Some Advice for Experienced Engineers in this Down Market- Part I

The demand for experienced engineers is at an extremely (some say historically) low level, particularly in California and along the West Coast.  The mere quantity of job seekers is unprecedented when compared to the open positions.  In this market firms are looking for very specific experience including recent, relevant local projects and client contacts in the City or County where they are based.  For job seeking engineers outside of that City or State the situation is even worse as firms will only pay relocation for those individuals that fully meet or exceed the experience and qualifications required for the job.

For example, an experienced engineer has significant transit experience on his/ her resume but this work was performed 5 to 10 years ago.  For the most part, hiring firms do not consider that “recent, relevant” experience when evaluating a candidate.  This can be expected when so many are on the job hunt with so few open positions.  The hiring firms can afford to be “picky”.  Of course, if things turn around in the next couple years this will change gradually, but for those facing financial hardships because of the loss of their job time is definitely not in their favor.

Here are some suggestions for experienced engineers faced with this career dilemma:

• In addition to the traditional Monster, Career Builder and other job forums take a look at Craig’s List in your local area.  Smaller firms that are busy but cannot spend the money to advertise on these expensive sites usually use Craig’s List as a cost effective way to announce their open positions.

• Keep your primary focus on local openings, your recent experience is here and you have the best chance of landing a job near home.  Relocation is expensive (regardless of who pays for it) and time consuming.

• Try alternate web job boards like www.Indeed.com that are a good search engine for open positions that match your job title and locality.  There are numerous others but I have heard much more about Indeed than other similar websites.

• Apply directly to company web sites whenever possible, this way the potential employer is looking at the minimum monetary and time “investment” necessary in identifying qualified local candidates.

• If you have a particular employment sector in mind take a look at the recent Engineering News Record (ENR) top 100, 250 or 500 firms and identify which of these firms has a local office.  Start at the largest or busiest and work your way down.  It provides regimentation and structure to your job search and at least gives you the feeling of accomplishment that you have identified all larger firms in your area that could be hiring.  Usually the largest firms with many regional office have ways of spreading their workload and experienced marketing groups doing their best to find work and compete for work.

• Don’t be limited to private firms, check your local DOT, city, county or state job listings regardless of what you have heard about their current hiring needs.  Check out your local Public Utility Commission or water departments as they tend to have openings due to retirements or people advancing within their agencies.

Our next post will continue to provide suggestions in your job search and conclude with some insights into breaking the current “experienced engineer” barrier.

Paul LaCiura PE