It's been nearly a month since Nick Potocki heard news that automotive giant Delphi Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, capping a year of automotive sector cuts, losses and downsizing in Michigan.
He's read newspaper reports on the financial troubles speckled throughout the struggling sector — affecting auto suppliers and General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler alike.
For the mechanical engineering senior, the situation isn't encouraging.
Automotive jobs are making a natural evolution and shifting to other sectors, high-end engineering and consulting firms, said Phil Gardner, director of research for the Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
Collins & Aikman Corp., an automotive supplier with $3.9 billion in sales last year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. Tower Automotive Inc., one of the country's largest suppliers, filed in February. Federal-Mogul Corp. filed in 2001. Visteon Corp., Ford's chief supplier, hasn't posted a profit since 2000.
GM plans to cut 25,000 jobs in North America by 2008. Ford Motor Co.'s North American operations have lost money in four of the past five quarters.
Soon-to-be graduates, like Potocki, are left to adjust, Gardner said.
After a summer internship at DaimlerChrysler, Potocki said the automotive market isn't as attractive as when he was younger. Gardner agrees.
"The auto industry continues to shrink in production and design processes," Gardner said.
Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said the company will reduce its North American workforce by 5 percent before the year's end, and has enacted hiring freezes.
GM spokesman Robert Herta said the company actually increased hiring from this year, as opposed to the previous three, but mostly in technical and finance-related areas.
Other mechanical engineering students have shifted their focus after growing up around automotive jobs.
Senior Keith Ortman said too much competition in the industry for too few jobs pushed him to an internship with Danaher Industrial Controls, an industrial engineering firm near Chicago. He will complete his co-op — a partnership between companies and schools — this spring.
"When I got into college, I wasn't looking to get into the auto sector basically because I grew up around it, so I knew what that entailed," he said. "Some aspects interested me, but a lot of them didn't — basically the pressure aspects that come from the competition throughout suppliers for the Big Three."
Ortman plans to get a job outside the auto industry when he graduates.
Les Leone, a senior academic specialist and director of MSU's Cooperative Education program, said a lot of MSU students are confronting the same bleak automotive market.
In the mid-1990s, the Big Three hired engineers in large numbers at MSU's career fair in early October. This year it was much more selective, he said.
"It's still a very good job market for engineers, it just doesn't happen to be in the auto industry," Leone said.
At the career fair the "longest lines continue to be at GM, Chrysler and Ford — students are still lining up in droves. Some of these smaller companies had very short lines, but large interest," Leone said.
Students should branch outside the automotive sector at smaller or specialized companies to gain experience and a fuller résumé for the Big Three, he said.
But for Potocki, an engineering job in the automotive sector still is what he wants.
His dad is a plant manager for DaimlerChrysler. His uncle also works in the industry.
"Ever since I've been younger, it was instilled by my family, especially living in southeast Michigan; when you grow up you're going to work for an automotive company," Potocki said.
He'd now take a job with foreign automakers or Fortune 500 companies such as Dow Chemical Co., DuPont Co. and aerospace and construction companies.
"I'd still say automotive is my top choice, but it's definitely changed. I had never considered working for import companies like Toyota or Nissan, but now I'm pursing those avenues," he said.
Advice for MSU engineers who still want a job in the auto industry?
First, do well in school.
Second, get professional experience.
A job can't just be expected after graduation, unlike in years past, Leone said.
Evans, the spokeswoman for Ford, said a good grade-point average and prior internships with multiple employers are incumbent on new hires. She stressed prior experience because "there is, of course, increased competition for a fewer number of jobs."
Herta, of GM, said gaining industry experience is the best advice he can give to students.
After graduation, look for a job outside the automotive sector, spokespeople say. If it's still attractive, fill your résumé with professional experience from at least one company before applying.
"If you think back to the '50s, steel was the thing," Gardner said. "It took 225 individuals to make one unit of steel. Now it takes 12. The same thing will happen over the next decade in automotive. It will make lots and lots of vehicles, but it will take a lot less labor."
