Job Finding Strategies for Engineers in a Tough Economy

by Alex A. Kecskes

It’s a tight job market right now, especially for engineers. But the jobs are out there. You just have to hustle a bit more. Here are a few tips to turn your resume into a job offer:

Get Some Experience. A sheepskin from a top university is nice, but these days, companies also want experience. All the more reason to get into an internship while you’re still in college. Volunteer. Take an unpaid internship during your senior year.

Follow the money. Do some research and find out what firms just landed big contracts. Align your resume and work experience with those firms. Engineering companies that work in “green” technologies or those doing municipal work are getting state and federal funding. Apply to those firms and sell any experience you have in these fields.

Acquire people skills. Engineers are notorious for their recluse-style people skills. Talk to people, email them, have lunch with groups of people and discuss jobs, projects you’ve worked on or like to work on. Use social media to connect with hiring managers and working engineers.

Fine-tune your resume. Adapt your resume to the job and company you are applying for. Dovetail your resume to the company’s needs and goals. Go through the company’s website, talk to engineers who work at the company if you can.

Join groups. Join all the groups in your field. Connect with as many engineers as you can in the group. Submit blogs and articles on the groups’ websites. Become known as a valuable contributor. Get some face time on the sites. Another option is to join a group like pinkslipmixers.com

Attend seminars/trade shows. All engineering fields have these. Show up, talk to people. Snap up business cards and follow up by asking if they have any job openings or even internships in their departments.

For an added perspective, check out this video: