Engineers wanted

by ViTo • May 14, 2008 2 comments

I recently came across this Spanish newspaper headline: ‘Se buscan 25.000 ingenieros‘ (25,000 engineers needed) [link]. Apparently, there is a serious engineers shortage in Spain. The whole article goes on about the seriousness of the issue and how Spanish companies will have to go seek engineers abroad in order to fill these positions. The demand is even higher for electrical engineers due to the booming of the industry and the fact that only about 15% of recently graduated engineers are electrical ones.

So guess what? I am spanish, I am an electrical engineer, and I am not currently working in Spain. What!? How can that be? Well, in such situation, companies have no option but to raise the wages in order to attract more engineers. These are the open market rules, right? So I must be crazy to leave my city, friends and family and, above all, an environment so favorable professionally.

It turns out that with such high demand the offered wages for a decent position are around 25,000 €/ year (pre-taxes), which would translate into a monthly pay of about 1300 €/month (after taxes). On the other hand, by working abroad, more than twice that amount can be easily made. And from what I’ve seen, it’s not only about the paycheck, but the jobs offered are also better.

After reading the article though, I didn’t find a single hint that situation was about to change. On the contrary, if I understood correctly, they were demanding more engineers with the mentioned salary. An offer impossible to turn down…

So let’s see how big the shortage has to become before they open their eyes and finally accept open market rules. For now, I know I won’t be coming back soon!