Adventures in Recruiting

The most effective electronics design engineers I’ve known started as electronics technicians and assemblers. Many of them were self-taught and were in grade school when they started to go to Radio Shack to buy circuit boards and components. Others actually worked as electronics technicians before they completed their BSEE degrees. They knew how to manufacture before they were required to design and they were very smart.

 

The most effective mechanical design engineers I’ve known worked as machinists while they were in school to get their BSME. They knew how to manufacture and how to design, were very smart and were critical when we implemented computer integrated manufacturing.

 

The MSEEs with 4.0 GPAs with charisma were the best candidates to work in teams and work closely with customers in companies designing very complex systems. They got their high GPAs by focusing on what their Professors wanted and giving it to them. But they needed to learn how do design for manufacture from the engineer I described above.

 

Whenever I got a requisition to recruit someone to fill a job, I looked at the work area, the job description and past postings. I would always include what they would do and what tools they would use. I would post it where similar job openings were advertised.

 

I was the “physics loving” Personnel guy and made it a point to understand what engineers were doing everywhere I worked.

 

The first engineer I recruited was for Kearney National, an electrical utility product manufacturer in St. Louis in 1967. He was Shantalal Jain, an Indian who had graduated from a US university with a high GPA coming in on an H1b visa. He made the move to Tucker GA in 1968 and worked there for many years. I chose not to move to Tucker.

 

I spent the next decades not recruiting, but managing the Personnel function.

 

I joined Monsanto to work in Compensation at the headquarters in the Man-made Fibers group in 1968 and didn’t do any recruiting. In 1971, I turned down the transfer to Monsanto in New York and joined Washington University in St. Louis to establish the Personnel function for the Medical School and took the promotion to the Main Campus in 1972 and remained until 1975.

 

I move to Salina Kansas in 1975 to join Schwan Foods and remained until 1979. We automated and increased throughput to grow revenue from $150M to $650M.

 

I joined Rickel Mfg. in 1979 and did recruit engineers to design high-flotation fertilizer applicators. We sold the company to our primary US competitor in 1983.

 

I joined Hayes Microcomputer Products in Atlanta GA in 1983 for the ramp-up and left in 1986. We grew revenue from $35M to $200M.

 

I joined Electromagnetic Sciences Inc. in 1986 and remained until 1993.  I did a lot of engineering recruiting at EMS. We grew revenue from $35M to $220M.

 

I was kidnapped to go on my own in 1993 by my fellow American Electronics Association board members and opened a private consulting practice for the electronics manufacturing companies in Atlanta. I did general consulting for 45 companies and engineering recruiting was a big part of this practice. I started winding this down after 2008 and training internal staff to take over the work I had been doing. I continued to work until 2017. If electronics manufacturing returns to Atlanta, I may have to reactivate by consulting practice, but for now I am enjoying being a conservative blogger.

 

My immersion in engineering recruiting started in 1983 in Atlanta and lasted until 2017.  I have always operated like a “hands-on” “turn-around” manager. I would follow my curiosity and interest and go where they needed what I wanted to do. When I was done, I moved on to the next company. I had a great time, because my career activities answered all of the questions I had when I was 10 years old.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader