By Dayna Romanick
Sr. Recruiting Manager
Silicon Elite
There are job openings out there. Companies are looking for innovative ways to fill their needs with a large number of contract to hire or trial periods being offered. Salaries are down markedly and expectations are higher. The majority of companies that are hiring are looking for specific skill sets, hands on experience and a large variety of soft skills. Interns, new grads and less experienced engineers from prestigious schools are being hired by forward thinking, budget conscious companies. Those with many years of experience are finding a new full time direct hire less easily, though they continue to be in demand for contract positions. The key word is flexibility. Your willingness to work with an employer in terms of hours worked, job title and salary all contribute to your employ-ability.
More than ever, engineers will have to prove their worth in 2010. “Companies with highly paid engineers whose skills are not up to date are doing a market reset,” says Karen Panetta of IEEE. This means that engineers must either improve the value they bring or risk being let go. “Some engineers are going back for a master’s degree or a certificate program.”
Will engineers who have been laid off in this recession get back on track in 2010? “If they aren’t evolving their skills, they’ll have a hard time,” Says Panetta.“ Compared to 2009, we think 2010 will be better,” says Kurt Rippelmeyer, industry principal for engineering and energy at staffing firm Yoh. With credit tight, production down and the future unusually uncertain, many firms laid off engineers in 2009.
As the new decade begins, when firms do hire, they will likely place strong hedges on their bets. “The majority of hires in 2010 will be on a contract basis to start,” says Rippelmeyer. “Large engineering firms are going to a new workforce composition of about 20 percent contract. Companies will start to bring folks back on contract.”
Still, some believe an engineering jobs recovery has already begun. “We’ve recently seen a 180-degree turnaround” from the recession’s difficult market for engineers in certain specialties, says Karen Panetta, chair for the IEEE Women in Engineering Committee and associate professor of engineering at Tufts University.
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