Chinese EES seek transformation before the age of 35

China’s electronics industry has grown rapidly in the past two decades. The growth is a key reason than many young Chinese select electronic engineering as their occupation. In the past decade, China has transformed beyond its role as the manufacturing center of the global electronics industry. As local OEMs have matured and more and more multinationals have established R&D centers in China, the amount of design work has skyrocketed. Today, young Chinese electronic-design engineers get more job opportunities, better salaries, and loftier social status than engineers in other industries. Nonetheless, many young engineers are acutely concerned about continuing in a design job after 35 and look toward management and entrepreneurial opportunities.

“I have been considering transformation, says Nathan Lei, project manager of a German communications company’s Shenzhen office. Despite many years’ work experience at UT Starcom and a master’s degree in electronic engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he says he does not want to be an engineer for a lifetime.

Two reasons drive the midcareer designers away from engineering. First, R&D is an arduous job. Young engineers need to spend a lot of time and energy to meet challenges in their daily work and still stay abreast of the latest technology. Overtime is commonplace for Chinese electronics engineers. As they age, the engineers are less willing to endure such intensive work requirements. If an engineer has not landed in a team-leading position on the strength of his experience and capabilities by the age of 35 and is immersed in development work, he will inevitably feel competitive pressure from more energetic young people.

Opportunity is the second force that drives engineers to other jobs. Today, opportunities abound in China’s fast-growing electronics industry. Many young engineers yearn to one day start a company of their own. Generally, engineers believe that pure R&D work—even if in a multinational company—will restrict their horizons. Experience built from R&D work does not qualify an engineer to operate a company. Therefore, many young engineers take on sales and marketing as their choices for the postdesign step of career development. The engineers hope to gain more experience in business and corporate operations before reaching 35.

Chongjun Zhu currently serves as general manager of the new-business-development department in an independent design house for handset products in Shanghai, and he is one of the company’s shareholders. “Just a year ago, I was staying up writing code,” he says. He is satisfied with the fact that he turned from an engineer into a business executive before the age of 35. Zhu believes that, in China’s electronics industry, a technology-type executive who knows how to do business has greater potential for growth and success than an engineer. He believes that his experiences as an engineer were just steppingstones in his career development.