In a discussion with Jim Heilman of Discovery Personnel, a mechanical engineer who left industry after two decades to recruit technical talent in the plastics industry, we examine how engineers can best work with recruiters to further their own careers, as well as to find engineering talent for their businesses.
Following up from the prior episode about design thinking, Jeff notes that a movie titled Designing & Thinking is being shown in selected theaters around the country. Anybody have a review for us?
Recruiters serve as an intermediary between job seekers and employers.
Talented individuals who don’t really want to be contacted about job opportunities are known as passive candidates. These are the people that recruiters work the hardest to reach.
Jim notes that networking is still the best way to find a new position. Salespeople are good contacts, as they are in frequent communication with other businesses in your industry.
Jim reflects that he’s been able to stay competitive in recruiting because, in the words of Rick Springfield, We All Need A Human Touch.
If you’re searching for a job, you need to tailor your resume to the company and job for which you’re applying.
When talking with potential employers, try to imagine what they are looking for in an employee, rather than focusing on your own desires for salary and vacation.
It is far more common for new hires to be let go because they don’t fit with a company’s culture, rather than for technical incompetence.
Jim is of the opinion that listing yourself as a candidate on Monster.com can “cheapen” how potential employers view your services. It is better to respond to a job that has already been posted. However, many recruiters rely on Monster and CareerBuilder to find candidates.
While a project portfolio is important, the resume remains the best starting point for gaining entry into most companies.
Jim estimates that there are 150,000 recruiters in the United States, and they all have trouble finding candidates that can meet the increasingly specific requirements demanded by employers. Jim likens the process to finding a purple squirrel.
The cost of using a recruiter is steep, often 30% of a candidate’s first year salary. Thus, a company working through a recruiter is experiencing a lot of pain, and is anxious to find a qualified employee. This cost is normally paid by the employer, which means that recruiters are generally looking out for the best interests of the hiring firm, not the candidate.
Networking is important when trying to hire engineering talent, as well as in conducting a job search.
As a hiring manager, be aware that recruited employees are only guaranteed to stay with your firm for a short term, often only 30 days. However, Jim estimates the early departure rate for his placements as being fairly low, around 1 in 100.
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In this episode, we discuss “design thinking,” a problem-solving approach that is now applied in business and education, as well as in the creation of new products and services. We talk with Jim Tappel, a professor at the University of Cincinnati and former IDEO employee, about how engineers might best coexist with, or even embrace, this approach to discovering new solutions.
Jeff once used the intro and outro music of a Dire Straits song, Industrial Disease, in the background of a video featuring a robotic gripper he had designed.
Jim is currently involved with Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati. At a previous point in his career, Jim worked for the well-known design firm, IDEO.
Jeff mentions a book by the CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown: Change by Design.
We learn about the importance of “kiss off” and “suck back” in making toothpaste enticing to consumers.
Jim estimates that when coming up with new ideas, the success rate is about 2%; it takes the courage to generate a lot of mediocre and bad concepts to find a winning solution.
In reference to a Dan Saffer video about design thinking, Jim notes that there is more to the methodology than putting a whole bunch of post-it notes up on the wall.
Have you subscribed yet? It’s the easiest way to hear when there’s a new episode. We plan for every 2 weeks. But who can remember that? Just subscribe! Email or RSS reader or Podcatcher.
Thanks to Dawn D for the photograph from Design 2020.
This week on the show, we had some unfortunate audio issues, as Jeff says in the introduction. If you can get past the sound this week, the content is good!
Chris has been working with his sawzall of late. Sometimes you have to stop measuring and just “cut into the wall”.
Problem sets in school do not approximate the real world. There are no curves that fit most problems.
Sometimes you’ll need to use bodge wires and duct tape in order to accomplish your goals, especially after you make mistakes.
Jeff insists on well written specifications while consulting in order to be realistic about feature creep.
Designing often requires safety factors and margin of error. This will depend on your confidence in incoming specifications.
Have you subscribed yet? It’s the easiest way to hear when there’s a new episode. We plan for every 2 weeks. But who can remember that? Just subscribe! Email or RSS reader or Podcatcher.
In a discussion with Jim Heilman of Discovery Personnel, a mechanical engineer who left industry after two decades to recruit technical talent in the plastics industry, we examine how engineers can best work with recruiters to further their own careers, as well as to find engineering talent for their businesses.
