The Hardest Engineering Positions to Fill

By all accounts, engineering is one of the hardest sectors to recruit in. There is a pronounced skills gap in many engineering disciplines, as well as stiff competition for merely qualified talent. And while it’s tough to find engineers across the board, it’s especially tough to find certain types of engineers. What kind varies depending on the part of the country and the skills required, but these five have proven especially hard to fill in recent years:

  • Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists
  • Industrial Engineers
  • Industrial Safety and Health Engineers
  • Fire Prevention and Protection Engineers
  • Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers

If you have actively tried to recruit any of the above engineers of late, your position is probably still unfilled. The good news is with the right strategies you can find, attract, recruit, and retain the talent you so desperately require. Here are some tips for hiring hard-to-find engineers:

  • Expand Your Search – The concentration of certain types of engineers tends to be higher in some places than in others. For instance, there are a surprisingly large number of electrical engineers in Los Angeles. Make sure you’re not limiting yourself to local candidates only, and consider looking internationally if necessary. Video conferencing makes it a lot easier to connect with remote candidates.
  • Ask for a Referral – Employee referrals are the single best source for finding quality talent fast. Put out the word you need a specific type of engineer, and offer some sort of bonus or reward to encourage people to scour their networks. If no one promising turns up, it costs you nothing.
  • Look to the Universities – If you are willing to hire a young engineer, try to connect with them the minute they come out of college. Continue to develop your relationship with the university to create a pipeline of talent.
  • Accept Parallel Skills – You may not be able to find the exact engineer you want. But if you can find one that is close and has a skill set similar or parallel to the one you require, you may be able to build them into your ideal engineer through training and professional development.

Even if you follow this advice, finding an elusive engineer can be a maddening process. Why not spare yourself the time, expense, and frustration and take on a specialized staffing partner? They can connect you with a pool of engineering talent whose skills are both impressive and in demand. The engineer you need could be waiting there right now. To find out, contact Selectek.

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