How to Attract Top Engineers

So many companies feel like they are constantly fishing for top engineering talent from a pool that has limited fish.  Do you search for talent only when a need arises?  If so, you may feel panic trying to find the right fit in a short amount of time, or worse yet, settle for the wrong person because you are under project time constraints.

Many larger companies have discovered the secret on how to attract top engineers – you are constantly in hiring mode – always looking for top talent to join your team.  The key is utilizing inbound recruiting.  This type of recruiting focuses on building a relationship with your future candidates.  When you take the time to invest in them now, you have a better chance of attracting them when the time is right.

Here are a few inbound recruiting tips that have been shown to attract top engineering talent:

•        Invest a minimum of one hour per week to answering questions of outside talent.  This could be writing a blog article, answering questions on social media, hosting a breakfast for potential candidates, or even conducting a question and answer hour.  Invite others to get to know you and your company, this can be a game changer when it comes time to hire.

•        Learn from your potential candidates.  So much knowledge is available today, and new techniques are introduced daily.  Allow your potential candidates the opportunity to share with you and others.  You can do this by hosting a guest speaker once a month to a meeting of your current staff, or hold a training seminar.  This not only makes them feel like part of the team, before even being hired, but allows them the opportunity to see how you value your team members.

•        Culture is important to all of your staff, including potential hires.  When you portray a culture of not only professionalism, but one that is about the people, you will have talent beating down your door to join.  Simple things like how you celebrate a staff member’s birthday – such as creating a video and posting it only for all to see the celebration – goes a long way.  Creating friendly competitiveness is also a great way to show your culture.  Hold a content once a month, allowing current staff to create something unique to help with a project.  The winner – it is a big deal – so post it on social media, give them the credit they deserve.

As you can see, you want to create a company where top engineering talent will want to work for you.  When a project arises where you need to hire, you will have the best pool to pick from.  How can you start?  Recruiting firms are full of potential candidates.  Working with these firms will allow you to make relationships with some of the best talent around.

Copyright: dotshock / 123RF Stock Photo

Using the Shotgun approach

Whether you are a hunter or not, you probably know that the choice of a specific type of gun is critical and based on the game you hope to bag.  As an example, you wouldn’t use a rifle to go dove hunting.  There is a similar strategy in a job search as well, but most people don’t pay any attention to the concept.  They take the shotgun approach thinking that more is better.  I know this to be true because as a Professional Recruiter, I see, week-in and week-out, the same person applying for multiple jobs on our website, applying for jobs when they don’t have even the basic qualifications listed.

This sends a bad signal to every recruiter for two different reasons.  First, it screams out desperation that you have applied to multiple jobs.  Second, we know that you aren’t qualified for all the jobs (sometimes none) you applied for that we have posted.  It makes us wonder if you even read the job posting at all.

We understand that you are “trying to cover all the bases,” but when you do that on a company website, you can jeopardize any opportunity you might have had.  This shotgun approach does you much dis-service because you have applied to multiple jobs where you are not a good fit.  It screams that you are desperate for any job and probably means that you are not going to be called on any job.

We know that you are wanting to cut to the chase and get a new job, we get it.  But… you will be much better served to find the right opportunity where you are a good fit.  When you find that posting, take the time to make sure you convey to the reader that you are the perfect candidate for them.

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

www.grnhuntsville.com 

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

Catch my Attention with a Great Job Description

Article after article talks about the need for job descriptions that are written to catch the reader’s attention- to say what’s in it for them.  But what is put out there to catch the next great employee is nothing more than the same-ole-thing.  Job descriptions that were written fifteen years ago, dusted off and used again.  Job descriptions that were written by some HR intern because they didn’t have anything for them to do and “it will be good practice for them.”

We are in a Candidate driven marketplace.  Top level candidates are in short supply.  The Top Talent are being called weekly and daily by multiple recruiters.  The Best of the Best have lots of options and are moving fast into new positions and so they are on the market one day and off the next.

If you are going to get their attention, you have to be creative.  It’s time to find those creative writing skills and tell a story.  Tell me why your company is so great that I need to beat a path to your door.  Tell me about your history, your mission, your code of ethics.  Tell me why you are different, why I want to work there (hint: why did you want to work there?).  What’s in it for them?  We tell candidates to write their resumes to tell you why you should hire them, now you tell the candidate why they should want to work for your company. Catch my attention with things like those, and you will keep my attention longer.  Tell me about the knowledge and skills needed, tell me about the duties and responsibilities and I’m outta here. 

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

102 Clinton Ave, West

Suite 201

Huntsville, AL 35801

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

STOP! Before You Pay for a Resume

Recently, I spoke with a candidate whose resume looked . . . (How shall I say this?) . . . cartoonish. Each level of his professional experience was contained within a text bubble that had something resembling an industry related emoticon in lieu of bullet points. His accomplishments and education were separated from the main body, yet followed the same disconcerting pattern. The background color was a blend of cobalt blue and black, and the fonts varied wildly. None of these factors, garish as they were, constituted the greatest crime of this resume. That indignity was revealed to me when the candidate proudly proclaimed to me that he had paid $800 to have it professionally rendered for him. He actually used the word "rendered." (Insert shock-face emoticon here).

