Recently, Forbes came out with a list of ten cities where it’s apparently easiest to find jobs in STEM fields. A couple of months ago, they also came out with a list on the greatest engineering hubs in the US.
These resources, while potentially serving as a couple of extra guideposts for where to find jobs, also raise certain questions you need to consider when combing for job openings in engineering. These include the following:
- What are the regions with the greatest growth in your field of engineering? A given location can have thousands of engineers, but is it experiencing growth as well, opening more space for job-seekers?
- Are there job openings at your level? For instance, if you’re fresh out of school with little experience, various jobs could be closed off entirely to you.
- Will you be able to easily obtain further skills training or professional development at a given location? In the course of your work, you may want to take additional classes or have easy access to opportunities for mastering new forms of technology to broaden your skill set and marketability. What institutions of higher learning or other resources exist for further skills training?
- Where are you prepared to live? Looking beyond any dreams about life in Silicon Valley, consider where you could wind up working. If you work for the aerospace or automobile industries, maybe you’d wind up in Dayton, Ohio. If you work for the energy industry you could live in such widely differing places as Louisiana or North Dakota (or in Houston, which is experiencing a major growth in engineering, in part because of the energy industry). Maybe you’d also need to look overseas. Also compare the salary you’d expect to get with the cost of living expenses in the area.
- Are you writing off some places too quickly? New York City and its environs aren’t considered an engineering hotspot, but don’t write off such places entirely in your search; all it can take is one company launching one project in your area to land you what could possibly be a dream job, or at least a job that gives you some invaluable experience. Maybe this company and its success will also bring more investment in engineering and more career opportunities to a location that’s currently lagging in engineering jobs.
In addition to searching through job sites and calling on every one of your connections who could possibly direct you to job opportunities (including those that aren’t necessarily listed), contact us. We can help you make a targeted search for engineering jobs in your field that will help you develop your career.
For more opportunities please visit our Career Portal.
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