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It’s a good time to receive an architecture degree. It’s an even better time to gain an engineering degree.

With the college academic year coming to an end, a new crop of architecture and engineering graduates are hunting for jobs. Amid Portland’s building boom, many graduates have a job before they ever don their caps and gowns.

鈥淚 applied for eight positions, got two calls, one rejection and a job,鈥� said Lucas Fuller, a recent Oregon Institute of Technology graduate in electrical engineering. 鈥淭here are a whole lot of opportunities; you just have to find them.鈥�

Kevin Chavez’s architecture job search was even shorter. SRG Partnership offered him a job on its design staff based on the strength of his internship with the company. He began his job in entry-level drafting and model building a week before his Portland State University graduation ceremony.

鈥淎s soon as they learned that I was graduating, they offered me a job,鈥� Chavez said.

Fuller’s opportunity came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers‘ Hydroelectric Design Center.

鈥淭hey deal with anything having to do with hydroelectric energy,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s like working for a firm with only one client.鈥�

Quick job searches aren’t unusual these days, according to Frank Goovaerts, director of student career success at Portland State University’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. Demand for graduates is very strong, he said.

鈥淚t is a pretty good time for engineers,鈥� he said. 鈥淟ast year, within six months after graduation, 90 percent of our students were employed or decided to go grad school.鈥�

New graduates are finding plenty of job opportunities to choose from. The unemployment rate for engineers on the West Coast is less than 1 percent.

鈥淓veryone that wants work as an engineer is working,鈥� said Shiloh Butterworth, director of employee experience at PAE Engineers. 鈥淚t’s a good time to be coming out of college with an engineering degree.鈥�

The story is similar for architects.

鈥淎 good quarter to half of our students are currently working in offices (before graduation),鈥� said Barbara Sestak, an architecture professor at Portland State University. 鈥淪ome take a year off before they apply to our grad programs.鈥�

The dynamics driving the markets are similar: not many experienced engineers and architects are seeking employment.

鈥淭here are so few engineers with five to 10 years of experience looking for jobs, that now they come to the college and are willing to train from the ground up,鈥� Goovaerts said.

That requires a big investment of time, which firms apparently are willing to make.

鈥淲hen you hire someone out of school they know about 20 percent of what they need,鈥� said Blake Patsy, a principal at KPFF. 鈥淚t’s about four to seven years before they are totally able to do the job.鈥�

Licensing requirements further complicate the hunt for new employees. A licensed architect must obtain National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accreditation, fulfill 3,740 hours of architectural experience and pass a series of tests. It’s not unusual for an architecture student to get a bachelor’s degree, work at a firm to gain architectural experience hours, and then pursue a graduate degree before taking licensing tests.

鈥淲hat we are finding is that people who graduated with a (bachelor’s) degree are holding off applying to graduate school because the job market is so much better,鈥� Sestak said. 鈥淲e saw fewer of our students applying to other programs and fewer students applying to our program.鈥�

During the Great Recession, the architecture industry was one of the hardest hit 鈥� its unemployment rate reached 13.9 percent in 2010. Between 2006 and 2012, the number of architecture jobs shrunk by more than 12 percent.

Now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the architecture industry to grow by 7 percent through 2024 and unemployment rates to hover near 2 percent. The median salary for starting architects is $70,486.

鈥淚 think it might cool down (locally), or at least flatten a little bit,鈥� said Alan Osborne, vice president and principal of Hennebery Eddy Architects. 鈥淭he apartment boom will be slowing down. That will slow the job market some.鈥�

Like many firms, Hennebery Eddy relies on its internship programs to help attract potential future employees. The company’s social media presence helps widen appeal to new applicants, Osborne added.

For engineers, job prospects vary a bit. Civil engineering graduates are in demand in Portland at the moment, according to Goovaerts.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the numbers of jobs in civil engineering to grow by 8.4 percent in the next decade, and in biomedical and environmental engineering to grow by double digits in that time span.

Overall, the bureau expects yearly engineering job growth of about 4 percent in the next decade. The median wage for people entering the profession is $77,900, well above the $37,040 median wage for all other occupations.

鈥淚 can say with great confidence, the chance you will find a job in your major is really high,鈥� Goovaerts said. 鈥淥ne thing I pound into students (is) they will have to be willing to change.鈥�

For many years, Portland State University catered largely to Intel. Until recently, it was not uncommon for a student to begin working for Intel as an entry-level engineer and work his or her way up into management. However, now that the tech giant is downsizing, that career path is less likely.

鈥淭hey might have to begin at a startup and then go to a competitor,鈥� Goovaerts said.

Even in a good job market like Portland, landing that first position can require leg work by students.

鈥淭he biggest thing I tell them is not to solely rely on job boards,鈥� Goovaerts said. 鈥淵ou will be looking for a long time and you might not find anything. It’s easy to do. Students can become hermits hunkered down at their computer searching for positions.鈥�

Instead, students must get out and network and work in an internship prior to graduation, Goovaerts said. Taking a close look at one’s social media account can also be important.

鈥淪ome employers may look at social media (and) some may not; you never know,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 am sure that some are out there that will. Someone may look at your profile and say that this guy is partying a lot. I’ll avoid that.鈥�

At the very least, Goovaerts recommended limiting social media accounts to include closely known friends. Students may even want to consider removing posts or accounts, depending on content, he added.

Fuller found that one of the biggest keys for him in the interview process was remembering that employers are seeking people skills in addition to technical knowledge.

鈥淔or the majority of people it’s their first career job,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey get so focused on the tech that they forget about the people aspect of it. You have to convince them that yes, I am a good person that you can work with and be a team player.鈥