Automakers are venturing on an ambitious drive to hire software “codaholics,” thats pitting Detroit against its technology partners in Silicon Valley. The auto industry is so much more high-tech than people realize,” Nair said in an interview early this year. “So we’re really competing against West Coast industries.
Four years the auto industry restructuring that included massive job cuts, Ford and its U.S. rivals need to hire thousands of engineers at a time when software is playing a much more prominent role in vehicle design than even a few years ago.
Millions of lines of computer code increasingly are the core vehicle functions such as braking and air-conditioning. Electronic parts including sensors and microcontrollers, used in laptop computers and smartphones, are the backbone of such vehicles. This shift has General Motors Co., Ford and Chrysler Group LLC seeking a a new kind of talent — engineers with software, electronic and computer network skills — that has typically ignored Detroit. The auto industry has been forced to increase salaries and seek promote Michigan’s image as a good place to work -this is no easy task for the automaker.
Ford is about halfway through its goal of hiring 3,000 salaried employees this year, as part of its largest hiring blitz in more than a decade. The bulk of these jobs will be engineers and IT specialists who will be based in Michigan.
General Motors CEO wants to hire thousands of “codaholics” to write software applications for GM’s lineup of vehicles.
But these same candidates are also pondering attractive offers from other industries –like Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Executives, engineers and recruiters expect the war for talent only to intensify over the next several years.
The skill sets in the computer industry, cell phones, all the other technology have become the same type of skill sets thats wanted in the auto industry.
The role of computer systems in the vehicle is increasing as consumers clamor for “connected” cars that can sync with smartphones, provide real-time traffic reports or parallel-park themselves. Ernst & Young predicts that 104 million vehicles worldwide will have some form of connectivity in the next dozen years. Currently,automakers are redoubling their recruiting efforts to combat that image, by showing how they have changed since the 2009 economic crisis that pushed GM and Chrysler Group LLC into bankruptcy
gazedtoo 