Even the Old Are Fair
Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor -- Semiconductor International, 8/1/2000
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If, indeed, the need is so great, we should not overlook a rich vein of highly trained, well-educated people, an invaluable and grossly untapped pool of talent ready, willing and certainly able to fill many of those empty slots - retired engineers.
Consider the advantages: an engineer in his or her late 50s or mid-60s has technical qualifications comparable to those of engineers in their late 20s or early 30s. And, if the ongoing debate over the state of our schools has even a scintilla of truth to it, he or she probably is much better educated and already has the necessary postgraduate degrees. On top of this, he or she has something a younger engineer does not: far-ranging experience acquired through a lifetime of problem solving.
True, some of these elder engineers might be a little behind the times; but the basics haven't changed that much - a Fourier transform is the same today as it was 30 years ago - and a modicum of training to bring them back up to speed would correct any gaps. It might even take less, perhaps, than bringing foreign engineers up to speed with their English or aspects of technology that are more advanced in the U.S. than elsewhere.
Years ago, at the height of the Cold War, Litton Electron Devices was in desperate need of tube engineers for the design of traveling wave tubes and other high-power devices. Much to their chagrin, they discovered many of the major universities were no longer teaching students this crucial area of electrical engineering. In the end, the company opted to hire physics graduates because they had the necessary math background, then train them to become tube engineers. In those long-gone times, older engineers, regardless of salary levels, were cherished for their know-how and experience; and they passed the torch to their younger colleagues. Had there been a pool of elders to tap, there would have been no hesitation.
Today's industry's disregard of such a pool, especially when viewed against the background of alleged need, is indeed puzzling.
If we are to believe government statistics, older employees are more reliable and miss fewer workdays than younger ones - certainly, their family obligations are fewer than those starting off in life. Now that Social Security restrictions have been eased and retirees are no longer penalized by having their benefits and payments reduced if they work, getting back into circulation is more attractive for them.
They are out there, folks - according to IEEE stats alone, at least half a million of them. Consider Yeats, who wrote:
Of a land where even the old are fair,And even the wise are merry of tongue...
