 |
|
|||||
Engineering's resurgence
Grads find job offers, perks aplenty
"Geeky" is the word Paul Syiek hears most often applied to engineers, and he begs to differ.
"Engineers are the people who design things. They're at the root of everything, and without them this country wouldn't be where it is today," said Syiek, president and CEO of Think Resources Inc., an Atlanta-based engineering and technical jobs placement company. The word he would use to describe engineers is "necessary."
Apparently, the business world agrees. Engineers are a hot commodity in today's hiring market, and experts expect the demand to increase. In the last year, Think Resources has seen a 70 percent increase in the number of jobs for contract engineers alone. The company has added 100 new recruiters and salespeople to handle the placement of contract and direct-hire engineers. He plans to hire 30 more people this year and to place more than 2,000 engineers. Since 1988, the company has filled more than 14,000 positions.
Ralph Mobley, director of career services at the Georgia Institute of Technology, confirms that the number of companies seeking new graduates is up by 15 percent to 20 percent, capping a third consecutive year of increases.
"Engineering tends to cycle with the economy. When there's a weakness in the broader economy, there's a weakness in hiring engineers. Employers will widen their scope [of engineering types] when the economy is good and focus it when the market cools off, but, in general, engineers survive downturns better than other majors," Mobley said.
Georgia Tech felt the pinch from Sept. 1l, 2001, immediately, however.
"The tragedy happened on the second day of our career fair, which is the kickoff of our busiest recruiting season," he said. "Recruiters couldn't get here. Planes were grounded for a week, and there were a lot of cancellations."
The dot-com and telecom busts made the problem worse. The job market for engineering graduates was worst in 2003, but Mobley said that it's back with a vengeance.
"We're seeing all the big Fortune 500 companies and smaller companies. Manufacturers are looking for mechanical and industrial engineers. Construction companies are hiring civil and environmental engineers. Defense contractors need electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineers, and any company with a supply chain and logistics operation wants industrial engineers," he said.
"Technology companies want electrical and computer engineers to drive their design and semiconductor development departments, while energy and pharmaceutical companies are recruiting chemical and biomedical engineers."
Engineering consulting firms, health care systems and even investment banks are searching for engineering talent.
"There's been some realization among employers that engineers have analytical skills that can be useful in a broader array of applications," Mobley said.
While the demand is up across the board, Mobley said the civil, mechanical and industrial engineering fields are especially hot.
The rebounding economy, demand for energy, the war in Iraq and the subsequent increase in defense spending, and the Southeast's building boom (plus rebuilding in the Gulf Coast and Florida after hurricanes) -- as well as the school's high rankings -- all contribute to the bumper crop of recruiters at Georgia Tech.
'A perfect storm'
In the larger picture, forces are at work to create what Syiek calls "a perfect storm" for an engineering shortage. The number of aging and retiring baby boomers and fewer workers in the pipeline are concerns in all employment sectors. According to Department of Labor statistics, 78 million workers entered the U.S. work force between 1950 and 2000. Between 2000 and 2050, an estimated 51 million workers will be available.
A lack of qualified workers is especially alarming for employers who depend on engineers.
"By 2011, the American Public Power Association estimated that 10,000 job openings will go unfilled because of a shortage of engineers," Syiek said.
In addition, fewer international students are applying to U.S. engineering schools and fewer companies are hiring them because of Homeland Security measures put in place after Sept. 11, 2001. Many countries have developed their own engineering programs, and U.S. engineering ranks are reduced further by students who chose computer fields during the Internet boom of the '90s.
"Business Week recently reported that the U.S. was graduating 70,000 engineers a year, compared to 350,000 in India and 600,000 in China," Syiek said. "Yet, when you read about a $10 billion private-investor initiative to research alternative fuel sources in Texas, you know that's going to take a lot of engineers."
The numbers have U.S. companies scrambling to create better strategies for recruitment and retention.
Lafarge -- the world's largest manufacturer of cement, roofing tiles and other building materials, with operations in 85 countries -- plans to hire 100 engineers this year. In 2001, the company hired 25 to 30, said Rod Reese, Lafarge's senior campus relations manager and internship coordinator.
"We looked at our demographics and knew we needed bench strength. Many of our engineers have moved into management roles, and we need replacements," he said.
On a recruiting trip to the Colorado School of Mines, he found the number of prospective employers up by 30 percent to 40 percent and each student receiving an average of three to five offers.
"We used to ask for a reply to an offer within three weeks, but schools have stepped in and asked for three months to reduce the pressure on students," Reese said.
He's seen starting salaries rise to $50,000 to $57,000 -- from an average of $45,000 to $50,000 a few years ago. Chemical engineers are hitting $60,000 to start.
"We can offer a candidate a good job with a stable company, an opportunity to make an impact early, advancement into management and international opportunities, but they tell us they're getting just as good offers from other companies," Reese said. "Our recruitment efforts are a lot more vigorous, as the situation is going to get more critical."
Intense competition
Patsy Hammett, director of college relations for Milliken, a textile chemical company with manufacturing plants in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, said that more than 170 companies were interviewing candidates at a recent North Carolina State University engineering job fair.
Milliken hires about 120 engineering graduates a year for management slots, including jobs in chemical, mechanical, electrical, industrial and material science engineering. The company strategically has targeted specific universities and grown its internship program.
"We have teams of associates who spend a lot of time on college campuses, getting to know faculty and students," she said. "It's not enough to just show up at a career fair. You have to forge strong relationships."
Milliken accepts 120 interns every summer, with the goal of turning them into permanent hires after graduation.
"Today's students aren't going in with a mind-set of staying with one company over the span of their careers, so retention is a real challenge as well. You have to make them want to build a career with you," Hammett added.
Syiek said that employers were using salary, competitive health care packages, greater work recognition, flex time, work/life balance amenities, training opportunities and other means to attract new graduates and encourage older workers to stay.
"We're either going to have to keep growing our own talent or import labor in the long term, because companies need engineers," said Diane Tuccito, vice president of human resources at Manhattan Associates, an Atlanta-based global supply chain and planning-solutions corporation. "After the dot-com bust, companies began asking themselves if they were getting the return on their investments in technology solutions. . . .
"A competitive market required our clients to keep cutting costs, but they'd already downsized, so they started looking at the fat in their processes and supply chains. Better planning and flow from inventory to customer means better profits."
The people who make that happen would be information technologists and engineers.
Tuccito's company hired 40 engineers last year and plans to hire 90 this year from the United States. The last two years it has hired 90 engineers from India; it plans to match that number this year by visiting the top tier of India Institutes of Technology.
She said more companies were recruiting from India; from China, which recently required students to learn English; and from emerging schools in Eastern Europe.
To "grow its own," Manhattan Associates' co-founder endowed a supply-chain engineering chair at Georgia Tech in 2000. The company also asks faculty members from major U.S. universities to serve on its advisory board.
"They keep us abreast of the latest advances, and we help their graduate students with [real-world] projects. That way we build rapport with faculty, and students get to know us," Tuccito said.
The company continues to strengthen its internship and co-op programs and to expand its in-house technical training. "We see developing and cross-training our employees as a good, long-term investment," she said.
Manhattan Associates and other companies are working with the Technology Association of Georgia to attract top talent to the state.
"Fortunately, Atlanta is a great draw," Tuccito said. "It's the technology center for the Southeast, has a good cost of living and is a great place to raise a family. That helps when we go to recruit."
