George McClure serves as chair of the Professional Activities Operations Committee for IEEE Region 3.  He is technology policy editor for IEEE-USA’s Today’s Engineer and author of an annual Outlook article covering eight subject areas, including technology and workforce.  He is a past chairman of the Individual Benefits & Services Committee for IEEE and of the Career and Workforce Policy Committee for IEEE-USA. He is an IEEE Life Fellow, a past IEEE Region 3 director, a Fellow of the Radio Club of America, and a life member of both the American Association of Individual Investors and The Military Officers Association of America. He received BEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Florida. After 30 years service, he retired from Martin Marietta Aerospace in Orlando, where he was engaged in communications-electronics, systems engineering, and program management, following prior service with Radiation, Incorporated (now Harris Corporation) and the U. S. Navy. His e-mail address is g.mcclure@ieee.org.

LIFE CYCLE GUIDE TO RETIREMENT PLANNING

The Young Professional faces choices in getting started on retirement savings, balancing available resources with paying off college debts, saving for a home, and getting started on retirement planning early – when time is an ally. The mid-career professional may face children’s expenses for college at a time when saving for retirement should be maximized, the engineer preparing for retirement has choices to make on rollover of a 401(k) plan and asset allocation. All too soon, mandatory distributions from tax-deferred savings will be required, to satisfy the taxman. This talk examines the choices at each stage and offers tips to aid in an eventual comfortable retirement.

MID-COURSE CAREER CORRECTIONS

The time is long gone when an engineer could bank on a 40-year career at one company.  Today the value of the work performed is weighed against what the same contribution to the company would cost offshore.  The watchword is value-added and the value is greater when the same work cannot be obtained somewhere else.  Pattern recognition is important – discerning patterns that will affect customer benefit from the work performed.  The right side of the brain is important here.  The new jobs that won’t be outsourced are jobs that require right-brain thinking. The era of left-brain dominance is over — that work can be scripted, done by computers, spreadsheets and other formula-driven activity that can be outsourced easily.  Even if entire work is contracted off-shore, the right-brained engineers will be needed to synthesize requirements and to interface with the customers.  Examples of left- versus right-brained activities will be provided.

CULTURE SHIFTS – MILLENNIALS IN THE WORKFORCE

As a mid-career professional, you may be supervising others spanning a wide range of ages as aspirations.  Surveys show that the millennial generation has a different view of work from older workers.  As pensions have become less generous, and nest eggs have been eroded by the recession, some older workers are motivated to delay retirement.  You may be called upon to serve as mentor to people ranging in age from their early 20s to their late 70s. Understanding their differing values and goals will help you in managing a diverse group of workers.  Results from a multi-generational survey will be shared to help you understand varying motivations and needs among the workers you are called upon to supervise.

02/2012