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According to NSBE, a growing number of employers in tech-based industries are looking to hire more African Americans. "In the past year especially, we've seen a great increase in these employers' interest in black engineering and technology students," says Eric Addison of the NSBE staff. Economic recovery has contributed to employers' interest in the African American pool, he adds.
NSBE also expects companies "to turn to populations in the United States that are underrepresented," because the war on terrorism has limited the availability of foreign students. "We think that over the long term, employers will find that they are drawing more talent from among African Americans," Addison says.
But, Addison points out, African American students need more encouragement to choose, and stay with, the study of engineering. "Some have noted a small upward trend in the number of African American engineering students and their graduation rate, but the numbers are not nearly where they should be," he says.
Hiring is happening
Meanwhile human resource specialists across the country say the job outlook is good for African Americans in engineering and information technology in the coming year. The automotive industry, for instance, is becoming more diverse, and African Americans are better represented now, says Sally Davis, advisor in human resources at Nissan Technical Center North America (Farmington Hills, MI).
"There is a large African American population in Detroit, and it always has made up a substantial portion of the industry. But now African Americans are taking on more roles involved with the styling and design and interiors. Their influence is becoming more and more evident," Davis says.
Nissan has hired many African Americans in the past two years. "We've made huge strides in training and mentoring, and in keeping them!"
Progress in other industries
Other industries are making efforts as well. Camille Sautner, diversity programs manager at Siemens Corp (Iselin, NJ), says that Siemens actively recruits African American engineers. "We will continue to market Siemens as a company dedicated to diversity at all levels of the organization," she declares.
Brandon Fireall participates in the IT Leadership Development Program at Siemens Energy and Automation Inc (Alpharetta, GA). He notes that IT professionals "are constantly being required to bring more to the table than just raw IT talent." IT professionals, he says, "have to continue to develop other talents that make us stand out from the crowd."
The utility industry has made progress in diversifying its workforce at all levels, says Sheila Delay, manager of college resourcing at Entergy (New Orleans, LA). "Entergy has made a concerted effort to broaden the diversity of candidate pools and has seen positive results in technical and other jobs for which we do external recruiting," she says.
LaShawna Criswell is a field engineer at M.A. Mortenson Co (Minneapolis, MN), one of the largest builders in the United States. She works every day in a white-male-dominated world, managing subcontractors and overseeing project schedules. But she has had supervisors who support her strongly, and her current job superintendent is an African American male.
"My advice to African American women who want to get into engineering is to go into it knowing that it's a predominantly white male industry, but still have an open mind," Criswell says. "I feel there's a demand for us. We just have to take advantage of opportunities."
Here are some recent African American grads who are successfully employing their engineering skills.
Edward L. Waller: juggling tasks at Entergy
Edward L. Waller's work as an engineer at Entergy Corp (New Orleans, LA) involves evaluating the plant conditions at Grand Gulf nuclear station in Port Gibson, MS, and providing and maintaining calculations that are required as part of the plant design. He works closely with employees in nuclear site engineering, plant operations, maintenance and other associated groups, both local and remote to the nuclear station.
Entergy, an integrated energy company, has both electric power production and retail distribution operations. It owns and operates power plants with about 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second largest nuclear generator in the United States. The company has 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
"The biggest challenge of my job thus far has been learning to handle many different tasks simultaneously," Waller says. "Of course, it's also provided me with the most enjoyment. I've been given resources that have eased the adjustment and allowed me to take on more and more responsibilities."
Waller has been working in the nuclear design engineering electrical/instruments and controls department since he started full time in December 2003. He took the job right after graduation from Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS).
His degree is in computer engineering with an emphasis on hardware and circuit design. He also has a May 2000 associates degree in pre-engineering from Southwest Mississippi Community College (Summit, MS).
Waller came to Entergy through a co-op program with the Grand Gulf station's computer engineering department. He held positions in system and computer engineering during four semesters between January 2001 and August 2003.
