any jobs in SanDiego?

Discussion in 'Pro/Engineer & Creo Elements/Pro' started by Dan Valleskey, Nov 21, 2003.

  1. We are contemplating a move, as the second wage earner in the family,
    I am not under a lot of pressure, but will I have much luck finding a
    job using my Pro-E skills, six months from now? A year from now?

    Anyone care to take a W.A.G. on this? how many Pro seats are in the
    San Diego area? How many companies out there use Pro-E?

    How does the economy look in that area?

    Anyone want to throw in their $.02??


    thanks!
    -Dan V.
     
    Dan Valleskey, Nov 21, 2003
    #1
  2. Dan Valleskey

    Alex Sh. Guest

    I have an intermittent customer in San Diego area. They standardize on
    SolidWorks but they do quite a bit of work for the company named Solar
    Turbine, and these guys are a Pro/E outfit (and a pretty large one, too).
    Also, if I am not mistaken there is a Pro/E UG in San Diego which kind of
    implies a certain user base.
     
    Alex Sh., Nov 21, 2003
    #2
  3. Dan Valleskey

    David Janes Guest

    :
    : We are contemplating a move, as the second wage earner in the family,
    : I am not under a lot of pressure, but will I have much luck finding a
    : job using my Pro-E skills, six months from now? A year from now?
    :
    : Anyone care to take a W.A.G. on this? how many Pro seats are in the
    : San Diego area? How many companies out there use Pro-E?
    :
    : How does the economy look in that area?

    Hey, Dan, more unemployed Pro/e designers are always welcome in sunny SoCal.
    Actually, the job market is booming, if you want to work for $6-8 per hour. Or,
    you could come out here and join the Vons and Albertson's clerks on strike. My
    advice is start sending out resumes to places now advertising design work on the
    internet (Monster, Net-temps, Hotjobs, etc.). Explain your situation and see what
    the response is. It's best to come with a job offer. If they don't think enough of
    you to talk to you while you are out of state, their opinion and approach won't
    improve once you are here, unless you have something they really need but are
    expecting to just fall into their laps. There's a fair bit of that stubbornly
    blase airheadedness out here. And, they seem to be getting away with it as long as
    the economy is slogging along.

    Some big places do, as Alex pointed out, use Pro/e: besides Solar Turbines, there
    are Genomics, Nokia, Kyocera, Qualcom, General Atomics Aeronatuics, Northrup
    Grumman, Baxter Labs and some other aeronatical, electronic and medical equipment
    places. None of them have hired in the last 6 mos. They will bring in people
    occassionally through an agency like Volt, Aerotek, Butler or Addeco. And there's
    a lot more of that kind of thing happening in Orange, LA and Ventura counties than
    down here. So, you could easily live in North SD County and wind up driving up to
    Orange County daily for work. The contracts are running, though, only 1-3 months
    on average.

    So, some things you ought to have on your Resume:
    * Engineering degree, advanced is better, some specialty is best
    * Aeronautics experience
    * Stress analysis (Ansys, Nastran, Patran, Mechanica)
    * Plastic part or mold design experience
    * DoD security clearance
    * Any more specialized use of Pro/e: system admin, Windchill, Intralink

