For something like 30 years the status of engineers has been something that has been periodically bewailed.
Usually the problem seems to be that the guys who build rockets, bridges, ICs and networking systems, don’t like to be confused with the guy who comes round to fix the washing machine, the lawn mower, the blocked pipe or the boiler.
For a while, it seemed, the problem was solved when the tag ‘professional engineer’ was adopted by the IEE (now IET) to denote someone with an engineering degree,
Now there’s a debate about whether someone with just a degree, but no work experience, should be considered a ‘professional engineer’.
All this is getting a bit bolloxy. The only status 99 per cent of the population care about is how much money you’ve got.
With more and more engineers getting rich these days in start-up companies, suddenly people start to feel a proper sense of respect towards the profession.
No one in the wider world gave tuppence for the founders of Intel and Microsoft, when they were doing breakthrough engineering. But when it became apparent they were among the richest guys on the planet, everyone was dripping in reverence towards them.
A ‘professional engineer’ who buys a village (as some have done) gets loads of respect, one who has a 14 car garage (as one I know has) get quite a bit of respect, the big country house, the ski lodge, the Alan Sugar-style yacht in the Med, all these get solid dollops of respect.
If that means a professional engineer’ who’s made £20m is considered to have the same status as a tattooed plumber who’s made £20m, then tough, no one’s going to feel particularly sorry for him.
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