So where are those EE jobs?

Things are looking good for EEs these days. According to AeA (American Electronics Association, www.aeanet.org) the unemployment rate for engineersincluding EEis below 2%. The highest ever recorded unemployment rate for EEs reached 6.3% in 2003, remember?

Well those days are overat least for now. There are about 4,109 jobs nationawide on www.dice.com (a career search engine for tech people) just by typing in the search box the keyword “electrical engineering”. Also, Aerotek, one of the largest tech and professional staffing agencies (www.aerotek.com) has many online postings. It seems like just everyone is hiring, from the east coast to the west.

By looking at some company Web sites it was no surprise to see that most of the jobs are located in silicon Valley. So if you don’t mind the high cost of living in California, I recommend recent graduates to start their job search there. Texas, especially Austin, is also boomimg in engineering jobs, since more and more semiconductor companies are moving their businesses there, while the cost of living is also better than in California, check out Maxim (www.maxim-ic.com).

Large companies, such as Texas Instruments (www.ti.com), Analog Devices (www.analog.com), and Intel (www.intel.com) also hire entry-level engineers. They promote this by including a special college graduate section on their Web sites. Smaller companies, on the other hand, tend to hire professionals with at least 5 years of experience.

So there are many opportunities for EEs these days. Just polish up your resume, compose a cover letter, and click the send button. Postage is no longer required, unless you are applying for a government job.

Happy job hunting!