How smart is Erie?

Erie has always had the muscle for manufacturing, but that is no longer enough for GE Transportation.

[Drew in Erie]

Its certainly ironic that GE now cries about how the sky is falling and they are unable to recruit talented engineering professionals to fill the many jobs that are now supposedly available.

GE had every engineer they now claim to need and showed them the door because of a shortsighted desire to make quarterly profit targets. In Novenber of 2000, GE laid off more than 200 engineering and professional employees from Erie, and another 100 were let go the following February of 2001.

These folks had families to support and could not wait around for GE to decide they were needed again. Unlike the local manufacturing labor pool, these engineers and professionals are a more mobile labor force with valuable skills. Many moved away or into other, more stable areas of business in the area.

As demand for locomotives rose during the last 4 years, GE did not add engineers to its permanent payroll, instead opting to hire engineers on a temporary, contract basis with no benefits, vacation, or sense of job permanence. Many of the available engineering jobs Mr. Dineen discusses are still being advertised as contract positions without benefits. This strategy by GE does not provide prospective local employees with any sense of security.

If GE still declines to make commitments to its engineering and professional employees, how can they reasonably expect those folks to rush back to help them?

The sky is not falling on Erie, just on GE. In 2006 GE decimated the local small business community by filling many of its 200 positions with skilled labor that left other area businesses for the higher wages and benefits promised by GE. These smaller businesses bore the brunt of GE's good fortunes as they lost productivity and paid the costs of hiring and training new, inexperienced employees.

This time, the engineers and professionals in the area were not intoxicated by GE $$. They looked at their current circumstances, weighed them against the pros and cons what GE offered, and decided to stay put.

If GE is truly comitted to the locomotive business and the Erie area, they need to take a long term view and work to put new engineering and professional graduates to work in the coming years and match them with more senior employees to train the next generation of employees. There are enough engineering and other professionals graduating within a 100 mile radius of Erie to easily meet GE Transportation's worldwide needs.

[long gone]

Patches the Polar bear is here...a positive addition to erie's intellectual cadre

[Onlooker]

Drew, you took the words right out of my mouth.

What you wrote is exactly correct, and should be required reading for all executives in all industries & services who utilize the services of degreed (not just in name only 'engineers'.

Instead of leadership, the old-line engineering societies are filled with academics and keep doing the same old dance. They are part of the problem too.

[Penny from Erie]

I thought I read on Centrals HS sign that the school was voted the best in the nation. What's up with that. Aren't those kids all attending a college. Maybe they should emphaize math and science instead of hair dressing and wood shop.

[Eric Watters]

I dont think Erie has a school in the top 1000 in the Nation let alone the best.

Sorry I was wrong.......236th ranked Northwest PA Collegiate Academhy.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380/... ;

[Douglas Boldt]

Too bad Newsweek is a liberal rag.

[Siva Subramaniam]

While I agree science and math education is a must, I also think the area has less appeal to educated people than many other areas around the country. I used to live in Erie for 6 years working for GE but decided to move elsewhere because my wife got depressed with the weather and the lack of things to do. I am still with GE though but in Kansas City. Erie needs to invest a lot to improve the city and the economy to make your/educated people stay.

[Siva Subramaniam]

Weird - this message board says I am from Princeton, NJ. I am actually in Kansas City, MO.

[Onlooker]

Siva: The IP address of the handoff from your company's secure internet to the public Internet (e.g., your global "ISP" in this case....note the difference between internet and Internet) is most likely associated with a corporate IT facility located in Princeton NJ.

[Joe]

Being an engineer from the Erie area, I have applied numerous times over the years to work at GE but was never accepted, so I've had to move away while I would rather stay there. Seems to me they don't actually want local talent, but they are more interested in diversity.

[local_engineer]

Joe wrote:

Being an engineer from the Erie area, I have applied numerous times over the years to work at GE but was never accepted, so I've had to move away while I would rather stay there. Seems to me they don't actually want local talent, but they are more interested in diversity.

I am also a local IT Engineer, went to a local college, did not have the best grades but I have my degree. I know have over ten years experience. I never heard anything when appling for jobs over there; and I have applied for many.

[local_engineer]

Yes I noticed my mis-spelled words... so no need for the stupid comments. This is not a resume! BTW - I have over a couple hundred hours into my resume... so it does not get much better...

local_engineer wrote:

<quoted text>
I am also a local IT Engineer, went to a local college, did not have the best grades but I have my degree. I know have over ten years experience. I never heard anything when appling for jobs over there; and I have applied for many.

