Engineers living in southeastern Michigan have had a rough go of it these past few years. As the US automakers bled money, lost market share, retrenched and in the case of GM & Chrysler eventually went through bankruptcy, they shed more and more engineers. The talent, skill and many, many years of experience was jettisoned as successive layers of fat, muscle and then bone were cut out of the domestic automakers in their restructurings (Ford under Alan Mullaly went through what was effectively a restructuring financed by mortgaging the company for $26 billion).
The first tentative signs of the Big 3’s recovery have been based on some pretty decent product so it’s clear that the automakers and their vendors still have a well of in-house talent from which to draw, but with GM & Ford currently banking substantial profits and Chrysler appearing to approach profitability (according the Sergio), the auto industry as a whole is gearing up by going on a hiring spree. Engineers, particularly electrical and chemical engineers (see EVs, hybrids and batteries) are once again in strong demand in Detroit. Companies looking for mechanical and software engineers were actively hiring as well.
The Society of Automotive Engineers has its annual world congress in Detroit every April. Even more so than the huge North American International Auto Show, the SAE World Congress shows how Detroit is truly the Motor City, the epicenter of the global car and truck industry. In addition to keynote speeches by politicians and executives, there are scores of technical panels on every aspect of automotive technology. The engineers come from every corner of the globe, and much of the floor of Cobo Hall is filled with displays from vendors and the OEM companies as well.
More significantly, for the first time in years, outside of the hall Cobo’s long concourse was densely populated with recruiting booths from dozens of car companies and automotive suppliers. Ford is looking for 750 engineers, about 10% of their anticipated new hires by next year. GM and Chrysler announced late last year that they’d each be hiring 1,000 engineers. TRW practically begged me to mention in this article that they are trying to fill 200 Electrical Engineer positions in the Detroit area.
In addition to recruiters from the domestic automakers and US based vendors, German companies like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Bosch were hiring, as were Mahindra and Tata from India. It’s worthy of noting to those who have declared Michigan moribund that most of those companies, and many of the most technologically advanced vendors with display on the show floor have facilities in the Detroit region. Most of those jobs being offered are located in Michigan. As a matter of fact, Tata was the only company that I asked that said they were recruiting people specifically to relocate outside the Detroit area – in this case to Pune, India. Tata is looking for divisional, assistant general and deputy general managers, plus about a dozen specific engineering team leaders in a variety of automotive disciplines.
The dark winter of the auto industry’s discontent may be over. That’s not the voice of the turtle you hear, it’s the beeping of barcode readers and cell phones as recruiters gather data from potential hires.
There were some interesting new engine technologies on display inside and I hope to report on them in a separate post (with an update on my Ecomotors posts – among TTAC’s most popular entries), but in the meantime the most important news from the SAE convention is that the auto industry is on a hiring spree. The need to develop new engines, batteries, motors and control systems that CAFE and other fuel/emissions regulations will require, not to mention the competitive need for a technological edge as design cycles shrink, means that automotive engineers now appear to have a sellers’ market.
Of course one convention or job fair does not an entire industry revive, but it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the activity in the job recruiting area was frenzied. Just to check, I asked Mr. Lawson, who claims to give Detroit’s best shoeshine at his stand in the Cobo concourse, not far from where the recruiting was going on. I asked him if business was better than last year’s SAE convention. He said definitely and that it was much better than from the year before, 2009 when GM and Chrysler were busy going through bankruptcy. Detroit can be a nice place when there’s some hiring going on.
BTW, there’s finally some blue collar hiring going on in the auto industry as well. The 750 engineers are part of an increase of about 7,000 workers at Ford, and GM plans to start hiring at the second-tier UAW wage. Right now, GM can’t build any more cars than they can right now without hiring more workers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/business/11ford.html?_r=1
http://www.pr-inside.com/u-s-automakers-starting-to-hire-again-r2535206.htm
This is an encouraging sign for the broader engineering community, of which I am a part. There has been an engineer shortage in western PA for some time, and all the way through the recession, too.
I wonder how many of the new hires will actually be recycled engineers who were previously let go and are still in the area. It would take the king’s ransom to make me move to Michigan – and Detroit in particular – to take a job which is subject to such bad business cycles.
If it would take a king’s ransom to make to move to Michigan what would it take to get you to move to Pune?
Btw, check out Ecomotors’ site, they’re hiring and have some reasons listed on why living and working in Michigan isn’t terrible.
I guess MI wouldn’t be a terrible place to live, from a tax perspective, except for their too-high property tax. But presumably that depends on which locality you choose.
If I were moving though, I would only go where one of the big three tax types (income, property, sales) was absent, preferably no income tax, and I’m sure these engineers’ math is better than mine..
