5 Secrets that Engineering Recruiters Won’t Tell You in 2022

Trying to hire a talented engineer can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. With the rise of Big Tech and the exponentially increasing demand for engineers, great talent can be hard to come by. The truth is that top-tier engineers are out there and ready to work, and engineering employment services, among other strategies outlined in this article, can help you match with them.

California engineering recruiters can tell you that traditional hiring methods are outdated and could be preventing the perfect candidate from joining your team. So how can you attract – and keep – the engineer that can push your business ahead of the curve?

Here are a few industry secrets that engineering recruiters don’t want you to know:

1) High demand negatively impacts your ability to hire.

People need engineers! Talented engineers are highly sought-after from top companies, and recruiters seek them out because of the high chances that they will be easily placed. The high demand for engineers, especially in the technological haven of Silicon Valley, is expected to grow significantly in the next decade. So how can you sift through hundreds or even thousands of engineers on LinkedIn to find the exact right fit for your company and role?

• Try engineering employment services. These services give you access to a highly-skilled engineering pool. Knowledge of industry-specific technology can allow these recruiters to match you with the most qualified candidate for any given project, temp work, or for long-term employment.
• Don’t overlook “inexperienced” candidates. Internships and years of experience can be just as valuable as a degree. Passion projects related to the work can show dedication, true interest, and capability. A loaded resume is not always a formula to a qualified person.

2) Workers want the flexibility to work remotely.

After the worldwide pandemic that crashed into 2020 like an asteroid, the job market has changed dramatically and businesses must adapt to keep up. Across nearly all industries, there has been a digital transformation in the way we work and live. Even high-profile companies such as Linkedin, Apple, and Facebook are considering a more flexible schedule involving working remotely most of the time and only visiting the office a few times a week, in contrast to the traditional model of working at the office in person from 9am to 5pm. The widespread social experiment of remote work has been accepted.  Recent polls and surveys show that Americans actually like working from home, and don’t worry about productivity – most employees report being just as productive or even more productive when they work remotely.

3) Reaching the right people and hiring the right people are not the same.

When broadcasting job postings, most companies use the traditional route of building a careers page on their website, then blasting open job boards, LinkedIn, Indeed, MonsterJobs, or ZipRecruiter with their available positions. While hitting these steps can certainly expose a company to a large pool of talented engineers, it is not easy to find the most qualified person among such a huge pool of competitive candidates. So how can you make sure you are reeling in the good ones?

• Use the career page as a brand-building opportunity. If a candidate can resonate with your company brand and values, there’s a higher likelihood of a great culture match. Use your company values and mission statement to show potential candidates why they should want to join your team.
• Build an attractive careers page. Your website design and aesthetic has a colossal effect on the perceived quality and credibility of your business. In fact, unimpressed users will click away from an ugly or boring website in just half of a second. They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but websites are exempt from this saying due to the nature of the internet experience. Slow-loading images? Click away. Looks like it was designed in 2010? Click away. There is unlimited content on the internet, and first impressions are everything. If your competitor has an eye-catching and exciting careers page, who do you think your candidates are going to choose?
• Write an attractive job description. This is your sales pitch to your prospective employees. Keep it detailed, but don’t write a novel: between 700 – 2,000 words seems to be the sweet spot for job descriptions. Include a day-to-day description of the job’s responsibilities, an explanation of how the role functions within the larger company, the number of desired years of experience, and a statement of what makes your company special. Even the smallest details can win over coveted clients – or send them straight to your competitor.
• Keep the careers page regularly updated. Need I say more? Engineers know their worth and may be juggling offers from several companies at once. If you’re going to attract their cutting-edge talent, you need to accurately advertise your open positions.

4) Your post-recruitment process can help retain talent.

Once you have successfully found and placed candidates within your organization, you may feel that the recruitment process is over. However, your responsibilities don’t end here. Great talent is only great talent if they stay at your company, and most employers prefer employees who stay for at least several years. Keeping employees means assuring that they have the tools and bandwidth to do the tasks that they are assigned, and for that you need an effective onboarding strategy with continued support. This could look like a training program, a mentorship program, or regular check-ins with recent hires. Improving employee retention will reduce the costs of needing to hire more employees in the future – and it will certainly improve company morale.

5) California engineering recruiters make it significantly easier to match with candidates.

When you aren’t finding the talent you want with your existing methods of recruiting, there could be a number of downfalls harming your approach. To guarantee acquisition of top candidates, work with engineering employment services like OSI Engineering.

Let Us Bring the Talent to You

Are you looking for engineering staffing solutions? At OSI Engineering, we’re first and foremost engineers. We can put ourselves in the shoes of the candidates. We deliver professional engineering consultants and contractors to enable you to meet your time-to-market demands. Our technical knowledge of your specific technology streamlines the process to provide the ‘right’ engineer with the ‘right’ technical expertise to add value with minimal ramp-up time. To speak to a member of the team, call (408) 550-2800 or use this contact form.