I don't know if this is an appropriate place to pose this question, but here goes anyway.

How is the job market out there? I'm working toward the completion of my Phd in ME with a strong emphasis on CFD. I'd like to teach but I won't hold my breath (considering how competitive acedemic jobs can be). Anyway, what's the consensus from the group?

Thanks,

Dan

(1). There is a "jobs" section in cfd-online. (2). There are also information (website) about the sponsors. (3). You can get more job related information there. (4). I think, the webmaster's intention was to keep this forum away from those non-technical issues and commercial codes specific questions. Especially, the forum readers are global in nature, the job market probably varies greatly from country to country. (5). Good luck.

As John said, if you haven't already done so you should check out the CFD Jobs Database (see link above). My impression is that the CFD job market has been fairly constant during the last year - the number of jobs advertised in the jobs database has been around 100 for a long time now. US is still suffering a bit from the down-sizing of government supported CFD activities. In Europe there is a big need for qualified CFD engineers. Academia is also much easier in Europe. In the long term I'm sure that the need for CFD engineers will remain high. The market grows by 20% annually and, at least in Europe, the number of people that study CFD is not increasing as fast. I also think that we will see a larger need for PhD level CFD engineers in a few year - for the moment companies tend to try to cut personnel costs by employing less qualified (cheaper) engineers. CFD is not an easy subject and the quality of the results is very much dependent on who does the simulation - might take a few years for recruiters to realize this but it will happen.

as the other posters have said you can always check the job postings here. most cfd companies have links on their pages for available openings. i think Jonas' evaluation of the job market is correct. i also think that while competition for academic positions is strong i'd also say that a lot of positions are available particularly for someone who is interested in multidisciplinary and applied work. if you look in ASME's 'Mechanical Engineer' and other similar positions you'll see a lot of open positions for professors. also i see 'anl' in your email that experience is very likely to help you to obtain positions.

> professors. also i see 'anl' in your email that experience is very likely to help you to obtain positions.

Just curiosity, what is 'anl'?!

anl = Argonne National Laboratory

Hi Cliford,

why do you think Argone National Laboratory will help? As non US I like to ask you is there a big difference between Argone and other national Laboratories like Sandia or Los Alamos? Is your remark valid in general or only if Dan wants to move towards an acadamic position?

I think the situation might be different in Germany where I am from and maybe Europe more or less in general.

Ciao Heinz

in the context of my post i meant that Dan's experience at a national lab (argonne, Sandia, Los Alamos, NASA labs etc) would look good on his resume when applying for a professorial job (in the US and other countries) as these labs have a good reputation for high quality work. the same would probably be true if he worked for an equivalent european research organisations like INRIA or VKI etc