What if you have too many skills, but not enough specialties?

We're back with another of your engineering career questions. This time, we have a question from Matt, who's got a doozy:

Where most engineers are able to focus on specific accomplishments within a field of choice, my career was forced into customer service and tackling a wide variety of skills. I eventually became good at working with customers, but have been laid off a few times because the business was bad even though I have a lot of success stories.

Now, my career is a trainwreck of mixed skills and odd jobs with no pattern-matching titles, to the point where even when I tell a manager "I want this job", they don't believe me.

What can someone with electrical and computer engineering education do with experiences in customer service and miscellaneous software, hardware, and project management roles but not enough in any one area to be a solid expert?

Well Matt, the way I see it, you've got some valuable skills, even if they're not pointing your career in exactly the direction you want.

Customer service is a great skill, and companies need employees that can bridge the gap between techies and non-techies. You could take these skills and talents into sales, management, or other areas.

But it seems like you're more interested in going back in the direction of engineering. I think you have a few options.

First of all, re-think your resume. Downplay the customer service aspects and play up the aspects that are most appropriate for the jobs you're seeking. Don't lie, just call attention to the truth you want to be perceived.

Second, try to get some more experience in your engineering field of choice. You can do this part-time by volunteering on some non-profit projects (check volunteermatch.org) or consulting on small projects for for-profit companies or start-ups.

Third, look at your career in the long term. Take some courses, attend conferences, and meet peers in the area you most want to focus in. It might take 2 or 3 years to re-focus your career, but it might be necessary to gain the new skills you need to be perceived as an "expert."

Good luck!

Digital archiving: A growth field

The New York Times recently reported on the growing need for people skilled in digital archiving, aka digital asset management aka digital preservation aka information management consultants.

No matter what you call it, this is a growth field, with huge growth opportunities.

"Literature, film, scientific journals, newspapers, court records, corporate documents and other material, accumulated over centuries, needed to be adapted for computer databases. Once there, it had to be arranged — along with newer, born-digital material — in a way that would let people find what they needed and keep finding it well into the future."

In the sciences, huge amounts of data have already been created that can no longer be accessed. I've seen scientists weep over disks that contained files no computer on earth could still read. A writer friend of mind paid hundreds of dollars to recover files from a set of disks from a computer format that only lasted on the market for one year.

Not only does this material need to be accessed again, it needs to be preserved in a format that will be adaptable again in the future.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, look at all of the world's medical data that only exists in hard copy. As we move to electronic medical records, all of that information needs to get translated into digital formats, and become accessible on everything from computer screens to smartphones.

This job isn't just about scanning old documents -- it's about information, its management, and its preservation. It's about creating a library, a history, and a future for the world's information. It's about creating solutions to bridge one technology format to another, while thinking ten steps ahead for the future. This will require some brilliant minds in software development, scanning technologies, communications, and strategy.

Sound interesting? The article quotes salary ranges of $70-$100,000. I'd say that's worth a look.

Fewer Women Getting EE, Computing Degrees -- But Is That Bad for You?

Every year, fewer women in the United States graduate with EE degrees. Last year, only 18.1% of EE bachelor's degrees went to women, and only 9.2% of Computing degrees, went to women, according to research from the American Society for Engineering Education.

Part of the problem is perception, according to IEEE Spectrum magazine. Young women don't see that they can have an impact in computing or engineering, so they don't look at it as a career.

But what if you're already studying EE or computing? What will the lack of women in your profession say to your own career prospects?

I like to see the opportunities here. For one thing, women will stand out more in their jobs. The more you stand out, the more chances you'll have to get noticed, and the more likely you are to get the best assignments. And as I wrote last year, women are valued for their teamwork, a critical personality trait in high-tech.

So don't let this news hold you back -- and help that number of women in your field continue to grow.

Outsourcing: Is It a Threat?

David Saltzman asks:

I have heard many vague things about jobs being outsourcing and was wondering which jobs (comp sci, branches of engineering etc) are being outsourced and if it is a problem significant enough that I should try to avoid certain routes. I am currently a freshman in college planning on majoring in engineering or maybe computer science.

Good question, David! Outsourcing is a threat to some high-tech jobs, but not all. And there are things you can do "outsource-proof" your job, at least a little bit.

First of all, the more common your skills are, the easier they are to outsource. Think about jobs like basic computer programming, research, mathematics, IT, etc. -- if they can be done from anywhere, they probably will.

Labor-intensive tasks that require a lot of salaried employee time are also prime for outsourcing. This includes areas such as product testing, design, and estimating.

Second, back up your skills with more education. The more educated you are in a specific field, the more skills you possess, and the more valuable you become. (This isn't a guarantee -- there are more and more opportunities for distance medicine as assignments like reading X-rays get outsourced to doctors in the developing world.)

Third, look for developing fields where you might have less competition, areas like green engineering, nanotechnology, power and energy, wireless communications, etc.

Finally, why not look at outsourcing as an opportunity? With companies cutting costs left and right, they might not need a full-time employee doing certain tasks, but they will need to hire consultants and temporary employees to get their work done. So take advantage of that need by building yourself a skill set and hanging out your shingle!

Good luck, and keep sending those engineering career questions in!