Article last updated:
Tuesday, May 15, 2001 2:40 AM MST
Livermore Lab seeking engineers, computer experts
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
STAFF WRITER
LIVERMORE -- They used highway-side banners, a mobile billboard, radio
ads, Web sites, car signs and fliers to get the word out.
Spiros Dimolitsas, director of engineering at the lab, put a sign on
his car, and some lab employees wore promotional T-shirts aboard the
Altamont Commuter Express train on their way to work.
If you haven't heard: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is hiring.
Eager to fill engineering and computer jobs created by retirement and
other attrition, lab officials are hosting a job fair today for
interested applicants.
Planned from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Shrine Event Center in
Livermore, 170 Lindbergh Ave., the event is geared toward engineers
and computer experts who work in industry and live near the lab.300
resumes
Organizers received about 300 resumes from people who pre-registered
for the event.
"We anticipate another few hundred drop-in attendees," said Beverly
Hobson, chairwoman for the job fair and a mechanical engineer at the
lab.
"We are appealing to people already working in industry, especially
those who live in our area and would like to reduce their commute,"
Hobson said. "The biggest demand is in engineering and computation. We
compete in these areas with Silicon Valley."
Livermore Lab, which has about 2,000 engineers in its total work force
of about 8,000 employees, could hire as many as 400 engineers this
year and 150-300 engineers each year for the next few years to balance
the loss of employees, officials said.
Technicians, machinists and optics specialists are also in demand at
the lab, a nuclear weapons research facility managed by the University
of California for the Energy Department.
In recent years, the graying population of nuclear scientists and
engineers, coupled with an increased attrition because of a booming
job market in industry, has led lab officials to boost recruitment
efforts.
This is the first year that the lab's engineering program has played
host to its own job fair. About 165 lab employees, representing
various engineering divisions and human resources, will staff the
event.Appointments to be announced
Also this week, lab officials are expected to announce the
appointments of several top managers at the lab.
In January, five of the lab's top 14 management positions were open
for applicants -- the positions have been temporarily filled by
existing employees, acting in the management roles, for several
months.
Though lab officials said in January that they aimed to fill the
positions by February of this year, the hiring process has been
delayed by changes in Energy Department administration and by the
thoroughness of the searches, said lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton.
"The approval chain for hiring some of these positions is a little bit
different" since the creation of a new Energy Department nuclear
security agency in March 2000, Houghton said.
And lab officials were cautious in "ensuring that we had a diverse and
qualified candidate pool," she added.
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©1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
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