what companies want

What companies want: The 'Whole Engineer'

Rapidly changing technology places as many new demands on engineers as
it does on the functionality of the products they develop. To provide
customers with best-in-class solutions, Mentor Graphics Corp. needs
best-in-class engineers-those who possess a robust set of non-technical
skills in addition to their technical expertise.

As the EDA industry continues to push the limits of design complexity,
the traditional, technically competent development engineer is discovering
that non-technical business competence is as important as technical skill.
The stereotype of the isolated, Dilbert-like cubicle engineer is being
replaced with a new vision of the "whole engineer": a dynamic, informed
and approachable individual who can fluently articulate the case for a
product from a business standpoint as well as explain the product's
functional capabilities.

Three competencies
Mark Klein, Mentor Graphics director of engineeri...