Mechanical engineering has a notorious reputation for being one of the hardest professions to hire for. This is known to be due to the shortage of qualified mechanical engineers that are present in the market. The hiring process can also drag out for various reasons. You might feel out of ideas when it comes to how to hire a mechanical engineer.

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We have compiled a list of the main factors that we believe will help any company find the perfect mechanical engineer for them, in the fastest time possible. Read on the find out the best way to hire a mechanical engineer!

Offer Great Benefits

All engineering sectors are currently experiencing a shortage of professionals and talent, unfortunately mechanical engineering is no exception to this. Unemployment rates remain to be extremely low in the field of mechanical engineering, therefore there is a small pool of mechanical engineers actively looking for a job and there is very high demand for those in that pool.

This is why it can become a real challenge to try to find that perfect employee for your company. One of the easiest ways to stand out from other companies is to offer great benefits (better than your competition) to those potential employees. “Benefits” in general are composed of a few options that can be offered to employees, these can include:

• Salary
• Vacation time
• Retirement options
• Health, dental or vision insurance

Salary is most likely the main thing that prospective mechanical engineers will be looking for, and honestly it is the first thing that everyone looks at when considering a job, isn’t it? You will need to offer a competitive salary for the position and experience level that you are looking for. Research on the competition is vital here to learn what the average salary is and if you can try to offer a little more.

There are more benefits to consider when you are putting together your benefits package, vacation time, retirement options and any type of health insurance will affect the hiring process as much as the salary. Vacation time is self-explanatory, with more time off obviously being more attractive to employees. Your company can also offer a match to retirement contributions in a vehicle like a 401k up to a fixed amount. Health insurance is a huge draw for all employees, as everyone is painfully aware of the cost of healthcare, especially in the USA! Premium health insurance options can draw top talent away from your competitors and land you the exceptional employee that you need!

Write An Amazing Job Description

The job description that you present for the role your are advertising is essential to your success in hiring the right person. It MUST include the tasks and responsibilities the job entails and an outline of the expected qualifications the applicant should have in order to be successful.

Job Summary

The job summary of the specific role you want your mechanical engineer to fulfill will be tailored to your company. In general mechanical engineers design, develop, manufacture and install mechanical devices and components. It is important that your job summary is unique to your company, however there are a lot of resources on the internet to help give you some inspiration, like this one.

Education and Experience

Mechanical engineers are generally required to possess a bachelor’s degree or higher in mechanical engineering or in a related field. Higher degrees such as graduate degrees and PHDs may be favored by your company depending on your requirements, but this is not the norm. Generally graduate degrees are required to obtain management positions in larger mechanical engineering companies.

Also, if the mechanical engineer is looking to sell their engineering services directly to customers they are required to be licensed by whatever state in the USA they reside in. Otherwise, they will have to work under a PE (Professional Engineer) until they accrue the necessary experience and can take the PE (Principles and Practice of Engineering) exam themselves. More information on mechanical engineering education can be found here.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Similar to the job summary, the tasks that the employee will be carrying out once they are hired will be unique to the position and company they are hired for. The responsibilities can be a little more typical for what their position generally expects. Mechanical engineers can work in a multitude of fields so tailoring their tasks, responsibilities and job summary to your specific job opening will help you greatly in finding the person for the job!

Once your impeccable job description is finalized, it is now time for marketing and advertising to do its job and help to spread the good word about your vacancy. Job board websites are essential for this and social media can also benefit you greatly in this area, LinkedIn will be your best friend for finding talent!

Identify Top Notch Talent

Once your amazing job description is written and perfected, now is the time to sort through the inevitable flood of applications that are coming in. Resumes and cover letters will be received from candidate’s and there will need to be evaluated for education, experience, talent and if you think they will be a good fit for your company.

However, a candidate’s qualifications on paper never tell the whole story, and should not be strict deal breakers. Everyone has heard about the companies requesting a couple of years of work experience for entry-level roles. Don’t be that company.

There are the obvious requirements that should be met, but an in-person interview can tell you so much more about a person than a piece of paper or e-document can. Professionalism, work-ethic, communication skills and personality are all invaluable attributes to an employee and ensuring that your next employee has these qualities will ensure a long and happy working relationship.

Conduct The Interview Professionally

Now that you hopefully have a shortlist of the candidates that you would like to interview, it’s time to conduct the interviews. Do not interview too many and waste your time, but at the same time do not limit yourself too early before you have a chance to see what some of the applicants are like in person. It’s a fine balance! Most companies have different processes for interviewing their prospective employees, some like to have interviews over the phone first and then whittle the list down a little more for the in-person interviews. Whatever the case may be, you will need to have a list of interview questions ready for the applicants.

These will be used to find about their qualifications, experience, what type of person they are, work ethic, professionalism and what flexibility they have with regards to their commitment to the job. The perfect interview will guide you through finding the most suitable mechanical engineer for the job.

It is essential to again tailor these questions to your company’s specific needs and requirements. A list of questions from the internet are good for giving you some inspiration on what to base your questions off of, but general questions will do you no favors in hiring the right person. Ask them about your company values, does the candidate have experience in the same field as your company, or will you have to train them? These are vitally important questions to ask. you will hopefully narrow down the mechanical engineers through a series of interviews until you are left with the right person for the job.

Hire, Orientation and Onboarding

Once the interviews are over with (thank god for that!), you have with some luck identified who is your main and preferred target for your position. If there has been no-one that has fit the bill so far, do not be impatient, wait and the right person will come along soon enough! Settling for someone who is not right for the job will only cause you pain and money down the line.

Now you are at the last step in how to hire a mechanical engineer. Hiring and training the applicant will be the next step, after terms are worked out hopefully! Employee orientation will usually take about a week or two, but onboarding (the process of a new employee transitioning into a seamless cog in the machine) can take up to a year in some cases, depending on the role.

Having an orientation and onboarding plan (as detailed as possible) is important for this process to go smoothly and to ensure your new hire is experiencing as little stress as possible. We all know how stressful starting a new job is! This will help them to learn everything they can about they company and embrace the new culture that they work in.

Recruiting Services

So now you know how to hire a mechanical engineer, easy right? Not quite. It can be a long, hard road to finding that right person or persons. Luckily for you, there is an easier way to do this (with some notable cons that you have to take into account.)

Recruiting service can help you with the staffing and take all of the work load and stress away from you. The know how to hire a mechanical engineer and with some information about your job role and company, they will take over the complete hiring process from start to finish. Some recruiting services focus on pre-screening and phone interviews to save time on in-person interviews, others focus on different aspects of the hiring process.

However, you should note that recruitment services expect to be paid whether they find someone or not, and they can turn out to be quite expensive! Also, because engineering is a technical subject, a lot of the recruiters (even “engineering recruiters”) don’t know a lot of what they are talking about. This can lead to frustration on the employers side as you are being presented with a stream of professionals that are not right for the job. Something to keep in mind!

Anyway, there is your guide on how to hire a mechanical engineer and we hope that it will help you find your next amazing employee! These steps are made to be easy to follow for anyone and should save you valuable time and effort throughout the hiring process.

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