Hot, Hot, Hot

Casual scan of newspaper headlines over the last 12 months might reveal a pretty grim picture of the U.S. economy: The Asian economic crisis continued to make it difficult for U.S. firms to export their goods overseas and segments such as the semiconductor market watched sales slip. Domestic manufacturers like Boeing announced waves of job cuts. Oil companies were hurt by sagging petroleum prices.

Yet the overall U.S. economy continues full steam ahead. What's picking up the slack as staid industries recover from their setbacks? Technology companies—especially those enabling other firms to make the transition to the digital world—are driving growth so solidly that graduating engineers and computer scientists should have plenty of other options and opportunities available to them for employment. "More than half of our economic growth comes from industries that barely existed a decade ago," U.S. Secretary of Commerce William Daley told a Washington audience last spring.

He's not kidding. New technology is allowing companies to reduce their costs, open up whole new markets and take their research and development efforts into the next dimension. Many of the old corporate giants haven't been able to take advantage of this promise on their own, however, so they're calling on other firms—some new, some more experienced—to move them into the information age. As a result, the stock of these firms is soaring. Many of these companies may not be household names, largely because they stay behind the scenes. Their services are vital, however, to conducting business in the next millennium and—here's the really good news—they're all hiring engineering and computer science professionals.

Some "Thing" Good

As the suffix ".com" entrenches itself in the world's vocabulary, numerous companies have sprung up to create, distribute, market or secure the content of Internet sites. One which provides all those services is Thingworld.com, an Internet media company in Newton, Mass. The three-year-old firm www.thingworld.com functions much like a television network or movie distributor, driving customers to the Web sites of top sports, entertainment, music and consumer brands companies. Among its customers are Comedy Central, David Bowie, the National Football League and the World Wrestling Federation.

"We create content and syndicate it through the Thingworld.com media network," explains Maura Welch, general manager of marketing for the company. "Our technologies allow customers to protect their intellectual property, to copyright it in such a way that it can be packaged, distributed and controlled online."

The company's business is completely Internet-based and given its high-profile customers, its services appear to be in high demand among brand and intellectual property owners. The list of investors also registers a vote of confidence in www.thingworld.com, a roster that includes Microsoft, Intel and CMGI Inc., an investment firm with a track record of picking winners, including Geocities and Lycos.

Welch notes that because most of the activity on the Internet is USA-based, the impact of global threats, such as the Asian market crisis, is reduced on firms like hers. She disagrees, however, with the suggestion that Internet companies are immune to disturbances in the international landscape. "That's the big question right now," she says. "Is there a bubble in the Internet economy and is it about to burst? I don't think anybody knows the answer. We still don't even know who the major players are. Companies are still buying up other companies."

For the time being, Thingworld.com is building itself up from the inside, specifically through its engineering group, which is composed of two segments, explains Fran Taussig, director of product management. One group builds software applications and the other--where there is the most hiring growth--is the group that supports the Web sites of both the company and its partners. "The engineering team on the Web side is responsible for the infrastructure that supports the sites and things such as database and search technologies," she adds.

The company hires a huge number of computer engineering majors, and Taussig says capabilities learned in the classroom often give students an edge. "In an environment where the technology that you're using to build and maintain Web sites is constantly evolving, people are picking up new skills at school that are on the cutting edge and we can use that here," she says.

She describes the working atmosphere at www.thingworld.com as fast-paced and rapidly changing. "You're coming into an environment where what you're learning may change in the next six months," Taussig says. "You need the flexibility to adapt to that."

Taussig adds that the candidates who stand out to her are the ones who "interview you as much as you interview them," she says. "That means that they're paying attention to what kind of work environment motivates them and makes them productive."

What Thingworld.com offers in return is what the company calls "the fun factor." The uniqueness of the business and variety of projects and customers create a lively, enjoyable atmosphere in which to work, they say.

