San Diego & Q>
Robust job market keeps San Diego thriving
By Adam Marcus
EE Times
(03/03/99, 2:02 p.m. EDT)
San Diego may be a day's drive from
Silicon Valley, but it seems closer in other
respects. The glittering city on the Pacific
used to be known for two things: military
contracting and its world-class zoo. But
while the animals are still around, defense
spending cutbacks led to fewer contracts,
which in turn led to vacancies. For a
while.
Real estate abhors a vacuum, however,
and technology companies have been the
beneficiaries of all that unused office
space. As a result, San Diego and its surrounding hamlets have become
magnets for a range of high-tech operations.
“San Diego has become the Silicon Valley of the south,” said Eric Hensley,
principal and founder of Technology Search Group, a local recruiting and
consulting firm. Sure, it's a cliché, but he does have a point.
Hewlett-Packard, Sony, General Instrument and Qualcomm, top-drawer
names all, are among the region's biggest electronics employers.
Smaller companies are fighting with these giants to get new employees.
Christine Bevel, of Western Pacific Data Systems, said she's looking to add
between 15 and 20 software engineers this year, particularly those with skills
in logistics management. Western Pacific, which was recently bought by
Bowthorpe plc, a London-based conglomerate, specializes in aerospace
logistics. Based in nearby La Jolla, the company has contracts with major
manufacturers like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Bevel, who works in organizational development, said Western Pacific is like
other tech firms in that it often has trouble finding enough candidates for its
openings. “We would prefer not to [look internationally], but it's a very
competitive world,” she said.
At the majors, opportunities vary widely. General Instrument's Satellite Data
Network Systems has an opening for an embedded firmware engineer. The
ideal candidate has an MSEE or MSCS, and three to five years of
experience, as well as skills in MPEG-2 compression transport, Ethernet, and
network and protocol knowledge.
Qualcomm Inc. has many more openings, including software, VLSI design,
standards, test and systems-engineering positions. More specific skills include
physical-design methodology engineering, communications and information
security, experience with embedded systems, CDMA, and with Green Hills
and Cadence tools. Several of the jobs require U.S. citizenship and a
willingness to apply for a Top Secret security clearance.
HP is looking for IT engineers and manufacturing developers, as well as
software and hardware engineers. Another computer leader, Gateway, has a
slot in San Diego for a senior human-factors engineer.
Hensley said he currently has 18 engineering and software development jobs
on his desk, and about double that number for Technology Search's
consulting arm. “EEs are a particularly hot commodity,” he said.
Greg Kent, the office manager at Morgen Design Inc., said the engineering
and contracting concern has a handful of orders for electrical engineers these
days. And while the market is good for career-track employment, the real
trend, said Kent, is piece-work. Much of what Morgen Design does through
its offices in San Diego and Seattle is place engineers in contract jobs that
straddle the line between full and part time.
“It's very indicative of what the future holds,” said Kent. In his view, the
average engineer will be doing about half his or her work on a contract basis
by the year 2008, thanks to phenomena such as outsourcing and
telecommuting.
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