Why Skilled Automation Engineers Aren't Applying for your Job Openings

That skilled automation expert you desperately need? She’s getting really frustrated with you. Skilled job candidates say it’s taking longer to find work, despite huge numbers of open positions in manufacturing, because hiring companies either don’t know what they want or can’t explain it to candidates.

According to a recent survey of 481 unemployed job hunters, many are taking longer to find their next job while also sending out fewer applications than previously. Conducted by Unmudl, an online training platform that works with companies to train prospective hires for skills relevant to manufacturing and logistics firms, the survey found that 42.2% of unemployed job seekers had been looking for a job for six months or longer.

Another figure showed that many respondents had yet to cast a wide net. Just over half of respondents, 50.3%, said they had only sent out 10 or fewer job applications over the course of their search. Roughly 12.2% of respondents answered with the highest possible response, indicating they had sent “more than 50” applications.

According to Parminder Jassal, founder and CEO of Unmudl, the survey’s latest numbers notably differ from previous results, particularly in the length of time job-searchers were taking to find their next position.

Lack of Confidence… on Both Sides

“It’s a disconnect from the number of unfilled jobs out there,” she said. Previous respondents, she said, had more commonly selected that they had filled out at least 30 applications. Now, though, the mood among applicants has soured, she said: “There’s a lack of confidence about folks.”

Other responses in the survey were consistent with a lack of confidence among those looking for a job. Another question found that a majority of respondents, 53.6%, said they were either “doubtful” or “very doubtful” about their ability to secure a job “in the current jobs market.” A slightly greater majority, 56.7%, responded “yes” when asked if they felt “a lack of skills is holding you back from finding meaningful employment.”

“Qualification creep” could be a culprit. Job seekers online have found that profiles on sites like LinkedIn often include unrealistic minimum qualifications for relatively low positions. Jassal notes that she was surprised by the number of Unmudl users who took courses on the site despite already having college degrees. “I couldn’t give you the exact percentage, but I’d say 5 to 10%” of users taking courses related to specific jobs “already have their bachelor’s or even their master’s degrees.”

Jassal also tied the depressed number of applications to a lack of confidence. While work-oriented social networks like LinkedIn and Indeed enable users to apply to lots of jobs, the approach inherently limits the tailoring a prospective employee can do for their resume or cover letter per employee. According to Unmudl’s survey, 29.3% of job seekers “always” customized their resume for each job listing: Most, 52.8%, said they did so “occasionally,” while 17.9% said they never did.

Companies and employees looking to join them are caught in a trap of poor communication, Jassal adds. Companies are doing a poor job explaining, or in some cases understanding, the skills they intend to hire for: Job hunters, meanwhile, find themselves unsure of which jobs — if any — they’re actually qualified for. The result, Jassal says, is “analysis paralysis.”

The issue companies are having with anticipating needed skills, Jassal says, is thanks to automation.

“We’re seeing a lot of uncertainty with these new positions, such as what is called a maintenance technician,” Jassal said.

The job title doesn’t sound too complicated, but with automation, “with all those robots and all the automated power that’s being brought in to the job, it’s hard to determine what that impact is going to look like. Will we need more people? Will we need less people? What to they need? What are the skill sets?”

In short: How do you hire a maintenance technician for your automating plant if you’re not sure what kind of maintenance technician your plant will need, once it’s automated?

Finding Clarity in the Job Market

With job candidates confused and depressed by the mismatches in the market, the onus is on companies to articulate the skills they’re looking for, even if the specifics of those skills remain opaque. Ideas from three companies — Amazon, Siemens and Deloitte — suggest two approaches.

The first had its origins with Siemens AG, which popularized the term mechatronics to describe a holistic approach to engineering capability. The word itself dates back to Japanese automation company Yaskawa, where an engineer began using it to describe the intersection of mechanics and electronics in 1969.

An engineer trained in mechatronics would be capable with mechanical and electrical engineering, along with enough software engineering to implement both. Amazon, one of Unmudl’s early clients, worked with Unmudl to train workers in elements of mechatronics.

Though that idea for a versatile engineer is not new, Jassal notes, it’s an attractive skillset, one that works with a variety of manufacturing jobs, and therefore an attractive one for Amazon and other companies investing in automation.

Another group tackling the next generation of skills job postings is industrial consulting group Deloitte, which aims to re-innovate job postings. In June 2023, a Deloitte presentation at Siemens’ Realize LIVE conference in Las Vegas called for companies to establish what the presenters called job canvases.

The job canvases initially resemble traditional job postings, but they’re also transparent about the issue Jassel noted many companies are currently having hiring for jobs that may change in the near-term future.

An example job canvas is split into columns: One for core competencies for the role, two columns for skills or programs expected but which may increase or decrease in importance for the role, and a fourth column specifically dedicated to skills the company anticipates will be necessary for the role in the future.

The first column may look similar to a traditional job posting. In an example given for a manufacturing engineer job canvas, the first column lists technical writing, systems knowledge, and product engineering. (Specific programs and skills, like Microsoft Word proficiency, are listed in the second and third columns, depending on if the company expects those skills will become less or more relevant, respectively.) But the last column gives a blueprint for at least how the company expects the role to evolve — in this case, the theoretical manufacturing engineer should expect to later become skilled in data driven decision making, digital twins, and robotics.

For job seekers, a job canvas could present a clearer vision of what the employer wants, making it easier for candidates to consider that position. The same could be said for the clarity that comes from using mechatronics language. Either way, employers appear to be leaving a gap in the market between the open jobs they say they need to fill and how they’re explaining those opportunities to people seeking new positions.