    But, if you want to see how depressed things are, check out the website of the
    local Pro/e user group.
    http://prodiego.org
    The meeting announcement for Nov 12 didn't appear until the 13th. About a dozen
    people have signed up for it, three quarters are board members or vendors. They
    had a problem with their old site based on no one maintaining it, so they dumped
    the old one and started this elaborate bulletin board system, no supposedly
    moderated which means they gone to the other extreme meaning so restricted and
    regulated, no one wants to have anything to do with it. The last meeting I went
    to, before the UG went into hiding, had about 20 percent of participants (by my
    informal poll) either unemployed or under employed or newly 'self-employed'. So,
    if you have a license of Pro/e and want to start drumming up business, you might
    be able to make a go of it, especially if you can afford to start slowly and
    devote a few years to building up the business. However, from the small design
    shops I've talked to, none of them are thriving either. Everyone is pretty much
    waiting for the economy to turn around. Six month down the road, who knows!
    They've been saying six months more for almost two years. So far, I've had better
    luck looking for work in Texas. At least the cost of living, including gas prices,
    housing, etc. is more reasonable. Anyway, if moving depends on a booming job
    market, it is not and will not be six months from now. Even after the recovery of
    the second half of the 90s, it was only the last couple years where the labor
    market got tight, it was relatively easy to find a job and wages were going up.
    Now, they're all bargain hunting, so even if you can find a job out here, even
    though the cost of living is not cheap ($400k to buy a house), don't expect the
    money to be that great. If you're an international star of exotic metals research
    with advanced degrees and patents, you'll have an easy time of it; expect the
    sledding to be rougher and the reception cooler if you're just Average Dan. That
    was always true, just more so now.

    David Janes
     
    David Janes, Nov 22, 2003
    #3
  4. Dan Valleskey

    Boltman Guest

    David,
    The SD user group went to shit after Stan turned the group over to
    Diana. It takes a lot of work to run that operation and quite a few of
    the users just don't want to present interseting topics which drives
    people away. The last meeting was a total disaster and I can't see the
    current board turnign it around, just too bad.

    Dan, what do you do ? What's your experience. I think that if you are a
    more than qualified engineer, I don't think you will have a problem
    finding a job. If your a newbie, than good luck, there are quite a few
    of them trying to find a job. They walk around the meeting, I passed the
    Pro/E class at SDSU, why can't I get a job ?
    OBTW, there was a head hunter that showed up at the end of the last
    meeting with jobs. David, is also correct about the economy and the
    housing market is only getting worse.
     
    Boltman, Nov 23, 2003
    #4
  5. Dan Valleskey

    Boltman Guest

    regarding the website, it is being run by a SDSU student, enough said.
     
    Boltman, Nov 23, 2003
    #5
  6. Dan Valleskey

    David Janes Guest

    <snip>
    : regarding the website, it is being run by a SDSU student, enough said.
    :
    It was before, but I'm not even sure of that anymore. They've turned the operation
    of the main part of the site over to a bulletin board type hosting service. It's
    basically a message board which no one is using because everyone is still going to
    the old site and finding, by now, nothing. It's also an air tight chamber, nothing
    in, nothing out, thus eliminating the problem of illicit material. Before it
    collapsed completely, *if you scanned very carefully*, there was a link to the new
    site. Well, they've gone into hiding. Hey, they've got their jobs, and, in fact,
    because no one is hiring, they're probably complaining about being overworked.
    Awww, poor Pro/DIEGO board people!!! Well, I've got just the solution for your
    troubles ~ we'll play 'Trading Places'. I will relieve you of your
    responsibilities, take them all on my own shoulders (with the income, of course,)
    and you can be unemployed in San Diego for a year. And, I'll do all the stuff that
    your complacent, self-satisfied selves haven't done for a *long* time. You know,
    all those things you were going to do when things slowed down. Funny how you don't
    do them when the pressure of the fast times lets up. You just excuse yourself with
    'hey, demand is down' and blame it all on the 'apathy' of the Pro/e users. BTW,
    kids, don't try this at home, it only works for those 'in power', even if it's of
    only a ghost ship.

    David Janes
     
    David Janes, Nov 24, 2003
    #6
  7. Dan Valleskey

    Boltman Guest

    Dave,
    The website was previous run by FroTime. When the new board took over.
    Who know's why, but they decided to get a new domain name and put there
    own stamp on the site.
    From what I was told. The webmaster claimed that the site was hacked
    and he shut everything down. My guess is that he screwed something up
    and being a student, the website is just not a priority.
    I take it you've left SD. What did you do here ? Who did you work for ?
     