Kristen Gariepy, the company's manager of public relations and promotions, also notes that, although the company is currently privately owned, the expectations are to go public. "We offer all our employees equity in the company through stock options," she says. "There's the potential for big financial growth" once Thingworld.com's stock is traded on the open market.

Ahead of the Pack

Sometimes it takes experience to stay on the cutting edge. Take J.D. Edwards Inc., of Denver, a software company founded 22 years ago that enables customers to track all aspects of production. Retaining the vim and vigor of newer entities through its standout commitment to both customers and employees, J.D. Edwards must continually stay ahead of market changes and the shifting demands of its customers, which are mainly manufacturers and other large corporations.

"We've seen many [business] cycles come through," says Bob Morrison, college relations manager for J.D. Edwards. Right now, he says, the world is moving from the industrial age to the information age, and the transition is nowhere near completion. "By no means has technology fully developed with the Internet," Morrison affirms. "We're still in the infant stage with business-to-business commerce. Most of the activity [to date] has been business-to-consumer."

Looking ahead is inherent to J.D. Edwards' success. "We are writing the software for companies to run their business processes, so we have to be at the forefront and be able to see what's in the future and start adapting our software" to perform functions such as electronic commerce. (For more on e-commerce, see "Here Today, Jobs Tomorrow," in GE&CC 8/99.)

Committed to the notion that the world is always changing, the company's software is built on the idea that the products that customers purchase should be able to serve them as their business needs change. "Our software is flexible," Morrison explains, "and allows companies to make changes as they grow and expand without the major expense of having people come in to do coding changes."

It's a philosophy that the company also adheres to when it comes to its employees. "When I recruit someone, I say, 'If this is a place you only want to be for two or three years, this is probably not the job for you,'" Morrison explains. "We want people to stay—ideally—for the rest of their careers. Obviously that's not always a reality, but when we hire someone, we want it to be for the long term."

He predicts that the next year may see as many as 70 computer science and electrical engineering majors join the company, many of whom will be placed in the Tools Development Group, which develops the underlying architecture for the software. Some will also be hired into the Technical Customer Support Group, where they will interact with J.D. Edwards' customers and business partners.

In addition to strong technical skills, Morrison says he looks for well-rounded individuals who can communicate their ideas both verbally and in writing. "They also have to be willing and able to be team players," he adds. "We are very team-oriented."

What stands out about J.D. Edwards as an employer, Morrison feels, is its culture. "We create the best work environment possible. Anyone can offer good benefits or salary. Here, the managers are working managers, not delegators. It creates a more friendly atmosphere, where we downplay politics and look out for the team."

Picture This

Just as J.D. Edwards enables its customers to seize the power of emerging technologies, Engineering Animation Inc. in Ames, Iowa, offers its business partners the ability to use those technologies to bring their products, services or even ideas into a new dimension--the third dimension. Founded in 1988 by two Iowa State University professors and two graduate students, EAI develops both software and interactive multimedia incorporating 3-D computer modeling. Applications include industries as varied as automotive, aerospace, medical and legal, and customers include Ford Motor Co., Mattel Inc., Lockheed Martin and Allied Signal. A recent project even required the company to use its skills to electronically reconstruct the auto accident that took the life of Princess Diana.

The software division concentrates on software for heavy industry, solutions that would, for example, allow a factory to redesign operations and see problems occur in animation before cropping up in reality, explains Patricia Johnson, vice president of human resources at EAI. The other half of the EAI equation, the interactive division is composed of professionals who work on games, interactive communication and litigation, a field for which the company produces scientifically accurate animations for attorneys who use them to demonstrate courtroom evidence.

Johnson continues, "We're working with visualization to tell a story, whether it's to entertain, educate or simplify complex data. We have a core group of engineers who work on that, but also designers, illustrators, teachers—a lot of sciences coming together."

