NGC Hiring: Outreach to Schools Helps Fill Pipeline

By Len Lazarick, Staff Writer



As other companies shrink their workforces, Northrop Grumman Corp's (NGC) Electronic Systems division, headquartered in Linthicum, is continuing full-speed ahead in recruiting for many high-paying engineering jobs.

"For our Maryland campuses, we have a challenge to continue to hire quite a few hundreds of folks, primarily engineers with very high tech backgrounds, education and experience," said Becki Heiliczer, director of talent acquisition.

Software, systems development, electrical and mechanical are among the fields NGC needs to continue developing its high-end radars, sensors and navigation systems for military, commercial and overseas clients. The division employs about 8,500 people in the greater Baltimore area and 21,000 nationwide.

"These are our critical skills and talent that we must have now," Heiliczer said, adding that the division uses a variety of recruiting techniques, especially an employee referral system that is "one of the most important ways we hire."

Among the hires are 150 to 250 new graduate engineers a year. Heiliczer would not discuss their salaries, other than to say they are "very competitive"; but according to the National Associate of Colleges and Employers, in 2007, nationwide starting salaries for new graduates in the fields NGC targets were in the mid-$50,000-per-year range.

The corporation and other large firms aggressively work with local students and teachers to encourage young people to enter these fields. That's especially important because NGC and other contractors in the national security field must hire U.S. citizens who can earn security clearances, as these jobs cannot be outsourced overseas.

"It is so very important that the talent pipeline continues to be strong [so the corporation can] meet the needs of our future technological requirements," Heiliczer said.

"It's a well known fact that the United States is just not graduating enough engineers in comparison to some of our competitors in China and India," said Ted Imes, a long-time electrical engineer at NGC and the Electronic Systems division's national director of corporate citizenship. This is the origin of the science, technology, engineering and math initiative (STEM) in most local school systems. [Ed. note: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley recently received final reports from three task forces charged with developing recommendations for enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curricula and Career and Technical Education (CTE) as well as ways to provide support for principals and school administrators to help attract world-class educators and promote student achievement in Maryland classrooms.]

"This is a national problem; it's not just a Maryland problem," said Imes. "We've seen a lot of people going back to schools for career days, all on their own."

He added that developing engineers and scientists by getting youngsters interested at an early age is "a national imperative." On that note, NGC has five different programs to integrate the corporation and its employees into schools.

¥ DiscoverE (Discovering Engineering): As part of National Engineers Week, more than 200 engineers from Electronic Systems visited 130 Baltimore-area schools, discussing careers in the field and involving students in science-related classroom projects. Each school also receives a $750 check from NGC for its math and science-related programs.

¥ REAACH (Retirees and Engineers for Academic Achievement) brings current and retired Northrop professionals into classrooms on a more regular basis for practical STEM applications.

¥ TEAACH (Teachers and Engineers for Academic Achievement) brings middle school math, science and technology teachers to NGC's BWI locations for hands-on learning about engineering and ways to integrate engineering lessons into the curriculum. More than 110 teachers from 13 Maryland counties have participated in the program during the past five years.

¥ Engineering Scholars: Now in its seventh year, the company gives $10,000 scholarships to a promising high school senior from each county in Maryland who enrolls as a full-time engineering student.

¥ WORTHY: (Worthwhile to Help High School Youth). This program pairs up students with two Northrop employees as mentors to work on technical projects. There are also summer enrichment programs and participants also receive partial scholarships.



"We're fully engaged across the K-12 pipeline," Imes said, adding that NGC has at least seven or eight engineers on staff that had their first exposure to engineering through an NGC program.