He notes that engineering opportunities in the nuclear industry are broad, and "While the road to earning the degree may be demanding, the rewards and sense of accomplishment are really worth it."
Entergy employs various engineering disciplines
Entergy is actively recruiting to fill full-time entry-level openings throughout its service territory, which includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas and nuclear operations in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, says Sheila Delay, manager of college resourcing. Entergy also has formal internship and co-op programs.
The company employs engineers with undergraduate or graduate degrees in electrical, mechanical, civil, nuclear, computer and engineering technologies. Computer skills and familiarity with the Windows environment and Microsoft Office suite are preferred.
New engineering college graduates may work in fossil operations, utility operations, nuclear operations and transmission businesses, in jobs that center on the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. Functional areas include engineering, operations, maintenance and asset management. Engineers prepare engineering specs and design evaluations; investigate, evaluate and troubleshoot operating problems; and perform engineering calculations. They may conduct and coordinate a variety of power plant equipment diagnostics, including vibration analysis, thermographic imaging and analysis, and motor and other component testing; or monitor and maintain the reliability and security of the Entergy transmission system.
The company's recruitment strategy involves several outreach efforts to identify diverse engineering talent, Delay says. Entergy advertises with and participates in the career fairs of NSBE, SWE and SHPE and the annual Black Engineer of the Year awards conference. It also takes part in campus career fairs at target colleges and universities, which include several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Entergy is a corporate partner of Inroads and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering.
Entergy provides its employees with online career planning and internal job posting, rotational programs, educational reimbursement and a career development workshop. There are formal mentoring programs at some business units, and Entergy encourages informal mentoring and networking.
Ronald Jackson: from Ford intern to full-time employee
Ronald Jackson is currently in the thirty-two-month Ford College graduate rotation program at Ford Motor Co (Dearborn, MI). Since February Jackson has been an applications engineer working on the multimedia system for Ford's Ranger truck. He ensures that multimedia components are properly fitted to the vehicle and that their functional interfaces meet Ford design specs.
He spends a lot of his time working with engineering groups and component suppliers to be sure the components meet Ford's ergonomic, manufacturing and vehicle-level requirements. "Each group has its own set of specifications to uphold, so I help get them all together to resolve issues," he says. "I'm the peacemaker."
Jackson, a native of Chicago, IL, has been with Ford since he did a summer internship there in 2001. In the fall of 2002 he started a graduate program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) as a GEM Fellow. GEM (www.gemfellowship.org) requires students to intern at a sponsoring company while they earn their degrees, and Ford was Jackson's sponsor. He completed three summer internships at Ford, working in controls engineering and automatic transmission engineering at two different Ford sites in Michigan.
He got his masters in EE in 2004 and started as a full-time employee at Ford that March. His first rotation was in the family entertainment systems department of electrical/electronics system engineering. He was in product development, and worked with a core component engineer to design a DVD entertainment system for the 2007 model year.
Jackson is a 2001 BSEE graduate of Kettering University (Flint, MI), a cooperative education school. Throughout college he co-oped at Delphi Delco Electronics Systems (Kokomo, IN), an automotive supplier that makes vehicle electronics. His assignments ranged from production supervision to prototype module development.
Following graduation Jackson worked for a few months for Process Development Corp (Livonia, MI), a private automotive consulting company, before he was accepted into GEM.
His advice: "Get co-ops and internships as early as possible to decide if the field you're going into is something you really enjoy. That's critical to being successful in your career. You need to stay focused and determined, and not base your career decisions only on how much money you can make."
Ford Motor Co supports its diverse employees
Ford Motor Co recruits at fifty-one colleges and universities, as well as through professional societies such as NSBE. Recently it has been recruiting engineers for product development, particularly brake, electrical, seat and body engineers, manufacturing engineers and plant engineers. A bachelors degree is the minimum requirement, and all job candidates must apply through www.mycareer.ford.com.