Not much, Pune is an awesome place to be. Weather is fantastic, the locals are friendly, and then there is this great Sheesha / Jazz bar at ABC farms…
This is an encouraging sign for oil speculators.
I’m happy for the engineers. I just hope GM has learned from past mistakes. Its okay to put a brilliant young engineer into production, as a first line superviser,for a little seasoning. But don’t leave him/her in there untill they burn out. Over the years I witnessed all kinds of smart young people leave GM. I can remember one young lady tellling me “I didn’t go to school for six years,and put myself in debt for life to play nanny to a bunch of red necks” She quit, and today works for Ontario Power Generation….GMs loss.
A great education, and lots of smarts does not neccesarly make you a great production superviser.
Another bright young man told me, that the only way to get a promotion was to excell as a production manager. He did, got promoted and now works at Honda.
As far as blue collar goes. With the Equinox, running with the Impala here in Oshawa its generated 600 much needed new jobs.
When I was green and interviewed with GM for an internship, I insisted that I wanted to work in R&D. The hiring person informed me that GM was a manufacturing company. I did not end up working for them. After hearing the horror stories of trying to supervise UAW workers, I know I made the right decision.
I was in the line when I was around 24. Honestly, I wasn’t the nanny of a band of rednecks. I had assembly workers. And learned a lot from that experience. And had fun. You learn a lot from those rednecks, and no amount of money or college will teach you half of what the guy turning the wrench will. I don’t regret my time in the line.
The thing with the line is that you will see the same bunch of problems repeating day after day… which after 1 year will drive you crazy.
I then moved into other areas where I had a lot of fun too. I definitely would keep in those areas since it’s there where I want to develop.
A great education, and lots of smarts does not neccesarly make you a great production superviser.
This is so very, very true. I’d hazard you probably want someone who is a good leader first and has engineering second, but the latter is easier for HR to screen for.
This is all very, very good to hear.
Finally some good news for Michigan and Detroit metro area in particular…. Ronnie is absolutely correct about the hiring spree. More than that, the pay packages being offered are very good too. I know this because I am actually one of those young engineers who will be moving to Michigan (Northville, in particular) this summer from Ohio due to an enticing offer from a top automotive R&D outfit.
LinkedIn shows a lot of auto related activity in the US.
Last year I checked ChryslerCareers site frequently. LOTS of engineering jobs, and still. GM’s site is also usually filed with positions. I haven’t seen Ford’s site nor the transplants.
O.K. you up-and-coming engineers – here is your order of the millenium:
Design cars that we actually want to buy, drive and be seen in! For starters:
1. Design vehicles we can see out of.
2. Design coupes that are useful; i.e. rear windows that open (what a concept!)
3. Design a pillarless hardtop coupe that meets side impact standards
4. Design a three-box style with a real trunk opening and where back seat passengers don’t bang their head on the backlight frame edge, you can see the edge of the trunk and hood.
5. Design a practical station wagon and don’t call it a “cross-over”.
6. Design a car in a linear style that doesn’t resemble a doorstop or melted pile of wax or a cowflop.
Did I miss anything? Any questions? Get to work!
I think there is something seriously wrong with an economic model that has industry in a constant cycle of boom and bust with all the attendant carnage to individual employees, their families, communities, small investors and, to some degree, whole countries.
And it all comes down to greed. A mere hint of an upturn and its all pedal-to-the-metal and lets-all-make-a-killing-while-the-gettings-good.
Then they’re all shocked and bemoaning their “misfortune” and looking for hand-outs when it all goes tits-up….AGAIN!
Will mankind EVER learn from past mistakes?
What would be wrong with letting production flow along at a nice SUSTAINABLE and PROFITABLE level that doesn’t try to wring every last cent out of the market but neither does it lead to dangerously high costs as soon as things start slowing down.
Indeed, if most manufacturers operated like that surely there would be less “slowing down” occuring because employment would be much steadier.
Yeah, yeah…I know. I’m a madman whistling in the dark. I just hate the modern world in many respects. Sorry for the rant.
G’day all!
“Will mankind EVER learn from past mistakes?”
@SimonAlberta: It’s all very simple: Jeremiah 10:23 says: “…it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.”
I am a Mechanical Engineer and live in Los Angeles and now will move to Detroit Michigan for a better opportunity. I have around 15 years of experience mostly in Aerospace and now I want to work in Automotive Industry. CALIFORNIA ECONOMY HAS COLLAPSED.
If someone is hiring and is looking for a good mechanical engineer, then please send me an email and I will send my resume. Please note I will move to Detroit in mid of May, 2011.
Email: losangelesengineer@yahoo.com