    Boltman, Nov 27, 2003
    #7
  8. Dan Valleskey

    David Janes Guest

    : Dave,
    : The website was previous run by FroTime. When the new board took over.
    : Who know's why, but they decided to get a new domain name and put there
    : own stamp on the site.

    The reason was that their message board, which no one in the organization used,
    got taken turned into a sex chat room. One of the last job ads (one that I wrote
    to them about and never heard anything from them) featured someone propositioning
    everyone to become a 'call girl' in Bangladesh. It kind of stood out on the staid,
    conservative Pro/engineering website, kinda funny, really, but a strong hint the
    whole operation was going down hill.

    : From what I was told. The webmaster claimed that the site was hacked
    : and he shut everything down. My guess is that he screwed something up
    : and being a student, the website is just not a priority.
    : I take it you've left SD. What did you do here ? Who did you work for ?

    No, I'm still in La Mesa, stuggling along, getting widely ignored by everyone in
    California I send a resume to. The last interview I had was in Austin, Texas so,
    who knows, maybe I'll never actually work in California.

    David Janes
     
    David Janes, Nov 27, 2003
    #8
  9. Dan Valleskey

    Boltman Guest

    By your statement that you might never work here, I take it your new to
    the area ?
    Dude, I had a manufacturing buddy that was out of work for a year. The
    market here sucks.
    Where did you get your Pro/e experience ?
    Have you talked to Diana ? At the last meeting, she said GA was looking
    for people.
    Are you a ID, surface type of guy ? Or are you a nuts and bolts or
    sheetmetal type ?
     
    Boltman, Nov 27, 2003
    #9
  10. Dan Valleskey

    Boltman Guest

    I guess somebody lit a fire. The ProDiego.org site is back up and
    running including the forum section.
    Good old Elbert ........
     
    Boltman, Nov 27, 2003
    #10
  11. Dan Valleskey

    David Janes Guest

    :
    : >No, I'm still in La Mesa, stuggling along, getting widely ignored by everyone
    in
    : >California I send a resume to. The last interview I had was in Austin, Texas
    so,
    : >who knows, maybe I'll never actually work in California.
    : >
    : >David Janes
    : >
    : By your statement that you might never work here, I take it your new to
    : the area ?

    Packed up and moved out of the Hustler state a year ago November 1. Aside from the
    longest bout of unemployment in my life, I've no regrets moving. It's actually not
    a bad place to be unemployed. The people are friendly, it's easy to get around,
    walking up and down hills is good exercise and there's the ocean which I can see
    from a few block from where I live.

    : Dude, I had a manufacturing buddy that was out of work for a year. The
    : market here sucks.
    : Where did you get your Pro/e experience ?

    Ten PTC authored Pro/e courses at Elgin Community College outside of Chicago and
    almost 3 years at Caterpillar.

    : Have you talked to Diana ? At the last meeting, she said GA was looking
    : for people.

    Haven't talked to Diana but I've sent a couple resumes to GA in response to actual
    job ads. They're one of the ones ignoring me.

    : Are you a ID, surface type of guy ? Or are you a nuts and bolts or
    : sheetmetal type ?

    I've done a little of everything, from Sysadmin stuff, to mechanical design to
    surfacing (my favoite is ISDX ~ that is some very cool shit!). I think one of my
    problems is that they're all looking for niche players, narrowly specialized,
    tightly defined. And I'm an ex-toolmaker, jack of all trades, generalist, no
    specialties, except picking up anything in about a week. Oh, well, something will
    turn up eventually. I actually had a chance at a job at Solar, but it involved
    working for Volt, and that I won't do. You know how you get that feeling from
    dealing with used car salesmen, like you want to barf then go take a shower!?!
    That feeling is worse with Volt, like you're scraping *past* the bottom of the
    barrel. I hope never to sink that low. No offense to those of you working for
    them, but I guess I'm just too particular about who I let stab me in the back.

    David Janes
     
    David Janes, Nov 27, 2003
    #11
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