Best place to advertise for mechanical engineering jobs?
Discussion
Hi Chaps,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the best way to find & recruit new graduate/professional staff?
We're a small company, but due to lots of good luck, will need to hire a few people over the next few months to deliver on the various projects we're working on. It's the first time I've not been able to just get a friend / colleague to help out, and I need to be proactive in securing new Engineers. I'm loathe to hit up contractors as we want to build a more coherent team in the mid to long term.
-I've advertised on the Cambridge Network & university careers service (see here http://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/recruitment-gate... ) but I've not had any response.
Beyond this, it seems that either going to a recruitment consultancy or some other agency who advertises and shortlists may be the most cost effective way of proceeding? But I'm really not sure what is best to do!
-Advertise in Monster - costs a fair bit (few hundred) but no guarantee of success.
-Engage a recruiter to scour their books and suggest candidates, costs a bit more (maybe 2-4K), but AFAIK you only pay if they secure you someone useful.
-Get a recruiter to proactively advertise the role?
Am I missing something obvious? To be honest I'm a bit unsure whether I'm best to spend money on monster & hope, or to engage a recruiter and only pay if we get someone. Does anyone have any tips about the best way to do this, or, hopefully, a golden tip/suggestion by someone out there as to the best way to reach out to some Engineers looking for a really cool job!?? I say this, as really, it's a cool job, I'm surprised we're not innundated, I'm clearly just not getting the message out there!
Thanks in advance.
Stu
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the best way to find & recruit new graduate/professional staff?
We're a small company, but due to lots of good luck, will need to hire a few people over the next few months to deliver on the various projects we're working on. It's the first time I've not been able to just get a friend / colleague to help out, and I need to be proactive in securing new Engineers. I'm loathe to hit up contractors as we want to build a more coherent team in the mid to long term.
-I've advertised on the Cambridge Network & university careers service (see here http://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/recruitment-gate... ) but I've not had any response.
Beyond this, it seems that either going to a recruitment consultancy or some other agency who advertises and shortlists may be the most cost effective way of proceeding? But I'm really not sure what is best to do!
-Advertise in Monster - costs a fair bit (few hundred) but no guarantee of success.
-Engage a recruiter to scour their books and suggest candidates, costs a bit more (maybe 2-4K), but AFAIK you only pay if they secure you someone useful.
-Get a recruiter to proactively advertise the role?
Am I missing something obvious? To be honest I'm a bit unsure whether I'm best to spend money on monster & hope, or to engage a recruiter and only pay if we get someone. Does anyone have any tips about the best way to do this, or, hopefully, a golden tip/suggestion by someone out there as to the best way to reach out to some Engineers looking for a really cool job!?? I say this, as really, it's a cool job, I'm surprised we're not innundated, I'm clearly just not getting the message out there!
Thanks in advance.
Stu
Try Hot Prospects? They're a graduate specialist, although they kept offering me roles I wasn't really interested in 
I'll read your ad over myself later and see if I can offer any advice
eta: first paragraph reads a bit "my first job listing", should be less about what you are doing and more about what you have always been doing or will always be doing. Don't start with "are currently" but more like "design and make x for the y industry" and stuff like "established xyz" etc. makes the company sound like an establish player. The bold/large text of that paragraph is also off-putting to me and there is more space between that and the rest of the text than between it and the title. But then I tend to be picky about little details (maybe because I'm an engineer
)
Cambridge network is a bit old boys isn't it? Get in touch with some less hoity-toity* unis directly and ask about their job boards (that's where I found my job). Good ones would be.. Bath, Imperial, Nottingham, Loughborough, or whichever are leaders in your field. In theory they should be keen to find jobs for their graduates so price should be reasonable, maybe even free,
Are you sure you're even looking for a new graduate?
*I was expecting spell check to kick up a fuss on this but it seems to be in the dictionary!
