Placement Opportunities for Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics Professionals

Abstract

During the period from January 2006 through December 2006, the Placement Service of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society distributed announcements describing 140 new positions available for human factors and ergonomics professionals. This paper focuses on the 124 placement opportunities for those in Industry and the government/military, and briefly addresses positions in Education. The attributes of the position descriptions examined include: employment sector, degree requirements, work experience, expertise, salary, and geographic location. The employment sector type seeking the most employees was Consulting Firms that specialize in Human Factors with 29 positions (23%). The degree required was usually a Masters (48%) and the geographic area with the most jobs was the MidWest (N=16). The areas of expertise most frequently requested by employers were Engineering and Psychology.

Industrial–Organizational and Human Factors Graduate Program Admission

“…A student interested in optimizing user performance in a specific industry may find HF to be a good career. An HF graduate degree can lead to employment in a variety of sectors including government, military, health care/ medical systems, safety, and aviation (e.g., Moroney, 2007). HF specialists do not offer therapy, but consider the human factor in determining appropriate design considerations.…”

“…There are a limited number of departments that offer an undergraduate IO emphasis (Bott et al, 2006); otherwise, a business degree or business minor may be more helpful for these HRM positions than a psychology degree alone. In HF, career options without graduate school exist, as 13% and 29% of HF positions identified by O*NET (2013b) and Moroney (2007), respectively, were at the bachelor's level. These positions included computer programming related to usability, educational technology, and research positions.…”