Way Back WHEN-esday

Well it’s that time again to go Way Back Whenes-day. Remember I spoke in my first blog about the “Candidate Rich” markets of yester years? You know the Baby Boomers that filled the Engineering marketplace, driven by their parents, the “Class of 45”. You know, that group known and written by Tom Brokaw, NBC News Anchor and author of the best selling book “The Greatest Generation”. They are the ones that bent your ear and made you study such things as “math and science”. They raised a class of students (many students) Baby boomers - to become Engineers and Scientists. Those men and women went out to continue the efforts to build this Nation and other nation’s Infrastructure and rid the world of environmentally bad things, cleaned up things, designed and built things, like their fathers and mothers did.

Now here’s the rub, the pay wasn’t so great, not nearly. Years went by; Engineers and Scientists were like that of the great teachers of the world. They knew a lot, were made to study a lot, were required to be Registered a lot and even made to keep up with their CEU’s a lot. But even in the best economic times, Engineers and Scientists were not then and even now, PAID A LOT. Now we are talking about “the perfect candidate”: educated, skilled, years of experience, registered and paid adequate for the times; nothing to write home about, not near as much as a Wall Streeter or even a cab driver in some cases. The reason: we had a lot of Engineers and Scientists and the infrastructure and environment were not issues of the day.

So we wake up one day and find that we now need more and more Engineers and Scientists, not only here, but around the Globe. However, now the ones from Way back Whenes-day are older, more experienced and one would think, in high demand. Instead, hiring authorities look for the juniors. And guess what? Somebody forgot to bend an ear and make engineering and science a priority; you know the math and science part. Maybe because an era of computer science and engineering came along and the DOT.COM world was sexier and paid a lot more money, etc.; and maybe that other Engineering and Science industry as a whole isn’t sexy to say or be a part of (or maybe years of low pay lead them away) and just maybe, no one wanted to be an Engineer or Scientist because for them, some one else can do that, they wanted to be a rock star. You all should see Bob Compton’s new film called “2 Million Minutes”. This film, “examines the education gap between U.S. high school students and those in China and India.” What a shock; or maybe not. Haven’t you been listening; America needs engineers and scientist NOW. SHORTAGE - CRISIS! (America seems to listen better when you say CRISIS)

Why is their so much money being poured into College Recruitment for Engineers and Scientists when we already know the numbers aren’t there? If you are an Engineer and/or Scientist and are into numbers; look at the numbers. A client of mine showed up at a College Recruitment Fair and realized that there were more Recruiters looking for candidates than potential candidates. SURPRISE!

In conclusion, hire the seniors, take that big leap of faith (joke), those with 20-25-30 years of experience can do the job and have been doing it for a lot of years. Look at the Engineers coming out of the Military, and for god sakes, keep educating the youth in math and science. “Bend an ear”, the future of our world is counting on you.

So for this week's shocker, “CLIENTS” and Human Resource Managers”, see Bob Compton’s movie “2 Million Minutes”. And for the “CANDIDATES”, young and old, read the article from the front page of MSN October 6, 2008 “THE SECRET TO FINDING A NEW JOB!”, by Todd McCormick. OR just call us, we bring the world together one candidate and employer at a time.

Till Next Time,

Dan Hydrick
CEO