The Asia-Pacific region, or APAC, is home to more than 60 percent of the world’s population and many of its largest and most successful high-tech companies. So it’s not surprising that the region is a hotbed of recruiting for technical professionals–especially engineers.
Intel announced in February that it planned to hire 1000 software engineers this year, many of whom will be in Asia. “We have already hired around 50 percent of our initial goal by recruiting a combination of experienced and college graduate candidates,” Lori Weber, Intel’s global hiring director, said at the end of June.
Without giving any numbers, Webersaid some of the newly-hired software engineers will be based in Shanghai and India. “We will continue hiring outside the United States as needed to support our presence in the overseas markets, which generate approximately three-fourths of Intel’s revenues.”
The company is pulling out all the stops to find the people it needs. “We are using recruiting techniques such as offers-on-the-spot, video interviewing, social media, and other innovative ways to reach candidates,” says Weber.
Microsoft likewise has more than 100 openings for mostly software engineers in China and almost that many slots for engineers in India. Apparently in response to an increasingly competitive environment in recruiting and retaining top technical talent (Google gave out 10 percent pay raises this year), Microsoft says that beginning in September it will offer raises in salary and stock awards to attract and retain staff. As CEO Steve Balmer wrote in an internal e-mail to Microsoft employees, “… the changes we’re rolling out will help ensure Microsoft continues to be the place that top talent comes to change the world.”
HP is actively recruiting engineers for its new Enterprise Servers Storage and Networking Research and Development Center in Beijing, scheduled to be open the end of this year. HP Lab Beijing also has several job openings in networking and information analysis. And the company plans to expand its manufacturing base in Shanghai and consolidate existing sites into one multi-purpose campus, establishing Shanghai as a China headquarters for HP’s Personal Systems Group.
Job opportunities in the region range from the commercial to the academic. TriQuint Semiconductor is looking for a regional marketing manager with an EE and a strong background in the wireless market who will divide his or her time between the U.S. and China, while the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology is seeking Ph.D.s for faculty positions in its Department of Avionics with technical skills ranging over a list of 16 areas of research that includes signal and image processing, antenna design, wireless sensor networking, and robotics.
Singapore is another focal point for Asian engineering. The Singapore Electronics Industry Directory lists several hundred engineering jobs for HP, Philips, Teradyne, Intel, Singapore Technologies, ST Electronics, Enggsol Pte. Ltd., and other companies.
