Engineering job recruiting has recently rapidly slowed with more and more employers apprehensive over the impact of the coronavirus. Just a few weeks ago engineers enjoyed an unemployment rate of near zero versus the national rate of 3.5%.
However, employers are scaling back on engineer recruitment in light of an uncertain global future as well as the effects of the virus rapidly impacting their profits! For example, this week alone Strategic Search Corporation had four technology clients put 11 engineering recruiting assignments on hold due to the uncertain future.
Employees, especially those with engineering talent, may no longer be in the driver’s seat with potential layoffs, fewer job openings and more candidates available.
With the slowdown in staffing as a result of the coronavirus, your emphasis should now be focused on the all-important job interviewing process.
Interview Mastery | The Most Important Part Of Landing A Job
I have learned from first-hand experience spanning over 30 years of executive search that there is one most important element in landing a job. That element is a candidate’s ability to “ACE” their employment interview! This applies to all fields, but in particular engineering job recruiting that we specialize in.
Though the interviewing process is flawed, employers place a lot of emphasis on how well candidates “sell” themselves during their interview. Unfortunately, most job candidates do a very poor job of selling themselves.
This is particularly true for the engineering, research and development (R&D), scientific, information technology (IT), technical and manufacturing jobs candidates our firm specializes in.
This common flaw also applies to a majority of job applicant interviews in other categories, entrepreneurs trying to raise money and even political candidates trying to win office during this election season!
The results are a high number of highly qualified candidates do not land the jobs they deserve; entrepreneurs cannot raise the money they seek, or office seekers do not get elected to the governmental offices they desire!
Our Interview Preparation Tool Helps Candidates Land A Job
Several years ago, I formulated an innovative interview preparation system to assist our scientific, engineering, IT, R&D, technical AND manufacturing candidates perform better during their interviews. It is called The Real Benefit Exercise℠.
Candidates may significantly increase their chances of securing a job by closely following this system. And, the system has been recently updated.
Until now our recruitment firm exclusively distributed this system to our own job candidates on a one-to-one basis. This gave them a competitive advantage.
Presently the newly updated online video exercise is available to you FREE of charge. In addition to engineering talent, it can be applied to a wide range of jobs and candidates to perfect their interviews.
The Real Benefit Exercise℠ Candidate Success Story
J.P. was one of our early candidates to learn and apply The Real Benefit Exercise℠. His personal information and that of my client are withheld to protect both of their privacies.
Assignment: My technical and engineering recruiting firm was retained to staff up an entire engineering department for a fast-growing electronics and electromechanical manufacturer.
The client was involved with the design, engineering, process improvement, quality assurance and manufacturing of time switches and controls, sensors, timers, surge protection devices, professional lighting as well as pool and spa controls.
As many employers do, they first tried filling their jobs on their own via advertising on the engineering job recruiting route. Unfortunately, their staffing efforts didn’t succeed in filling most of their jobs vacancies. As a result, they retained our recruiting firm to fill 16 critical R&D, scientific, engineering and technical jobs.
One of those engineering vacancies was for a newly created position of Product Regulatory and Reliability Manager. This position description was quite extensive.
Candidates were going to be in charge of safety, performance and reliability tests for UL, Canadian Standards Association (CSA), ANCE, Intertek, ISO 17025 accreditation of test laboratory, EMC, RoHS Compliance and participation in development of UL and CSA Standards.
Our Candidate: During the early recruitment process, my team uncovered J.P. He was the Compliance Manager at CSA. This organization provides product testing and certification services for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas and a variety of other products.
J.P. possessed all the key technical and engineering skills my client required for this position. Unfortunately, he lacked strong interviewing skills since he had not interviewed for a job for many years!
The Solution: We realized the interview process was centered on a sales and marketing presentation. Plus, we knew the Vice President of Engineering (the interviewer) would only provide J.P. a limited amount of time to promote his job abilities. I therefore tutored J.P. in The Real Benefit Exercise℠ to assist him.
The Result: J.P. was a great student and he quickly applied the teachings of The Real Benefit Exercise℠. As a result, he performed outstandingly during his interviews and quickly landed the managerial job. Furthermore, he swiftly set up engineering, testing, regulatory and reliability systems that immediately saved my client many hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Addendum: Unfortunately, the client ran into some serious financial problems just 18 months after J.P. joined the firm. As a result, J.P. had to go job hunting again. Once again, he applied the principles, he had learned from of The Real Benefit Exercise℠ to quickly land another key position.
P.S. J.P. recently wrote me:
Scott,
You have told me that the purpose of the interview is to match company needs with what the potential employee can bring to the table.
To achieve that, I always studied the company profile, history, people, products and information pertinent to the open position. I would only go to interview prepared with records and examples of my problem solving from past employment.
Then, as you instructed me, I would ask each person interviewing me “what are the challenges that she or he sees that the company is facing that need attention or resolution”. I was than able to present what I can do for them.
In contrast, I have interviewed people as well and some of them come to the interview listing all they know, sometimes a lot, and expecting that the company will have a position to would fit their needs.
J.P.
The Real Benefit Exercise℠ Helps You “ACE” Interviews!
Employers are still hiring despite this uncertain time in our history with coronavirus concerns causing mass worker layoffs. So please remember the most important part of landing a job is selling oneself during the interviewing process.
This applies not only to engineering job recruiting, but also any time you need to perform well during your “interview” whether you are a job applicant, a fundraising entrepreneur or a political candidate running for office.
Our FREE The Real Benefit Exercise℠ can help you better sell yourself during the interview process.
As with J.P., our interviewing system can help you “ACE” your interviews and lead to fulfilling your dreams!
Good Interviewing Skills Land Better Jobs!
I developed and refined a now proven 12-step program that has changed the way you interview. It will vastly improve your chances of finding a job in these shifting times.
My program is based on 30+ years of successful executive recruiting experience combined with candidate coaching.
We specialize in fields serving job seekers in engineering, research and development (R&D), scientific, information technology (IT), technical, manufacturing as well as for high demand individuals in areas such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and Internet of Things (IoT).
Are you interested in learning how my 12-step program can help you as it has benefited others?
Call me today at 312-944-4000 to discuss how we can help improve your interviewing skills and help you land your desired position.
Or click here for my full contact information.
