过他说，他不是一个好榜样，没能将自己的孩子培养成对工程感兴趣的人。
毕业于印度工学院、曾在网威公司(Novell Inc.)担任技术总监的拉西(Kanwal Rekhi)说，他曾非常希望他的儿子将来能成为工程师。但他的儿子对他的热情并不理会，说这种工作可能太单调。后来他在一家电影学院完成了学业。
拉西说，他还试图劝他的16个侄子和侄女学工程。甚至还主动提出辅导他们数学课程。但没有一个人听他的话。他说，他们都嫌学工科太难了。
而对达姆的小儿子拉吉夫来说，因为从事工程工作才使他的家庭享受到的加州生活方式却是促使他不愿学工程的一个原因。
拉吉夫担心，现在从事工程工作有可能导致他离开该州，因为外包浪潮正使加州的工程行业受到冲击。他说，他的一个堂兄就是工程师，结果被派到克利夫兰去了，那里天寒地冻的，不太有趣。很明显这会影响大家的决定。在加州生活的人都想永远住在那里。
