How to beat the job odds: Learn how to read between the lines, and you'll have a better idea of the kind of experience employers today are looking for

On any Sunday, in the Business or Financial Sections of any major newspaper, there appear want ads for an ever-increasing variety of engineering jobs. It seems as though industry has just discovered that without engineers, there can be no advances in technology, and therefore, in life-style, energy, and so on; in short, there can be no better mousetrap. At a time when the unemployment rate is at a historical high, and there is much debate about the engineering professions, a cursory look at these ads is most instructive. The trick is to know how to read them, i.e., how to interpret them, and how to use them to prepare for that fateful day when you are the one pounding the pavement.