The company has a variety of org-anizations and diversity councils, including the Ford African Ancestry Network, Professional Women and the IT Diversity Network Group. The company also provides formal mentoring programs, which are arranged through its human resources offices.
John Deere's Nathanael Hilliard tests control systems
As a college student Nathanael Hilliard was always interested in working for Deere & Company (Moline, IL). "Everyone at school always had good things to say about the company. I also had friends who were interns there," Hilliard says. "When I went to the career services office on campus, the recruiters were so welcoming and warm, and the information they presented was genuine."
Today he is an engineer in control systems at the John Deere Power Systems plant in Waterloo, IA, where he has been testing an engine controlling unit for a new generation of natural gas engines since January 2005. "I have different scenarios that I go through to see how the engine will respond," he says.
Hilliard is a Chicago native. He graduated from Southern Illinois University/Carbondale (Carbondale, IL) in December 2004 with a BSEE, a specialization in computer engineering and a minor in math.
Hilliard began at John Deere as an intern. His first internship was as an applications engineer in 2003. He helped upgrade a worldwide system by writing programs and updating and transferring software files. During his second internship in 2004, he was a product development engineer. He updated code on an engine for a new concept vehicle in preparation for tests at a national laboratory.
John Deere offered Hilliard a full-time job during his senior year with its Family of Controllers Universal System (FOCUS) engine control group in Waterloo, IA, the same team with whom he worked during his first internship.
Hilliard's biggest challenge is getting used to new types of systems and databases. He expects to be able to apply his EE knowledge as he progresses in his career at John Deere. "To an extent, I am already applying my degree and will do so further down the road. Even people with masters degrees can still learn a lot here," Hilliard says.
Hilliard notes that he is close to his team members. They're like a family, he says. "My group invites me to do so many things, like bike riding and ice skating. I'm also a musician, so I go and play keyboards with them. There are people with similar backgrounds to mine here, and sometimes we gather to share our experiences."
Hilliard recently joined a new steering committee at John Deere that will focus on multicultural diversity. "It just kicked off," Hilliard says. "Since we're starting out, our meetings will be frequent so that we can establish leadership and objectives."
LaShawna Criswell manages subcontractors for M.A. Mortenson Co
LaShawna Criswell has taken on more and more responsibility as a field engineer at M.A. Mortenson Co (Minneapolis, MN). Mortenson is one of the largest builders in the United States and provides services that include planning, program and construction management, general contracting and design/build delivery, and maintenance and operations. Her primary role is to help manage subcontracting companies involved in building structures. "Basically I'm the liaison between the architect and subcontractor," she says.
Criswell moves around to different parts of the country, and each successive job brings more tasks. These days she is based in Des Moines, IA. She works with a senior scheduler who has been coordinating projects for Mortenson for twenty years. "Every month we update the schedule to make sure everyone's on track, on time and under budget," she says.
Criswell graduated from Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN) in December 2003 with a BS in architectural engineering. Her first internship was with Mortenson in the summer of 2002 in Allentown, PA, where she worked on an $11 million business school project. "They were in the excavation phase. The three months I was there, that's all I got to see!" she remembers.
She handled requests for information about dimensioning from the architect. "I took his answers and included them in the plan set of drawings," she says. She did the same for her second internship with Mortenson in the summer of 2003, this time for the new FedEx Forum in Memphis, a $250 million stadium. "It helped that I did those two internships, because I learned the company policy, as well as where it stands on safety."
In January 2004 she started at the company full time, managing subcontractors. She continued on the Memphis project initially, but later that year went to Minneapolis, MN, for a three-month training program on how to schedule projects. She came to Iowa in November 2004.
Her career goal is to be a senior project manager or construction manager. "Normally it takes about ten years before you get to the senior project level," Criswell says.
She says she finds new challenges every day. "When you put together a schedule, it seems easy, but when you get to the field and are looking at the processes and techniques, it can become overwhelming. There is so much you have to learn with safety that there's no way I could ever be bored," she says.
