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Appendix C: Views of Placement Officers
Pages 79-91

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From page 79...
... APPENDIX C: Vats of Placement Officers Sung: CoDegc Rclabons Discussion Cmup Sleety, April 17, 1986/' 81 "Defense and Nondc~nse Employment The Vow Tom Engincedng Scb-1 Placement O~ces/1 Robed K Westber~1 (HassachuseMs Institute of Technology)
From page 81...
... For example, DuPont has problems recruiting electrical engineers because it is not viewed as a prestigious position by these engineers -- but DuPont has never had problems recruiting chemical engineers. While these firms may not face major recruiting problems, it was noted that the same conclusions may not apply to smaller firms; it was hypothesized that recruiting problems arising from increases In demand are more likely to be encountered by these firms because they do not possess the image arid the "glamour" (which is presumably valued by graduating engineers)
From page 82...
... It was stated that engineers who engage in defense work become narrowly specialized in their skills and are therefore not easily shifted to commercial activity when relative demand shifts. To illustrate the lack of mobility, the representative trom Rockwell noted that his company "job-shopped" many of its experienced engineers to other aerospace firms when the Carter administration canceDed the B-1 bomber project; they were therefore able to gear up quickly by recalling these engineers when the project was reinstated.
From page 83...
... Weatherall Massachusetts Institute of Technology One of the candidates to take Tip O'Neill's place in Congress as representative of the Massachusetts Sth Congressional District, which includes MIT and Harvard in its borders, has chosen as one of her issues the unpact of defense spending on the nondefense engineering labor market. "Every time we buy a Japanese tape recorder or German car," she told MIT students recently, "we're doing it in part because the best of our skilled hightech people are focusing their attention on weapons systems." Whether her diagnosis is right or wrong, someone calling placement offices at engineering schools around the country quickly finds that what is seen as an issue at MIT is seen as much less of an issue elsewhere, and on some campuses is not seen as an issue at all.
From page 84...
... Chentis Pettigrew, placement officer for the engineering school, 45 percent of UCLA graduates stay in southern California; and for them He defense sector, and in particular the aerospace industry, is a fact of life. A major portion of every defense doHar (up to 30 or 40 cents, he believes)
From page 85...
... vanVIiet has not seen a jump in defense recruiting, he believes Hat opportunities in the defense sector have been providing a counterweight to the reduced opportunities on the civilian side: 30-40 percent of Oregon State's graduates go out of state, and a fair share go to such firms as Hughes and McDonnell Douglas. University of Illinois Acording to Robert Mosberg, assistant dean and placement director at the University of Illinois eng~neenng school, employers in Patois get the largest fraction of the school's graduates, and California receives the next largest group.
From page 86...
... Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute The companies hiring the most graduates at RPT according to the placement director, Vicki Lynn, are in rough order the following: IBM, GE, Raytheon, Digital Equipment, General Motors, United Technologies, AT&T, Arthur Andersen (for MIS consulting) , Procter & Gamble, Boeing, Hughes, McDonnell Douglas, and General Dynamics.
From page 87...
... Table ~ includes graduates in all the fields of engineering and science represented at MIT, at all degree levels, who did not take stnctly academic jobs TABLE I: Destination of MIT Science and Engineering Graduates Not Taking Strictly Academic Jobs or Entering the Military (in percent) Employer 1980-81 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 Private firms*
From page 88...
... The table includes foreign students taking jobs in this country but not foreign students returning abroad. The majority of students take jobs with private Inns selling products or services in the commercial market, but there clearly has been a drift away from the commercial to the gove~nment-con~act side, which for the most part means defense firms.
From page 89...
... It is widely agreed that the character of engineering students has been changing. Last year's National Academy of Sciences report, Engineering Education and Practice in the United States, made the following statements: Professors and employers alike refer to the dramatically higher communication and social skills of engineering students and recent graduates as compared to past stereotypes of the engineer.
From page 90...
... For the last two years during the mid-winter break, ~ have mn a series of talks on jobs for technical graduates which do not involve hands-on technical work. Up to a hundred students have turned out to hear young technical graduates Elk about their work in investment banking, management consuming, management information systems consulting, and international finance.
From page 91...
... , one does not find the defense sector ahead there either. TABLE 3: Monthly Salaries for Bachelor's Degree Recipients, 1986 Field of Bachelor's Degree Electrical Computer Mechanical Industry Engineering Science Engineenng Aerospace $2390 $2262 $2333 Automotive&Mechan~calEquipment $2420 $2214 $2333 Chemicals, Drugs, & Allied Products $2482 $2272 $2448 Computers & Business Machines $2381 $2213 $2326 Electrical & Electronic Machines $2375 $2278 $2323 & Equipment Petroleum & Allied Products Utilides $2468 $2262 $2508 $2367 $2220 $2353 SOURCE: CPC Salary Survey, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: The College Placement Council, March 1986, pp.


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