Employers around the country have accountants and engineers in their sights.
College graduates with degrees in business, engineering and computer-related fields are in demand, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Job Outlook 2005 survey.
However, the path to those jobs leads down a brutal and demanding road. If students are willing to endure the work, there are nice rewards at the end.
The news is especially good, considering a previous NACE survey reported that employers plan to boost hiring by 13.1 percent.
Dr. Kenneth Lambert, director of the school of accounting, has an explanation why accountants are in such high demand. Oddly, guilty verdicts and corporate scandals will help students find jobs.
"At some point, many people are very practical and they realize where there's a job opportunity, there is a good place to pursue a career," he said.
Lambert said that corporate scandals and the falsification of documents caused a bill to be passed to require extra measures on audits. A major reason those careers are forming.
The only way to do the extra work is to hire more accountants. And they don't come cheap.
"Right now there's a huge need for accounting services. And the starting price for accountants is growing rapidly," he said.
Those salaries, according to Lambert, can get beyond $45,000.
"That's what some of our recent graduates have gone out at," he said.Accounting majors will earn every penny.
To take the Certified Public Accountant test in Tennessee, students must take 150 hours of curriculum, said Lambert. A healthy amount of hours compared to 120 it takes to get a degree.
Just below accounting on the list of most demanded jobs, are the engineering disciplines, an area that seems to be in constant demand."It's generally, so they're in demand more than other jobs," said Thomas Slack, assistant professor of engineering technology. "It's been that way for 30 years."
Slack attributes the demand to the quality of student an engineering department produces.
"People who hire engineers know they're getting someone who's sharp," he said.
However, the reason jobs open up is entirely different from accounting. It's purely economic.
"When you actually go into the industry it's kind of funny how it works," he said. "Because you get about 10 years in a technical career and then you have to go into management. What happens is, after 10 years you're paid about double what engineers start at."
Starting salaries in particular engineering fields, according to Slack, can be as high as $60,000.
"The companies can't justify, economically, paying for one person when they can hire two brand new ones," he said. "Unless you can justify your existence by moving up the corporate ladder into management, it's very difficult to move up beyond the 10-year mark."
Slack says that the majority of engineering jobs are on the coasts, where there is a higher turnover rate. Engineers are even stolen from other companies, which also contributes to openings for engineering students.
But you have to have a passion for it, Slack said.
"One of the things that is striking about engineering is that it doesn't require a nerd, but it helps sometimes," he said.