I'll read your ad over myself later and see if I can offer any advice
eta: first paragraph reads a bit "my first job listing", should be less about what you are doing and more about what you have always been doing or will always be doing. Don't start with "are currently" but more like "design and make x for the y industry" and stuff like "established xyz" etc. makes the company sound like an establish player. The bold/large text of that paragraph is also off-putting to me and there is more space between that and the rest of the text than between it and the title. But then I tend to be picky about little details (maybe because I'm an engineer
)Cambridge network is a bit old boys isn't it? Get in touch with some less hoity-toity* unis directly and ask about their job boards (that's where I found my job). Good ones would be.. Bath, Imperial, Nottingham, Loughborough, or whichever are leaders in your field. In theory they should be keen to find jobs for their graduates so price should be reasonable, maybe even free,
Are you sure you're even looking for a new graduate?
*I was expecting spell check to kick up a fuss on this but it seems to be in the dictionary!
Edited by scarble on Monday 20th May 10:49
Thanks, guys.
Kremlingazette, I forgot about LindkedIN - its quite cheap, £200, so may be worth a punt.
Scarble, I appreciate the time you've gone to. Formatting I can't do much about as it's their template, but I take the point re the prose - I'll try to tweak!
Given the job is in Cambridge, the Cambridge network seemed sensible, I'd not expected people to relocate far and wide to come here, but I may be aiming my sights low. I actually think a grad from somewhere like Brunel may be a better fit as I need someone who can actually do stuff, rather than think about it.
I'm not really looking for a proper graduate, but if someone was bright & self starting I Would go for them. I'd ideally like our most junior new member to have some experience and skill, my ideal junior candidate would may be be a few years in Industry, on their feet and looking for a better job than their first grad job, but not totally green.
Engineer1. The outline spec is as above, but it's a pretty elastic role TBH; we can tailor to suit, so if you're interested in playing regenerative medicine & cryogenics ping me an email
Stu
FWIW I called one recruiter today, they basically want about 30% of year one salary to source the candidate. Wow. That's quite a chunk of change!!!!
Kremlingazette, I forgot about LindkedIN - its quite cheap, £200, so may be worth a punt.
Scarble, I appreciate the time you've gone to. Formatting I can't do much about as it's their template, but I take the point re the prose - I'll try to tweak!
Given the job is in Cambridge, the Cambridge network seemed sensible, I'd not expected people to relocate far and wide to come here, but I may be aiming my sights low. I actually think a grad from somewhere like Brunel may be a better fit as I need someone who can actually do stuff, rather than think about it.
I'm not really looking for a proper graduate, but if someone was bright & self starting I Would go for them. I'd ideally like our most junior new member to have some experience and skill, my ideal junior candidate would may be be a few years in Industry, on their feet and looking for a better job than their first grad job, but not totally green.Engineer1. The outline spec is as above, but it's a pretty elastic role TBH; we can tailor to suit, so if you're interested in playing regenerative medicine & cryogenics ping me an email
Stu
FWIW I called one recruiter today, they basically want about 30% of year one salary to source the candidate. Wow. That's quite a chunk of change!!!!
Blimey that is a lot. I always wondered what they charge. I guess at that rate a guy can match 3 candidates to jobs per year and make a decent salary
Fills you with confidence don't it?
I imagine their main cost is access to CV-Library.
Have you looked at just engineers? It's like monster but uh.. just for engineers
Fills you with confidence don't it?
I imagine their main cost is access to CV-Library.
Have you looked at just engineers? It's like monster but uh.. just for engineers
Thanks. Just engineers and linkedin look good - £100 & £200 respectively. Monster were more, but probably worth it too.
I had thought that a recruiter was "a bit more than doing this myself but probably worth the money", but the more I look into it, the more it's worth spending a few days trying it myself. DIY would cost £500, say, with no chance of success and take 2 man days effort, whereas recruitment firms would, for two jobs at least, swallow £15K. Got to be worth a £500 punt! I'd much rather give the money to the candidate than a recruiter.
