Guide to Hiring Your First Engineer

Evan McDowell

Talent Acquisition Manager

As businesses continue to grow, CEOs and business owners are experiencing difficulty in recruiting and hiring engineers. They excel in many other aspects of their business, but without a technical background, there is an inherent disconnect between the engineer and their interviewer. If you’re looking to add engineering talent to your team, consider engaging with an engineering staffing agency first.

Austin Nichols is Kansas City’s premier engineering recruitment agency. We specialize in filling engineering jobs with top engineering professionals that fit your business’ needs. Our recruiters act as your partner throughout the entire interview process. Before hiring your first engineer, our recruiters developed this guide to help you find the right candidate for your business.

Understand the Challenges of Hiring an Engineer

For the non-technical business owner or hiring manager, you want to mitigate as much risk as possible when it comes to extending a job offer to an engineer. Engineering across nearly all industries is a highly competitive space, with many companies paying top dollar for quality engineers. When your team is looking to hire an engineer, be ready to invest time and resources into a technical interview.

Technical onsite interviews are often a long process, spanning at least a few weeks. They also require more than just one or two interviewers during the interview process. Technical interviews involve complex and detailed discussions, prompting subject matter experts to attend as well.

With the help of a technical engineering recruitment agency, businesses are equipped with plenty of engineering interview resources and experience with the team at Austin Nichols. Our recruiters partner with you to help choose the best engineering candidate for your business.

Hiring an engineer is no easy feat. In fact, a recent poll discovered 86 percent of businesses describe hiring technical talent as a big challenge for them. Don’t go at it alone, the engineering recruitment specialists at Austin Nichols are ready to help.

Create a Good Job Description

A job description for an engineering position gives the candidate a first glimpse at what they can expect when working with you. After reading, they should have a good understanding of who you are as a company, what their responsibilities will be, what educational qualifications and certifications are required, and their salary expectations.

To write a good job description, you need to have a clear idea of what you want the engineer to do. These don’t need to be all-encompassing or detailed, but a general description gives your candidates an idea of what you’re looking for. Your job posting should also give your team an idea of who you’re looking for too, so everyone can work together to find the right candidate.

Writing a job description for an engineering position takes time and doesn’t happen after only one draft. Depending on the needs and skill level you’re looking for, an engineering job description can become fairly long. The things to highlight in an engineering job description are:

  • The job title;
  • A summary of job responsibilities and type of work to be performed;
  • The educational qualifications required for the position;
  • Any experience level and certifications necessary;
  • The salary expectations and benefits; and
  • A description of your company

Work with a Recruiter to Make Connections and Find Talent

If the idea of hiring an engineer sounds like a bigger, more daunting task than you originally thought, know that you don’t have to go at it alone. Austin Nichols finds top engineering talent for a wide range of businesses and industries. Working with an engineering recruitment agency makes recruiting and interviewing engineering candidates faster and less stressful for you.

Our recruiters are well acquainted with top engineers across many industries, meaning we find the best engineering candidates for your business. We also utilize our network of engineering job seekers to help expedite the recruiting process, getting your business running up and running without major delays. We are well-versed in networking and recruiting engineers, conducting technical interviews, and negotiating offers.

Look for Someone with the Right Engineering Experience

Engineering is a highly diverse, competitive field. Our recruiters have seen certain job postings perform extremely well, with some getting hundreds of candidates to apply. When that happens, carefully sourcing through each entry to find the right candidate can take a significant amount of time. You and the hiring manager need to know exactly what experience you’re looking for in the right candidate, as many will not have the necessary skills for the position.

Not only can that make the whole process go faster, but it also allows your team to quickly understand who is applying. If the candidates with the right experience are few and far between, you may need to reevaluate your engineering job description, salary, or other qualifications. A good engineering recruiter can brainstorm what experience would be necessary to fulfill your open position and then quickly identify which candidates should be considered for an interview.

Get Ready for Interviews

A job interview is a way for the company to get to know its candidates and see if they’re the right fit. At the same time, candidates are seeing if the job and your company are a good fit for them. The same is said when interviewing engineers. Just like they want to impress you with their technical knowledge and background, you need to impress your engineering candidates, as well.

Interviews for an engineering position can get very technical and complex. Prepare yourself and your team for the interview process. It’s best to understand what you’re looking for, have questions ready for the candidate, and include subject matter experts and other members of your team. Some businesses choose to have many rounds of interviews before hiring an engineer.

At Austin Nichols, our engineering recruitment specialists can assist your team with the interview process. We can provide resources for your team to prepare, lead the interview, and assist with the hiring process once a candidate has been chosen. Our goal is to hire the best engineers for your business.

When you’re ready to hire your first engineer, there are many things to consider before extending the offer. What may seem like a big undertaking can all be handled with Austin Nichols’ team of engineering recruiters. As Kansas City’s premier engineering recruitment agency, our team manages to recruit, interview, and hire engineering candidates for many industries. If you’re looking for full-time engineers or a contract-to-hire, Austin Nichols is here to help.

To get started with the best engineering recruitment firm in Kansas City, call us today at 816-471-5575.

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