Graduates Pin Employment Hopes on Smaller Firms

Recruiters for a few big name employers--including Hughes Aircraft Co., the Air Force and Liberty Mutual Insurance--were manning booths last week at San Diego State University’s Science & Engineering Career Fair.

But Aztecs in search of employment also found themselves face-to-face with an increasing number of newer and smaller companies, including San Diego-based Brooktree, Qualcomm, Telios Pharmaceuticals, Gen-Probe and Immune Response Corp.

While the high-technology and biotechnology companies lack the name recognition enjoyed by older, established companies, they increasingly are the companies with job openings.

It’s no secret that, nationwide, smaller companies generate the lion’s share of new jobs. “We’re seeing an increasing number of (small companies recruiting) on college campuses,” said Linda Scales, the University of San Diego’s co-director of Career Counseling & Placement.

Some of the smaller biotech and high-tech companies at SDSU’s career program this past week undoubtedly were there to gain name recognition. But many were trying to fill openings.

* “We need electrical engineers and computer science people,” said Michelle Fleck,a human resources officer with Qualcomm, a San Diego-based high-technology company that is developing a technology for use in digital cellular telephone systems and products. Fleck, like other recruiters at the fair, was trying to fill some highly specific job categories.

* “We have some immediate openings,” said Jean Jagar Center, manager of staffing and employee relations at Brooktree Corp., which manufactures integrated circuits.

* “We’re here because we have positions open,” said Tom Johnson, manufacturing supervisor for Telios Pharmaceuticals. Telios is developing proprietary products that will help speed recovery for patients who suffer wounds or heart attacks.

Some of the smaller companies at the SDSU career fair are recession-resistant to a degree, observers said, because they recently completed stock offerings and aren’t reliant upon penny-pinching lenders to finance staff expansions.

A December survey by the UC San Diego Connect program suggested that stock offerings by smaller companies will provide the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak economic picture during 1992.

The survey showed that employment in the high-tech and biotech sectors grew by an estimated 19% during 1991, with total employment among participating companies rising to 14,271, up from 12,008 during 1990. At the time, Connect Associate Director Bryna Kranzler noted that job growth at smaller companies was fueled almost entirely by successful public offerings.

Local biotech companies, including Gensia, Immune Response Corp. and Isis Pharmaceuticals, raised an estimated $550 million through public offerings in recent months. That IPO rush also extended to some local high-tech companies. Qualcomm, for example, recently completed a $68-million public offering.

Additionally, biotech companies that historically concentrated on biology and life-sciences majors are broadening their recruiting to include engineering and other hard-science graduates who can help companies move from research and development into production.

Yet, while the growing number of smaller companies at campus job fairs is a healthy sign, college seniors still face a “tough, very tough” job market, said Judith Gumbiner,director of SDSU’s Career Services Center. “Students know that they face tough competition,” Gumbiner said. “This year is going to be a real rough one.”

Gumbiner and Scales both believe that the record-setting stock market bodes well for the jobs market. However, Gumbiner added, “We usually see a six-month lag before (a strong market) strengthens the job market.”

“Guarded might be a good word to use to describe how I feel,” Scales said. “Our on-campus interviewing schedule is full at this time, but it’s difficult to say how many (companies) will be hiring.”

Students at SDSU’s career fairs this past week acknowledged that the outlook is grim.

“I’m here to get leads and survey the job market,” said Sal Francis, 31, who will complete an electrical engineering degree at SDSU in December. Francis has more than 10 years of full-time work experience, but he is pursuing a degree “because my associate degree and technical degrees just aren’t enough to compete these days.”

Francis said he has been able to work full-time on his degree program because “my wife is a professional with a good job. I have the kind of (financial) security that a lot of other people don’t have.”

Former Navy Lt. James C. Soriano, 31, who is pursuing a microcomputer program at UC San Diego, “crashed” SDSU’s career fair after hearing about it through his fiancee, who is pursuing a political science degree at SDSU.

Soriano, who earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering at UCLA in 1982, also has nine years of project-management experience in the Navy. Still, he acknowledged that finding the right job can be “rough, very rough.”

Soriano, like an increasing number of fellow job-seekers, has been looking toward non-traditional employers, including health-care providers.

“We’re seeing a lot of engineers who are looking for opportunities in the health-care field,” said Cathy Nugent, a human resources expert with Children’s Hospital and Health Center who manned a booth at SDSU’s career fair. “They’re not afraid to ask questions about what might be available . . . outside of non-traditional fields.”