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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Engineering
They are talking about this topic: General Skills
The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers look for new hires who possess strong communication skills, both written and verbal. These skills are often lacking. Some employers attribute this to younger generations having less experience with face-to-face communication.
| "We've hired two engineers over the last two-and-a-half years. In both cases it took six to eight months to find a qualified person. Our qualifications might be a little bit different than in some cases. We're looking for communication skills." | Northeast |
| "We want somebody with technical skills and communication skills to be able to deal with the customers. That can be a struggle at times. I don't know exactly what's being included in the curriculums now. I know when I was at [out-of-state college], we had to do a class on technical presentations. I don't know if that's missing. I'm on the alumni committee there, and they were talking about eliminating that course at one point, and the alumni committee said, 'No, definitely not.' I think it helps prepare students for the real world when they have to deal with people." | Northeast |
| "At the [MnScU college] engineering program, I got to sit in on one of the reviews that the students had presented for. There were four of us there, I think. That was wonderful. If I would have had to do that 27-30 years ago, whenever it was, I would've been shaking in my shoes, right? But it was a good exercise. You could see the student getting more confident as the time went on. We were there for something like an hour-and-a-half. I think that's a great exercise. That's what we need. We need that ability to think on our feet—some creative thinking and just writing down some stuff." | Northeast |
| "I think that's one thing that our schools don't do a good job of any more, is teaching kids how to communicate." | Northeast |
| "I'm trying to think back to what we did in terms of technical presentations. I think we had one class where we had to do something like that, but it seems like it was just a real small part. But I don't know what there is now." | Northeast |
| "I think—I'm noticing it in some of the newer grads—that social media has taken over and texting is becoming their mode of communication. Our engineers have to be able to communicate and express themselves. And some of our engineers also have to write emails or other things that have to be clear—they can't necessarily write in their engineering language. So, I think communication is a critical piece." | Northeast |
| "You have all these retirements that are coming, so there's a huge demand. And a lot of the people who are graduating seem to be pretty unqualified. They lack some communication skills, which are important. And it's worse than it ever has been before." | Northeast |
| "When I was in school, we had to pick various topics to make presentations on, or we were assigned topics to make presentations on. I think it was a good experience. At the end of the semester, we had to go to Grand Forks. The auditorium there holds a few thousand people, and we had to make a presentation in there. Of course, it was empty, but still it just gives you an idea of how to get up in front of people and make a presentation." | Northeast |