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Hiring in military sector
commands attention
http://www.eet.com/story/OEG19990224S0025
When the economic histories of the 20th
century are written, the late 1990s will be
remarkable for the way they changed the
face of corporate America. And the
merger mania that swept through nearly
every area of business may deserve to be
called the most powerful force of the
times.
The aerospace and defense industry was particularly affected by
the pressures to combine forces. Shrinking defense priorities and
the loss of enemies - perceived and real - drove most of the major
players into compacts of convenience. Boeing gobbled up
McDonnell-Douglas, Raytheon ate Rockwell, and the food chain
became shorter.
But if 1998 was the year the mergers were completed, 1999 will
be the year they start to make good on their promises, according
to David Ally, of Sanford Rose Associates (Akron, Ohio). Ally
said the job market for engineers in aerospace has heated up
dramatically lately. To prove it, he said, he's got 2,000 job
openings to fill nationally in engineering and data processing
alone.
"In the middle of last year, most of the companies did a
housecleaning. Layoffs, early retirements, culling out what they
thought they didn't need," said Ally. "We say they're finding out
what's real and not real. After all of the gyrations and the mergers
are accomplished, then they start hiring."
Raytheon is looking for people in its Massachusetts, Texas and
Arizona plants. Lockheed Martin is hiring for its Melbourne, Fla.,
operations.
For the most part, Ally said, the jobs he's looking to fill are for
candidates with between two and five years' experience. Good
skills to have are C++ and Ada, to wrestle with government
contracts. Entry-level positions do exist, he said, but companies
tend to go directly to campus and conduct their own recruiting for
those slots.
Of course, at the end of the day 2,000 openings don't necessarily
translate into 2,000 paychecks. Some of the positions will go to
project managers whose first steps will be to trim personnel. Even
so, said Ally, the bulk of the opportunities will become real posts.
Another promising route is the Web. Boeing's Internet site lists
over 750 engineering jobs, from helicopter experts to people with
training in the design of thermal life-support systems. The latter
position is in the company's Huntsville, Ala., operations, where
work on the International Space Station is being done. Boeing is
also seeking engineers with skills in software design, missile
simulation and analysis, EMI/EMC, IC design and satellite
communications.
A spokesman for Raytheon said the defense contractor's sorest
need are in its operations in Dallas, Portsmouth, R.I., and Tucson,
Ariz., where it is working on a new missile-making facility.
The job market has become "viciously competitive" for engineers,
said a spokesman at Lockheed Martin's Maryland offices.
Lockheed has scores of posts to fill, from entry to senior level.
Here are a few random picks: The company wants a test engineer
with thermal-vacuum skills for its Sunnyvale, Calif., missiles and
space facility; a systems engineer with a strong background in
MatLab for its Nashua, N.H., operations; and systems engineers
for its underseas warfare, Seawolf sub and electronic-warfare
contracts.
Beyond the main contractors, there's plenty of hiring by second-
tier suppliers. For instance, board makers are seeing a boom in mil
products that's sparking hiring.
"Surprisingly, the companies that focus on military markets had a
really good year in '98 and they're hiring more people in
anticipation of more fun this year,'' said Ray Alderman, president
of the VME International Trade Association (Scottsdale, Ariz.).
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