Peering Into the Future:
Jobs, Students, Co-op
American Society for Engineering Education
San Antonio, Texas
January 27, 2006
Dr. Phil Gardner
Michigan State University
Today
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Context
– U.S.
– Global

Job Market
– Active – yet changed
– Hiring Situation
– Being Strategic
Today: Economy

U.S. Lulled
Complacency
– Deficit
– Consumers
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No savings
No homes to refinance
– Housing

1st
43%
time no down
payment
– Business

Lots of $ not putting it
anywhere
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Global Imbalance
– Account Deficits

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Misaligned
Role of $
– Risky Investments

No risk attitude
– Rising Oil Prices
– Wild cards
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Terror
“The Flu”
Trade War
Today’s Job Market

Active -- but different
– Manufacturing out – retail/service in
– Engineering Hiring
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Manufacturing: Food, Chemical/Plastics, some
Electronics, Construction, Transportation (railroads,
aerospace), paper/glass, maybe utilities
Consulting – civil and environmental, general, services
– Strategic

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Internships/co-ops key tool
Waning days of co-op
– How many jobs?
Near Future

Economic – the issues
–
–
–
–
Deficit pressure – inflation
Consumer Spending –anything in your wallet
Technology – productivity nexus
Cost of doing business

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Interest rates
Energy prices
Health care costs
– Entitlements: Public (social security and Medicare)
and private (pensions and health)
Near Future

Labor
– Retirement: Fact of Fiction
– Global: double the labor pool –India,
China, Costa Rica, Ireland, Israel
– Strategic and disposable
– Rise of the new blue color – the
technologist
Future
Totally Global – Totally Knowledge
 Pushing to the ends of the curve
 Emerging Sectors
 Shortage of Engineers and Scientists

– Train them for Me
– Only a few good minds
What Jobs Will Leave?
Students

Who are they?
– Millennials of course

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Ambitious but directionless
What do they bring to the table?
– Obedient, conventional, demanding
attitude

Issues
– Parents
– Do I have to work?
Characteristics
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Special
Sheltered
Confident
Achieving
Team-Community
Educated
Passive
Obedient
Conventional
Affluent

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Entitled
Lack social skills
Fear failure
Pressured
Conform – fragmented
Math adverse; low pers.
Science adverse, too
Demanding
Lack creativity
Tattoos, body piercing
Not confident (only 24%)
There Is A Catch

Have You Met Their Parents
The Soccer Moms have arrived on-campus
Challenges in
Educating Millennials
 Saturated
Self
 Literacy
–Orality
–Literacy
–Electracy
 Choice:
A Paradox (see Schwartz)
–Overwhelmed
–Checklist
–No integration
Do I Really Have to
Work?

Finding self –
– Continued search for identity – until 28 or
29
Living With Parents
 Truly self-absorbed
 Optimistic a job awaits them or go back
for a graduate degree

What Do Employers’
Think
Not ready to work
 Very naïve
 Unable to delay gratification and think
long term
 Lack of persistence when faced with
setbacks
 Expect adult relationships but difficult
maintaining them
 Want individual accommodation

Colleges and Universities

Employer of the Choice
– Teach them to learn
– Teach them to work
– Hire them

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Entrepreneurial Campus
Quick and Agile
– Tenure (Remember GM is a dinosaur)
– Teaching Delivery

Learning in Context
– Revitalizing Co-op
– Not just an employment option