There are plenty of services that will charge you far less than $800, with most being in the $80 to $200 range. However, I do not necessarily recommend these services at any price. A quick search online will produce more templates that you could ever sort through. Choose a simple layout, and plug in your information. Then, get with a professional recruiter (headhunter) who works in your industry. She or he sees untold numbers of resumes all day long and will guide you through any necessary adjustments. Additionally, a professional recruiter ("professional" being the operative word) will do far more than simply pass your resume along to a potential hiring manager or executive search committee. A recruiter who is doing the hands on, in-the-trenches work of a professional will be on the phone with the decision makers presenting you as the highly qualified candidate that you are. Of course, if you really want to pay me $800 to create your resume . . . just say the word!

Matthew Doss, Headhunter (I actually prefer that term :)

Global Recruiters of Huntsville

256.533.1444

mdoss@grnhuntsville.com 

Be Just a Little Bit Better

We have an opening in our firm and so I have been conducting interviews over the past several weeks and I have interviewed some very interesting people.  There are some really big gaps that have stood out in those interviews that I wanted to talk about today.

We often hear that it’s the little things that matter, that you don’t have to be miles ahead of the competition; you just have to be a little better in order to stand out.  It is to this point that I want to talk about those things that stand out, in this case it is the things that most candidates don’t do during an interview.

Most of the candidates I have interviewed in the past several weeks have walked into my office, empty handed, that is to say, they didn’t bring anything to take notes on, and they didn’t bring any written questions to ask.  These are both critical mistakes in the interview process and they can be the difference in getting a new position or being second-place.

So on your next interview, bring a notepad.  After your greeting and after you sit down, ask the interviewer if they mind if you take notes.  No one will ever say NO.  Then open your notepad and take out your pen.  Your notes should be just the key words that the interviewer uses.  These key words are your chance to shine later.

Second, have questions written out that you want to ask.  The worst possible outcome from an interview I am conducting is for the candidate to say, no, I don’t have any questions or no, you answered all my questions.  NOTE TO FILE- If you did this in my interview, you just lost!  Always have questions to ask.  Even if I answered all of your pre-determined questions, ask them anyway.  Simply say, one of the questions I wanted answered, you already covered but please expand on your answer, tell me more.  Back to those key words you wrote down, now turn them into questions; you mentioned _____ tell me more about that.

The horse that wins the Kentucky Derby but a nose makes $ millions more than the second place horse.  Is the winner a million times better?  No, it’s just a little bit better but worth a lot more.  A little more effort on your part will make a difference.  It just might set you on a new career path.

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

dmcelhaney@grnhuntsville.com

www.grnhuntsville.com

Clarity, Confidence, Commitment

I once had a major stockholder in the company I was with make a presentation to my Sales Management team.  This was the topic of his presentation.  As he made his presentation to us, it became clear to me that this was one of those life lessons.  As I listened to him, I could sense the value of his words.

Clarity, he said, was the first step in understanding why we do the things that we do.  It is the ground step, the cornerstone of understanding what Steven Covey called “beginning with the end in mind”.  If you have a clear understanding of why you want to do something, you can figure out what you need to do in order to get to the end-game.  If you know why you are doing something, then you can clarify the steps necessary to accomplish your goal(s).

Confidence is the result of clarifying your why and understanding that you can accomplish your goal with the steps you have outlined.  As long as you make your steps through the process clear, you can move from A to B, to C and so on.  It doesn’t matter how many steps there are in your process or how few, as long as they can be accomplished   With a clear vision, you can move confidently through the steps to success keeping you eye on the plan.  Confidence gives you the positive attitude and a positive attitude makes all the difference.

Commitment is the final piece for your success plan.  With clarity and confidence you will only need to commit to accomplishing your goal.  If you know and believe that you can be successful, if you are willing to take the necessary steps to be successful and you are committed to accomplishing your goal(s), that commitment will serve you well through the completion of the project.  Without commitment, you won’t have the drive to continue through the steps and around the roadblocks.

Clarity, Confidence and Commitment are your three new BFF.  Use them well.

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

Change your Life

Every now and then, something happens in your life that changes our course.  We typically call those milestones.  We look back on those milestones and see how they altered our activities, beliefs, or whatever.  Sometimes those milestones are happy times, sometimes not.  The one thing they have in common is that they change our behavior (good or bad). 

In my experience, with only a few exceptions, have those milestones not been an event.  One of those milestones that wasn’t an event in my life was reading a book, not just any book but a book about happiness; The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.   This book had such an impact on my life that I have purchased and given away well over 30 copies.  I am recommending this book to everyone, no matter where you are in your life or circumstances.

If you would like to get a flavor for the book beforehand, check out Shaun’s TED talk presentation; http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

102 Clinton Ave, West

Suite 201

Huntsville, AL 35801

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462