[fmr engineer]

I can think of a few reasons that Engineering is an un-appealing career choice- especially in Erie.

The first thing you see when you visit the engineering offices there is that the carpets are dirty, trash is blowing around the plant and the parking is poor. Many of the cubicle-farm offices have no windows and the ones that have windows leak cold air in the winter.

Enough to turn someone off? Maybe.

Consider also the 60 and 70 hour weeks that many engineers put in with no overtime pay, no stock options, little appreciation for a job well done and high stress work environment. It is an interesting fact the even the highest paid engineer has a "salary cap"- no matter how valuable his contributions.

Does this sound like a career that you want to embark on?

Also consider perks that other companies seem to manage, but Erie does not. Like on-site childcare or a real cafeteria.

It should be obvious that people will be attracted to Erie, and the engineering profession, if they are paid enough. As far as I can tell, engineering salaries are significantly lower than the national average. The apparent "low cost of living" in Erie is offset by the high property taxes in the area. So if you want someone to give up the big city lifestyle, or the nicer weather, you have to make it worthwhile.

[Joe Blizzard]

Let’s face it; Erie is a dying town with little to offer unless it is tourist related. I grew up in Millcreek, went to McDowell and County Tech and served my tool making apprenticeship. After about 7 years of working on the floor and building molds I decided to enroll at Beherend and get my Plastics Engineering degree. At that time I had a nice job with a company that paid for my degree as long as I maintained my grades. By the time I completed my degree the company was sold and like everything else in Erie it was eventually closed. I thought that I did not have to worry, after all I had my background as a toolmaker and an Engineering degree I would surly get a job with no problem. Well after six months of hearing that I was over qualified I started to look elsewhere. I now have a good job here in Nashville, Tn. I was the hardest thing I ever had to do. It took me 1.5 years to sell the house and get out, but I should have listened when I was told to leave Erie right out of high school. Now that I have been gone for 5 years I don't see how I ever lived there for 35 years. Every place has its problems but most places seem to fix them and move on, not be living in the fifties forever.

[Eric Watters]

It seems that you have to be very lucky to get a good job in Erie with little experience. College Education isn't enough. If you go to a larger Metro Area it is nothig for College Graduates with no experience to start out at 50 - 60k a year. Here is an example.......I had a friend who worked for one of the local staffing companies in Erie. She was paid by the hour and got little itty bitty bonuses. I moved down here and there are people 23 24 years old doing the same thing as she was but getting paid big commisions. When I say big, I am saying I personally know somebody who made 185k in one year. They were 28 at the time, but there are definitely folks in their early 20s in larger metro areas making six figures doing things they would make 30k for in Erie.
So my point is this......it isn't that there aren't any good jobs in Erie......its that most of them are filled and most of the employers don't want to pay kids straight out of college a decent wage so the kids can't get jobs or they go somewhere where they can make twice as much. Hence, another avenue for the brain drain.

[Mark]

Whats really criminal is the fact that quarter millionaire Barker is running a scam that puts out inflated numbers on our kids progress and then laughs all the way to the bank. if you think its bad now, just wait about 5 years and see his ponzy sheme implode and we end up in a worse educaton predicament then we are in now.
GOOD JOB ERIE SCHOOL BOARD, watched all of you last night HONOR the scam, even though you know its all wrong.

[Lisa former Erie resident]

It is very interesting how there are no engineers available to fill these postions. I considered relocating back home to Erie recently if I could find gainful employment. I have gone to gecareers.com and posted for positions with no response at all. I know not everyone is for every job, but a BS in Mechanical Engineering and 12 years of experience at one of the Big 3 auto manufacturers should count for something.

[Penny from Tenney]

NO JOBS HERE!

[Commuter]

I wish I had found out the truth before moving here. I was told when house hunting and considering relocating that people that wanted to work and had experience had no problems finding a job. I have spent all of my savings and although working, I hate it. I make less than half of what I did in Virginia. The cost of living is not less here. The food is more expensive, the utilities are more experience and the taxes make it impossible to get ahead. I budget (slightly anal) and can tell you that except for the cost of my initial purchase, everything is higher. Even your so called Handymen think they should be paid an outrageous fee for substandard service and merchandise. I feel sorry for ERie people because you are getting F$$$$ed without even the chance for a reach around. Anyone with a brain is moving and people that do move here are looking for their first chance out. The only people that I ever hear that like it here, either have family or are retiring and not hurting for money.

[Commuter]

Ooops, sorry I meant to say that the utilities are more expensive.