Original Research Compares Career of Engineers in the 1990s and 2000s

The careers of 9,041 engineers under 25 years of age who entered the formal labor market between 2003 and 2012 were analyzed in a study by the IEA’s Innovation and Competitiveness Observatory (OIC). The survey results will be presented by the author of the study, Bruno César Araújo, an OIC researcher and doctoral student of production engineering at the University of São Paulo, on April 15, at 10 am, at the IEA. The debate will have as panelists Nadya Araujo Guimarães, professor at USP’s Sociology Department, and Mário Sérgio Salerno, an engineer, the general coordinator of the OIC and a professor at the Department of Production Engineering of USP’s Polytechnical Institute.

By comparing the professional careers of engineers in the 2000s and in the period 1995-2002, the study found that, over the last decade, being an engineer in Brazil became financially worthwhile once again. In 2012, a typical engineer earned 70% more than his or her colleagues in 2003 who migrated to technical careers – a very different scenario from the one in 2002, when there were practically no differences between the career of a typical engineer and that of technical personnel without college degrees who graduated in 1995.

According to Araújo, a comparison of both decades shows that in 1990s there was no distinction between the various categories of engineers and individuals who held mid-level jobs that required no college degree. “If, as an engineer, you did not hold a managerial position, such as production manager or works manager, it was financially more worthwhile to leave the field,” he says.

The difference between the two periods is due to the economic climate, because the improvement in pay coincides with the positive performance of the economy. “Perhaps engineering is the sector most sensitive to crises,” he says. He also believes it is possible to revert to the previous, less attractive situation, now that the economic outlook for the coming years is rather bleak.

The event will be broadcast live on the web.