SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : TECHNOLOGY’S CHANGING FACE : WIDE HORIZONS IN SOFTWARE : INDUSTRY BOOM OPENS DOORS FOR ENGINEERS, CONSULTANTS
From her ninth-floor office on the water’s edge in Santa Monica, Karen Torimaru enjoys a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. This seemingly limitless panorama mirrors Torimaru’s own outlook on her career--writing manuals for personal computer software users.
“Software is the place to be in the 1990s,” said Torimaru, who joined Symantec Corp. in Santa Monica six months ago. “This is where the opportunities are.”
Almost all the experts agree. Software is to the 1990s what plastics--remember the advice passed on to Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate”?--was to the 1960s: virtually a sure bet.
“Software is the only field to get into these days. The computers themselves aren’t that interesting anymore,” says John Rymer, a senior consultant for Patricia’s Office Computing Group, a Boston market analysis firm. “Computer makers and sellers absolutely depend on the software to give them ways to sell their machines.”
Accurate, up-to-the-minute employment statistics are unavailable. But, by all accounts, employment in the software publishing industry and related maintenance and support fields is booming as corporations look to new and more advanced uses of their existing computers to spur productivity, trim labor costs and improve customer service.
The boom is also being fueled by tremendous and fast-paced advances in the technology, development and scope of software, the set of instructions that tells a computer--essentially a dumb, but logical, machine--what tasks to perform and how and when to do them.
Leading this current software development revolution are new and more advanced networking and telecommunications uses, improved computer graphics programs and more sophisticated software building and testing tools.
All this boils down to a big demand for software engineers, and software maintenance and support workers.
And not just from software publishing companies.
The demand is just as great, analysts report, from:
* Computer sellers, who package software programs with computers to sell to their customers.
* Corporations with in-house data-processing departments responsible for maintaining and improving the company’s computerized operations.
* Consulting firms that advise corporations on how to use computers to boost their productivity and competitiveness.
Even companies best known for making computers, such as International Business Machines and Digital Equipment Corp., are emphasizing software as never before.
Richard Goldberg, assistant general manager for IBM’s software marketing, said 30% of the company’s research and development budget is devoted to software, which accounted for $10 billion in revenues last year and is among IBM’s fastest-growing product lines.
Goldberg said IBM is looking for engineers with skills in developing software and software systems for communications and networking, database management, software building and testing, and computer management. Other hot software areas, still in the laboratories, include voice-activated systems, computerized full-motion video and electronic handwriting recognition.
Job openings are not only for those with strong technical and scientific educations and work backgrounds. Software publishers report strong demand for workers such as Torimaru, in the field generally known as customer and product support.
Such jobs include writing technical manuals, staffing telephone help lines for customers needing assistance with software operations and teaching teams of corporate customers about a software program. Although all these jobs require knowledge of a specific software program, companies say they prefer to train these workers themselves, and are looking for job applicants with strong communication and “people” skills.
Companies are not just looking for experienced workers. They report a fairly substantial number of openings for new college graduates with bachelor’s and advanced degrees in computer science, electrical engineering and related fields--as well as positions for workers with experience in computers and software. Some companies, particularly consulting firms, say they are interviewing workers with aerospace and defense-related backgrounds for software analysis and project management positions.
Errol James, senior partner for systems integration at CSE Partners, the civilian consulting arm of Computer Sciences Inc. in El Segundo, said aerospace management workers, especially those with backgrounds in communications and networking software, computer configuring and programming, are especially needed to oversee large consulting projects.
David Reed, associate director of recruiting for Andersen Consulting in Los Angeles, said his company, which advises corporations on how to use computers to operate their businesses more efficiently, will hire about 2,000 new workers this year, virtually all of them new university graduates or holders of advanced degrees.
“We’ve been one of the top employers of college grads in the country,” he said, “and we plan to continue this year as well.” About two-thirds of the new employees will have engineering and scientific backgrounds, he said, with the remainder holding liberal arts degrees.
Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest personal computer software publisher, said it plans to add more than 3,000 new workers over the next 18 months, about 35% of them entry level and the remainder with varying levels of experience. Virtually all of the new hires will have a scientific or technical background, said Natalie Yount, the Redmond, Wash., firm’s recruiting director.
WordPerfect Corp. of Orem, Utah, last year put its customer support telephone hot line on around-the-clock duty, increasing that staff to more than 750 workers. The company still has several openings and maintains a job hot line: (801) 222-7600.
Closer to home, Symantec, which recently acquired Peter Norton Computing in Santa Monica, says it plans to hire about 125 workers this year, and has entry-level positions for computer scientists and engineers, and advanced positions for those with financial and marketing backgrounds.
In some areas of the country, software engineers and support workers are at a premium. In the state of Washington, where software publishing is the state’s fastest-growing industry, demand has “completely outstripped the supply” of local college graduates, according to a report from the Washington Software Assn. Education committee.
Aldus Corp. founder Paul Brainard, chairman of the committee, said the 250 software companies in the state are scrambling for qualified job candidates. “And we’re not just talking about engineers,” Brainard said. “We’re talking about a wide range of jobs.”
BEGINNINGS
Karen Torimaru, 32, is a senior editor for documentation at Symantec in Santa Monica.
“Actually, when it comes to software, I’m self-taught. I got into it when we bought a home computer in 1983. Then I did video production for a small cable-TV company for awhile, but moved to computer software five years ago because that’s where the jobs are. Now, this is definitely a career for me--not just a job.”
