Consumer electronics companies in anxious search for digital talent -- Sony, Matsushita snapping up engineers
Junko Yoshida
01/05/98
Electronic Engineering Times
Page 69
Copyright 1998 CMP Publications Inc.
San Jose, Calif. - With all manner of digital consumer products-digital satellite, DVD and DTV-about to reach the market at about the same time, consumer-electronics companies are desperately looking for software and hardware engineers with solid product-development experience and a background in digital engineering.
Two consumer giants, Matsushita Electric Corp. of America and Sony Electronics, are offering huge employment opportunities in various divisions ranging from R&D and chip design to digital-TV system development.
Opportunity also abounds at a bevy of startups and smaller companies pioneering technologies for new digital consumer products. For example, Network Computer Inc. (NCI)-owned by Oracle Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp.-is playing a key role in defining consumer Internet appliance as well as platforms and applications for network computers. NCI is hiring engineers for development teams for both its client and server businesses.
Sony needs 300
For its part, Sony Electronics is marshaling a veritable high-tech army in Silicon Valley, with up to 300 positions open in both engineering and marketing. The San Jose office is a hub for Sony's Western regional activities, housing seven business groups: consumer, business and professional, information technology, semiconductors, research labs, service and corporate.
Reflecting the variety of engineering activities in which Sony is engaged in Silicon Valley, the company is looking for research engineers, hardware and software engineers, and hands-on application people as well as those with good customer focus and system-integration skills. Linda Spitsen, senior human resources manager at Sony Electronics, said the biggest single demand is for software engineers and those with software/hardware integration expertise.
"Because Sony is a technology-driven company and we also have R&D activities going on out here, we are looking for engineers with a minimum of bachelor's degree, together with those with master's and PhDs," she said.
Sony's semiconductor-design center here has openings for as many as 30 engineers. Chip designers with a strong MPEG background and firmware-development expertise are a particular need, according to Spitsen.
The vertically oriented nature of the company should be considered one of the biggest advantages in working for Sony, claimed Spitsen.
"We are a diverse electronics company, within which engineers can transfer from one division to another," she said. "An engineer who started out in our semiconductor division, for example, could well move on to an R&D department, or even onto our computer or consumer-systems company."
Matsushita openings
Matsushita Electric Corp. of America is another example of a vertically integrated consumer behemoth with a wide range of engineering job openings.
"Trends in hiring reflect our business today," said William Schupp, vice president of North America personnel. "With the company banging out DVDs for consumers, DVC Pro for broadcasters, and with DTV on the horizon, we are in need of a lot of engineers with backgrounds in electrical engineering, computers, math, product development and application engineering."
Those openings exist at multiple Matsushita subsidiaries, old and new, across the United States. Matsushita Television Co. (San Diego), for example, is looking for digital-TV design engineers. The San Diego operation is responsible for developing all the TVs for the North American market. "With the emergence of DTV, we either have to retrain our analog engineers as digital experts or hire new people," said Schupp.
Mitsubishi's Technology Development Center in New Jersey, responsible for all product development except DTV, is also looking for software, application and design engineers. Among a number of relatively new subsidiaries and business operations, Panasonic Corporate Systems Co. (Hollywood, Calif.) is unique. Its business is in developing sophisticated security and entertainment-electronics systems for theme parks, casinos and hotels. "We are looking for engineers with system-integration skills, and those who can develop blueprints of electronics systems to be installed in large-scale institutions," said Schupp. |