EAI has been profitable every quarter since 1990 and has flourished into a global company with nearly 30 offices worldwide and nearly 1,200 employees. Success has begotten more success, as a dynamic and varied list of products has steadily spewed from its employees:

• VisMockUp software that allows teams at Ford to collaboratively build and view 3-D virtual prototypes on a shared network of computers. This software solution reduces the need for physical prototypes, speeds time to market and lowers costs.
• During the past 15 months, EAI has delivered 22 interactive multimedia CD-ROMs. Among these titles is "Active Play: A Bug's Life" that EAI created for Disney Interactive and which is a companion to the animated feature film, "A Bug's Life."
• Guidant EVT software that converts a standard 2-D CT scan of an aorta into a 3-D, four-color model of patient anatomy that can be rotated and viewed from numerous angles on a PC.

Todd Frank, an animator/modeler for EAI, says a key to the company's growth is its environment and its people. "The environment we work in is very creative and very challenging," he says. "It's a team effort."

Applicants are exposed to the team environment immediately, as Bonnie Reed, manager of recruitment at EAI, explains. "In our hiring process, we do a team interview of candidates. Those teams are attuned to looking for the type of person who will come in and not only contribute to the technology, but also carries some of the characteristics we look for," she notes.

Focus groups with current employees helped to determine what those attributes are, Johnson adds, among them the ability to be a team player and to thrive on uncertainty. "In any high-tech company, you have to be able to make it without knowing what all the answers are," Johnson explains. "That's what keeps you on the edge."

Johnson notes that as much 70% of EAI's revenue in a given year comes from products that the company didn't even know it would be doing two or three years earlier. Again, the company turns to its employees to help define what products will move the company forward. That input empowers the workers, Frank says, and contributes to a sense of loyalty and job satisfaction. And as a new engineer gains more experience with the company, he or she could eventually become a leader on a project. "That in itself encourages and helps grow the creativity that we look for in a person," Frank concludes.

Playing the Market

Although earnings certainly aren't the only indicator of a hot company, they do speak volumes about past performance and future potential. Take the Houston-based Telescan Inc., an online financial services provider. In the first quarter of this year, the company recorded revenue of $5.3 million—63% of which came from Internet-based services.

Telescan, started in 1984 when founder Richard Carlin was searching for a method to track the stock market, has experienced incredible growth. Its flagship product is Wall Street City, which allows individual investors access to a financial database of more than 300 stock indicators, as well as analysis and research tools. The site currently receives more than 13 million page views a month, a 237% increase over the last year.

The company has some real market powerhouses in its corner. Financial institutions including American Express, Fidelity Investments and Citibank have allied with Telescan Inc. to use its services. The company also maintains a non-financial segment providing online services in the publishing, entertainment, sports and pharmaceutical industries. Among its partners in those ventures are Fortune.com and Playboy. Last spring, Telescan announced an agreement with broadcasting giant NBC, under which Telescan will develop customized investment analysis and provide financial data and hosting services for a new CNBC.com site, to be relaunched as a comprehensive Web site for personal finance.

A direct result of these alliances is Telescan's plan to expand its computer operations center. The company needed to enlarge the facility—staffed 24 hours a day—to accommodate the additional equipment and staffing necessary to handle more customer Web sites.

A key component to Telescan's growth and success has been its technical capabilities. The basis for the company has been to make it easy for regular Joes to understand the ups and downs of Wall Street, and to give them clear information to use in deciding when to buy and when to sell. The addition of Java-based technology last year made it easier for investors to customize searches for stocks, mutual funds and options. Users can also analyze groups of stocks by industry and pinpoint the most promising individual stocks within a group.

These cutting-edge tools are developed by the ranks of programmers, database operators and Web developers that Telescan hires. Most employees do have at least a year of experience, but Judy Lucas, human resources manager for the company, says new grads with significant internship or co-op experience are not out of the running. In the past, entry-level positions have included the technical support arena, which oversees software setup, configuration and hardware conflict resolution for users. Aside from experience with hardware problem diagnostics, Telescan notes that interest in the stock market is a definite plus.

