Bellah Nxumalo, a senior specialist recruiter (electrical and electronic engineering and sales) at Network Recruitment, has noticed a strong demand for engineering candidates with seven skills. The skills are so most sought-after that some employers are even prepared to take aboard greenhorns and train them on the ropes of their specific processes. The following are the skills:
- Black engineers with experience working on the national energy grid (these engineers are being actively pursued in the country’s booming renewable energy sector).
- ECSA-registered substation and transformer designers with seven to 10 years’ experience.
- Sales engineers with three to seven years’ experience and a proven sales track record selling in the automation, drives and factory automation industries. The most successful candidates here are those who demonstrate excellent client liaison abilities, are target driven and are willing to travel extensively.
- Embedded software development engineer graduates who completed their B-Eng (Electronic Studies) with a minimum 75% average.
- Automation engineers – both graduates seeking to pursue this career path and experienced professionals. Graduates must have excellent academic results in their B-Eng studies or National Diploma/B.Tech degree (final-year project in automation), while experienced professionals must have three to five years’ experience in the programming of PLCs and SCADA systems. Many more years’ experience (eight to 10) can make these engineers ‘too expensive’ for employers and therefore less marketable. Familiarity with more than one control systems brand is a big plus.
- Application engineers with more than five years’ experience working with drives, and offering solutions for the mining, oil and gas industries.
- Engineers with Government Certificate of Competency (mines and works) (GCC) are currently more marketable than engineers with GCC for factories. However, first-time passes for these credentials offers a significant advantage.
