Software engineers will make 40% to 50% of Toyota’s new technical recruits from spring 2022.
It seems like time is up for mechanical engineers at one of the world’s biggest automakers. Well, not for all of them, of course. But Toyota has decided to trim down the number of mechanical engineers among technical hires in its home country and replace them with more software engineers.
The decision comes after Toyota added 300 new graduates to its workforce, with most of them being from a mechanical engineering background.
However, the reason behind this shift in hiring strategy is quite understandable. As a major car manufacturing brand, Toyota wants to stay ahead in electrification and automation. The race here is a fast-paced one, and Toyota feels it will be a beneficial move to bring in more software engineers to cope with global CASE technologies (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric).
The brand will nearly double the number of software engineer recruits, accounting for around 40% to 50% of new technical hires from the following spring onwards. Currently, they make up 20% of the recruits, as recounted by Japan Times. Nonetheless, the company is still mum about the number of technical graduate recruits it will make next year.
The shift will significantly impact mechanical engineering graduates, but not to fret, there is still space for them in the company. However, with time, the inclination towards job descriptions like big data analysts or AI specialists will be more pronounced. If you have a specific set of skills that suit the job description requirements, you might be the chosen one. This is definitely unlike most companies in Japan, where mass graduate recruits are allocated their job profile only after joining.
Last year, Toyota had rolled out the Toyota Kinto that offers a multitude of mobility services with app support. It even plans on having its own smart carwash in the future. So, pretty clearly, all these new technologies would be a goldmine of opportunities for new Japanese software engineering graduates.