Lucas says the working atmosphere helps to draw—and retain—programmers. The office layout is open and provides workers with offices, not cubicles. "And it's very friendly," she adds. "Everybody pulls together."

Like other promising companies, Telescan is also able to offer stock options to its employees. "The stock price last year was around $6 [a share] and now it's stabilized around $20, so it's been a large advantage for employees and it should continue to be an advantage," Lucas notes.

It's All in the Presentation

By and large, these companies that are embroiled in the Internet and software development are seeking computer science, electrical and computer engineering majors. So where does all of this leave those students in the more tangible engineering disciplines: civil, chemical, biological, industrial and the like?

Across the board, advisors to students studying in these fields describe the hiring market as fruitful. "My impression is that all across the field there's a high demand for people now because of the economy," says Maeve Drummond, undergraduate advisor in the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. "It may be that some of the starting salaries in the computing fields are higher, but there are many opportunities for civils right now."

Drummond observes that there's still "a great demand for buildings and transportation development being done that seems to be creating a lot of opportunities for civils." Despite cutting-edge technologies like e-commerce, she concludes, cities, states and countries still need to develop their infrastructures, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.

"People are doing business electronically, but they're still moving around and there are different types of leisure activities that involve travel," she notes.

In addition to tried and true employers like Procter and Gamble and Bethlehem Steel, consulting firms and smaller companies are breaching the Purdue campus in greater numbers to recruit students in civil engineering, Drummond adds.

Similarly, Michael Walter, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Cornell University, says the hiring market for his students is excellent—owing largely to the demand coming from companies that aren't household names.

Merck, Andersen and a few of the big companies hire some of our students, but typically, our students are going to go to much smaller consulting firms and start-up biological firms," he says.

Students in his department are often forced to be proactive in identifying these firms. Because they generally don't visit the Cornell campus, seniors find them on the Internet or come across them almost accidentally—which makes the job of Walter's advisors very difficult. "For us, the single biggest challenge we have is to make sure that students have relatively easy access to job opportunities. They all find jobs, but it is a little more discouraging if you have to search rather than have five opportunities, as you would if you were an engineer who met the needs of a company coming on campus to interview."

To assist students, Walter says he and his colleagues devote a significant amount of time to helping students put a good resume together, polish their interviewing skills and getting organized "so that when they have an opportunity, they don't blow it," he says.

Even in some of the more traditional industries, there are huge opportunities to be found on the Internet, Walter says. "Students work with the career office to make sure they use the network as much as possible to find those opportunities," he notes.

Students studying the more traditional disciplines may have more opportunities available to them than they think, observes John Hannabach, director of career services at Georgia Tech. He advises those students to emphasize their computer skills because there are many jobs for which an employer might target a computer science major, "but an aerospace engineer or an industrial engineer who has good computer skills could do that job. We [impress upon] both students and employers to look at the functional requirements of a job."

Hannabach says it's a strategy he takes not because the industrial and aerospace students receive fewer job offers, but because the demands for information technology and systems experts far exceeds the supply of students studying CS or EE.

"The way engineers are trained, they can do anything," he says. "If they want to get into banking or finance, they can do it."

And many at Cornell and elsewhere are doing just that. Walter also notes that at Cornell and other schools, many engineering students are pursuing careers outside the engineering realm. "They're either going on to professional schools like law and medicine, or they're going into finance. We have a great many that are going on to Wall Street as investment bankers," he notes. "What they find is that there is so much demand for quantitative skills, as well as really good computer skills, that they do well in the financial world."

Hannabach admits that while some segments of the economy have shown instability, the labor market remains generally favorable—despite frequent mergers, acquisitions or even layoffs. "Students can't worry about that," he says. "Go for the jobs that interest you. You can't anticipate what's going to happen and now is the time for you to take risks. You'll never have a better opportunity," he advises.