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Aerospace & Defense: Tech Jobs in Wartime
by John Rossheim
Monster Senior Contributing Writer
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Will a multibillion-dollar war against Iraq create economic activity that could, in turn, bring you new job opportunities in high technology? Not likely. But if you pick the right niche in the trenches of the long-term war against terror, you might find work.
Conventional war just isn't what it used to be when it comes to creating jobs. Most cost estimates for a new U.S.-led war against Iraq range from $40 billion to $100 billion, according to Christopher Hellman, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a Washington, DC, think tank. That's a pittance compared with World War II, which cost the United States $4.5 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Now Rosie Might Be a Robot
In World War II, Rosie the Riveter and millions of her coworkers built thousands of planes that often dropped hundreds of bombs just to hit a single target. Today's precision munitions often hit their mark on the first attempt, and they're assembled in more efficient, less labor-intensive factories.
And if a new Iraq war is anything like the first Gulf War, it will be short and lopsided -- it won't consume a mountain of resources. "In 1991, we didn't lose a single tank, and just a handful of aircrafts," says Hellman. Putting aside ill-understood risks such as Saddam Hussein's purported cache of biological and chemical weapons, the ingredients for a sustained war-driven economy are simply absent.
But there's another conflict -- more diffuse than a hot war with Iraq -- that could force the United States to spend about $100 billion annually for the next 10 years: The war on terror. In this sustained effort, hundreds of thousands of Americans may eventually find work. Here are a couple of niches where high tech jobs might be created.
Telecommunications
Seamless and wireless communications for first responders -- firefighters, police, paramedics -- will be spurred on by counterterror efforts, according to Steve LeSueur, editor of Washington Technology. Although the flow of federal funds has been frustratingly slow to date, "there's work out there for wireless product managers and professionals at companies with the expertise to integrate those systems," LeSueur says.
LeSueur also sees opportunities in security technologies for airports, seaports and U.S. borders.
Information Security and User Authentication
The United States is worried about terror attacks against computers, whether aimed at corporate databases or military or industrial networks. That's why companies like SafLink Corp. are working to win government and corporate contracts that could multiply their revenues many times.
SafLink writes software that authenticates users with biometric technologies, including fingerprints, iris scans and face recognition. The company is accustomed to providing software that powers smart identification cards for tens of thousands of end users; government contracts for defense and transportation workers could boost users into the millions.
"We might increase our development staff by 20 percent, and we would also need some additional salespeople," says Tom Doggett, marketing and communications manager at SafLink in Bellevue, Washington. Even more jobs could be created at the companies that actually put millions of cards and readers in users' hands; consulting firm BearingPoint Inc. is partnering with SafLink on this work.
Spending, Jobs Still in the Pipeline
Still, job seekers would be wise to recall that governments and corporations are slow to spend money where the return on investment is as abstract as the absence of a terror attack. Congress has yet to appropriate much of the money already earmarked for homeland security; other funds that were promised right after 9/11 haven't even been budgeted.
"People have talked about this pot of gold, but it just isn't so," says Jason McIntosh, a spokesman for Science Applications International Corp., a systems integrator and major defense contractor in San Diego.
What's the bottom line for employment? It may be months or years before additional tens of billions of dollars in counterterror funding pushes through the pipeline and creates the high tech jobs thousands of Americans are seeking.
This article originally appeared on Monster Career Advice: http://content.monster.com.
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