Hiring in military sector commands attention

When the economic histories of the 20th century are written, the late 1990s will be remarkable for the way they changed the face of corporate America. And the merger mania that swept through nearly every area of business may deserve to be called the most powerful force of the times.

The aerospace and defense industry was particularly affected by the pressures to combine forces. Shrinking defense priorities and the loss of enemies — perceived and real — drove most of the major players into compacts of convenience. Boeing gobbled up McDonnell-Douglas, Raytheon ate Rockwell, and the food chain became shorter.

But if 1998 was the year the mergers were completed, 1999 will be the year they start to make good on their promises, according to David Ally, of Sanford Rose Associates (Akron, Ohio). Ally said the job market for engineers in aerospace has heated up dramatically lately. To prove it, he said, he's got 2,000 job openings to fill nationally in engineering and data processing alone.

"In the middle of last year, most of the companies did a housecleaning. Layoffs, early retirements, culling out what they thought they didn't need," said Ally. "We say they're finding out what's real and not real. After all of the gyrations and the mergers are accomplished, then they start hiring."

Raytheon is looking for people in its Massachusetts, Texas and Arizona plants. Lockheed Martin is hiring for its Melbourne, Fla., operations.

For the most part, Ally said, the jobs he's looking to fill are for candidates with between two and five years' experience. Good skills to have are C++ and Ada, to wrestle with government contracts. Entry-level positions do exist, he said, but companies tend to go directly to campus and conduct their own recruiting for those slots.

Of course, at the end of the day 2,000 openings don't necessarily translate into 2,000 paychecks. Some of the positions will go to project managers whose first steps will be to trim personnel. Even so, said Ally, the bulk of the opportunities will become real posts.

Another promising route is the Web. Boeing's Internet site lists over 750 engineering jobs, from helicopter experts to people with training in the design of thermal life-support systems. The latter position is in the company's Huntsville, Ala., operations, where work on the International Space Station is being done. Boeing is also seeking engineers with skills in software design, missile simulation and analysis, EMI/EMC, IC design and satellite communications.

A spokesman for Raytheon said the defense contractor's sorest need are in its operations in Dallas, Portsmouth, R.I., and Tucson, Ariz., where it is working on a new missile-making facility.

The job market has become "viciously competitive" for engineers, said a spokesman at Lockheed Martin's Maryland offices. Lockheed has scores of posts to fill, from entry to senior level. Here are a few random picks: The company wants a test engineer with thermal-vacuum skills for its Sunnyvale, Calif., missiles and space facility; a systems engineer with a strong background in MatLab for its Nashua, N.H., operations; and systems engineers for its underseas warfare, Seawolf sub and electronic-warfare contracts.

Beyond the main contractors, there's plenty of hiring by second-tier suppliers. For instance, board makers are seeing a boom in mil products that's sparking hiring.

"Surprisingly, the companies that focus on military markets had a really good year in '98 and they're hiring more people in anticipation of more fun this year,'' said Ray Alderman, president of the VME International Trade Association (Scottsdale, Ariz.).