Keithric and Kendrick Taylor work together at Nissan
Keithric and Kendrick Taylor, identical twins from Senatobia, MS, have had similar interests and career goals their whole lives. They both graduated from Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS) in December 2003 with electrical engineering degrees and together started working as EEs at Nissan's Technical Center North America (NTCNA/Farmington Hills, MI).
The twins' brother, Gordon, ten years older, is an electronic technician. They'd tag along with him to his jobs when they were children, and that inspired them to go into engineering.
Keithric is a test engineer for body control modules. When he began at Nissan, he tested the body control modules "for every Nissan vehicle in North America." Currently he's testing the body control module for the Nissan Armada, Titan, Pathfinder, Xterra, Frontier and Infiniti QX56.
Kendrick is a design engineer in the wiring and systems department. He handles the circuit layout for the vehicle electrical system, which controls everything from radios to windows. "Some days, all I do is work on a computer. Occasionally I go to the technical facility and rework a vehicle, removing circuits or moving them to different connector cavities inside the vehicle," he says.
The twins like the diversity of Nissan's workforce. Kendrick's group, for example, is made up of people from Mexico, the Philippines and Russia. Keithric notes, "African American workers here get no special treatment, but there is no treatment that we disagree with, either."
They also like working together and share an apartment. "There's always a possibility one of us will go somewhere else if an opportunity comes along, but Nissan is a good company to work for. I'm enjoying the environment here and look forward to getting more experience," Keithric says.
Nissan programs ease the transition to work
Nissan's goal is to build strong relationships with diverse employees, whether they are entry-level or mid-career, so that they can "see themselves being successful here," says Sally Davis, advisor in human resources.
The company targets employees who are technically oriented, because its business approach is to achieve engineering excellence. Engineers may work in engineering design, testing or development. Design and test jobs are in Farmington Hill, MI. Development jobs are mostly at the Arizona proving ground in Stanfield, AZ, and are filled almost exclusively with MEs and CEs. Chemical and industrial engineers work at manufacturing plants in Smyrna, TN, Canton, MS and other locations.
Nissan expects to hire about thirty-five new engineer graduates in the coming year. Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL) and Mississippi State University are two of its favorite recruiting schools. The company prefers job applicants to post resumes at its website, www.nissanusa.com.
New hires are assigned a buddy. "We're recruiting from HBCUs and the South, so for these students coming to Michigan, it's a long way from home and a big change. The buddy program is a great way to help them feel more cared about and connected right away," she says.
New hires also go through extensive training and attend weekly meetings to assimilate into the workplace and understand how their school knowledge applies to their jobs. In addition, they can take advantage of a recently launched mentoring program.
"Our workforce is becoming increasingly diverse, so we are trying to come up with a system that will allow us to continue to foster diversity throughout the company. At the same time we want to offer guidance and support for our diverse group of talent," Davis says.
Brandon Fireall enjoys the diverse workforce at Siemens
Brandon Fireall says the learning opportunities are "endless" at Siemens Energy and Automation Inc (Atlanta, GA). He is a participant in the IT Leadership Development Program, which allows new hires to experience four different jobs in two years. He started working full time in June 2004.
Fireall is in his second rotation. He's a member of an SAP project management team. "My primary concern is to ensure that the company is thoroughly testing the SAP application, its modification and enhancements, as well as the associated infrastructure that the end users/business users will need as they interact with the SAP R/3 system," he says.
The testing procedure is conducted "auditorium style," where business users or functional analysts witness the test. This procedure often runs a full week, with twenty or more witnesses in attendance.
Fireall is also involved in data migration activities, infrastructure assessments, process definition, supporting go-live activities, business analyst functions, disaster recovery and business continuity, and website planning and development projects.
