What Makes Me Call an Engineer About a Vacancy?

If you’ve worked in engineering for any length of time, there’s a reasonable chance you’ve received a call from a recruiter about a job that has absolutely nothing to do with what you actually do. A keyword somewhere on your CV has triggered a search result and, before you know it, somebody is enthusiastically telling you about an “exciting opportunity” that makes no sense whatsoever.

I understand why engineers can become slightly cynical about recruitment calls as a result. When I contact somebody about a vacancy, I want there to be a genuine reason why I think the conversation is worth having. That doesn’t mean every person I call will ultimately be right for the job, or even interested in it, but there should be more behind the call than the fact that a computer found the right word on their profile.

I’m Looking for Evidence, Not Just Keywords

If I’m recruiting for a specialist technical role, I’ll obviously start with the core skills the client needs. But I’m also looking at where somebody has worked, the type of products they’ve been involved with, their level of responsibility and how their career has developed. Sometimes the most relevant piece of experience might be several jobs ago rather than in their current position.

I’m also interested in the pattern of somebody’s career. Have they progressed? Have they deliberately moved between sectors to broaden their experience? If they’re a contractor, do their assignments make sense in the context of project work? None of those things can be judged properly by looking at a single keyword.

You Don’t Have to Match Everything

Candidates sometimes tell me they haven’t applied for a vacancy because they’re missing one or two things on the job specification. That’s understandable, particularly when the advert describes every requirement as “essential”, but the reality is often rather more flexible.

If somebody has eight of the ten things a client wants and strong experience in the areas that really matter, I’ll often still want to talk to them. The missing two might be things that can be learned relatively quickly, while the eight they already have could represent years of specialist experience.

Part of my job is understanding which requirements genuinely are non-negotiable and which ones describe the ideal candidate rather than the only candidate worth considering.

Sometimes I See a Match You Haven’t Considered

This is particularly true when somebody has worked in another engineering sector. A candidate may think of themselves as an aerospace engineer because that’s where they’ve spent the last ten years, while I’m looking at the actual work they’ve done and thinking that it could transfer extremely well into automotive, defence or another technical environment.

That doesn’t mean every skill transfers everywhere, but it’s worth having the conversation. Some of the better matches in recruitment aren’t necessarily the most obvious ones on paper.

Final Thought

If I call you about an engineering vacancy, I’m not expecting you to immediately say yes. You may be perfectly happy where you are, the timing might be wrong or the opportunity simply might not appeal.

But I do want there to be a sensible reason for making the call. Good recruitment shouldn’t be about contacting as many people as possible and hoping somebody responds. It should be about finding the people where a proper conversation is actually worth having.




Photo by Wesley Hilario on Unsplash

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What Makes Me Call an Engineer About a Vacancy?
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