5 Key Tips for Recruiting Engineers

Engineers are some of the most sought after professionals today and recruiting engineers may be as simple as Marketing 101.|Engineers are some of the most sought after professionals today and recruiting engineers may be as simple as Marketing 101.|Engineers are some of the most sought after professionals today and recruiting engineers may be as simple as Marketing 101.

It’s no secret that engineers are some of the most sought after professionals today, and the marketing to attract and retain their talent is incredibly important. In the words of Pete Soderling, software engineer and founder of Hakka Group, “Engineers are in massive, disproportionate and obscenely high demand. In other words, they’ve become the hottest girls at the bar.”

Recruiting engineers (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering and other engineering professionals) may be as simple as Marketing 101, Soderling explains:

Engineers of all types have an incredible amount of opportunities laid before them, so when you speak about your product, this job opening, you better know exactly what you’re talking about because you probably only have one shot. Like in retail, you should know all facets of this product: What is the culture like, what team would they work on, what hours would they work, what engineering problems would you need this resource to solve, what kind of person would thrive in this environment, how the position could progress, etc, etc, etc. The better you are at communicating and answering questions, the better the picture will look. Know your stuff.

What type of engineer do you need? This goes along with knowing your product. Are you looking for entry level, recent college graduates? Do you need a degreed professional or an engineer with hardcore experience? If you define the type of professional and level of experience you will have a better road map to hiring an engineer who will stay with your organization, not quit three weeks later.

According to Soderling, there are three essential aspects of a job that an engineer will dissect:

• Your company’s engineering challenges and projects
• Your people (because people do business with people that they like)
• Your company culture

You MUST be able to differentiate your company on these three points. Engineers by nature solve problems. Make this problem as attractive as you can, “The bigger, the badder, the hairier the challenge, the better.” Also, every professional wants to be happy at their job, and a huge aspect of that is their environment and the people they see every day. Make sure that you are able to talk about the culture and those that work in it quickly and effectively.

Content is king, but it is more effective when communicated by a relatable source. You wouldn’t want me, a marketing professional speaking to biomedical engineers about our engineering challenges. Your internal engineers are your best sales people, and also show your target audience that great engineers not only work at your company, but love to work there. Commence engineer magnetism.

Now that your story, audience and who your spokes engineers are, you are ready to spread your message. This is a process, and takes planning and a lot of scheduling but will get your message out on several fronts:
1. Map out events, forums, conferences, and plan meetings or meet ups where you are able to tell your story to the right audience.
2. Attack socially: post videos, blogs and other materials on social communities where your audience would most likely see and more importantly share.

If you dissect your current engineering recruiting efforts, are you taking the right steps? Are you missing a piece? The engineering community is so highly sought after, that evaluating your process is invaluable to your company.

Click here to read the original article posted on Soderling’s blog.