"Each day is a delicate balancing act based on business need, project priority and deadlines," says Fireall. In his first rotation he was on the architecture delivery and support team, where he worked on everything from VoIP to IT disaster recovery.
Fireall graduated from the University of Georgia (Athens, GA) in May 2004 with a degree in MIS. His first summer, he interned at Pitney Bowes Small Business Solutions (Savannah, GA). He completed internships at Siemens the following two summers, the first in application development as a business analyst working with test scripts and application enhancements, and the second in operation and services on a technical services team working with Unix initiatives.
He says Siemens is "a truly wonderful company. Being part of such a diverse workforce provides opportunities that I consider invaluable. Having the chance to explore and learn about other cultures through your colleagues is something that I've come to really appreciate."
Siemens Corp invites applicants
Siemens Corp has a variety of engineering positions available across its many businesses, including applications engineering, computer engineering, consulting engineering, product design, hardware engineering, manufacturing engineering and project management, says Camille Sautner, diversity programs manager. Typically the company seeks people with bachelors degrees and engineering experience.
"We recruit via a number of channels, including job fairs, print advertisements, web banners and on-campus recruiting events," she says.
Siemens has not determined the number of openings available this year, but applicants should apply via www.usa.siemens.com/careers.
Astrid Spivey: designing a power system for Southern Co
Astrid Spivey says she enjoys her job as a distribution engineer at Southern Company (Atlanta, GA), where she works daily with commercial and residential developers. Her task is to design the most cost-efficient power system for her customers. Most are in the ever-growing Atlanta metropolitan area. "It's a lot of responsibility. I can have ten or fifteen jobs going on at one time," she says.
Spivey started working full time at Southern in January 2005, and is on a team of ten people. Her typical day involves meeting with different developers to discuss distribution system design and then laying out the projects. She balances time between the office and the field. "Everyone I work with is great! They are open-minded and helpful," Spivey says.
Spivey is also a participant in Southern's engineer-in-training (EIT) development program, a bridge program in which new distribution engineers take classes and develop their technical skills.
Spivey did summer co-op rotations with Southern in 2003 and 2004. During the first one, she shadowed engineers in the distribution organization. During the second, she took on her own projects, dealt with customers and designed systems for small residential projects.
Spivey is a December 2004 EE graduate of Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN). She decided to go into engineering after her parents introduced her and her sister (also an EE) to the field via summer science and technology camps at Purdue University.
In her first year as a full-time employee, "I'm learning how to manage my time," Spivey says. "I take it all in stride and try to do the best I can at whatever I do."
Southern Company is actively recruiting
Southern Company hires about thirty grads each year for jobs throughout the company. Most have had internship or co-op experience with Southern. The company also hires recent college graduates for its EIT development program, says Nora Hollingsworth, program strategist for university relations.
The EIT program rotates participants throughout different company functions, and places them in full-time positions at the end of the program. The company seeks those with demonstrated leadership in the community and on campus, solid academics and relevant co-op or internship experience. They should also have strong, measurable team work skills.
"Our aim is to convert high-performance co-ops and interns when we can," Hollingsworth says, "but we do have opportunities for new engineers who've not worked with us, provided they've had relevant co-op or internship experience elsewhere."
Southern also offers a professional development program for engineers who have interned elsewhere.
The company seeks electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical and nuclear engineers, as well as some civil and computer engineering graduates. Under Southern's campus activity program, teams of employees visit top campuses to recruit. They conduct information sessions on campus and work with professors to target new hires. Southern also has strong partnerships with groups such as NSBE and a presence on campuses with a diverse student population.
"Our brand is widely recognized in the Southeast, so we work closely with many of the HBCUs there," Hollingsworth says. Some targeted schools include Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Greensboro, NC), Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL), Southern University (Baton Rouge, LA) and Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN).
All applicants must create a profile on Southern's website (www.southerncompany.com). To apply for a specific job, they must qualify online through screening criteria. The number of new hires varies depending on business unit needs, Hollingsworth says.
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