Stu
I had thought that a recruiter was "a bit more than doing this myself but probably worth the money", but the more I look into it, the more it's worth spending a few days trying it myself. DIY would cost £500, say, with no chance of success and take 2 man days effort, whereas recruitment firms would, for two jobs at least, swallow £15K. Got to be worth a £500 punt! I'd much rather give the money to the candidate than a recruiter.
Stu
Indeed, I think they think their inexpertly sifting through CVs and throwing away perfectly good candidates because they don't understand things and can only go through a checklist is somehow worth thousands of pounds.
Surprised JE is only £100! TBH (tbh, Tbh?) I think it's better than Monster for a proper engineering job and I'd imagine most engineers know it's there and go there looking for jobs. Less chaff on both ends
One other thing, finish your f
king website! No one wants to work for a company that can't even maintain a website. Looks seriously unprofessional.
One other other thing, put a salary guide down. There's no reason not to.
Surprised JE is only £100! TBH (tbh, Tbh?) I think it's better than Monster for a proper engineering job and I'd imagine most engineers know it's there and go there looking for jobs. Less chaff on both ends
One other thing, finish your f
king website! No one wants to work for a company that can't even maintain a website. Looks seriously unprofessional.One other other thing, put a salary guide down. There's no reason not to.
Edited by scarble on Tuesday 21st May 10:23
We use the Universal Jobmatch (Government Gateway) to advertise jobs for free. You'll get loads of applications, but we mention that we don't reply to applications where specific skills/attributes haven't been addressed. You'll probably only get a handful who send anything other than an attached CV, but those that do are normally of decent quality and genuinely interested in the role rather than just keeping their benefits by 'applying' for a job.
Not industry specific for you, but has worked for us. I also get applications where they say they've seen the job advertised on websites and even magazines, none of which we pay for, so the information has been taken from Jobmatch and used further afield.
Not industry specific for you, but has worked for us. I also get applications where they say they've seen the job advertised on websites and even magazines, none of which we pay for, so the information has been taken from Jobmatch and used further afield.
Sorry for going off radar for a couple days, but as scarble has rightly pointed out, the website would be hurting our chances of encouraging people to apply.
I've been working hard on it for the last few weeks, but needed to get my head down and get it to a state that I could push live, to maximise the chance of any adverts getting a good response. It's still not complete, but it's up, and it's a big step forwards v.s. what we did have live! ( www.asymptote.co.uk if anyone has any useful comments / thoughts)
I think I may have been being trying to appeal to too wider an audience in my job advert too, the reason for not putting a salary down is that we'd take on anyone from grad to senior eng, I think I may need to write two ads, one for less experience and one for more so, then it's easier to put a sensible salary bound!
Mondeoman - mail back at you. Thank you.
TRB - May be worth a look too, top shout.
Got a second interview with someone good tomorrow, the outcome of that will be interesting, hopefully we'll only be after one more person after that!
Stu
I've been working hard on it for the last few weeks, but needed to get my head down and get it to a state that I could push live, to maximise the chance of any adverts getting a good response. It's still not complete, but it's up, and it's a big step forwards v.s. what we did have live! ( www.asymptote.co.uk if anyone has any useful comments / thoughts)
I think I may have been being trying to appeal to too wider an audience in my job advert too, the reason for not putting a salary down is that we'd take on anyone from grad to senior eng, I think I may need to write two ads, one for less experience and one for more so, then it's easier to put a sensible salary bound!
Mondeoman - mail back at you. Thank you.
TRB - May be worth a look too, top shout.
Got a second interview with someone good tomorrow, the outcome of that will be interesting, hopefully we'll only be after one more person after that!
Stu
Edited by stuthemong on Thursday 23 May 14:04
RizzoTheRat said:
From my experience when job hunting a couple of years ago I wouldn't use Monster as they were everlasting sending me completely irrelevant jobs. Jobsite was way better. Do the IMechE or similar have job boards? Also well worth contacting universities direct.
Agree with this about Monster and tbh I felt matchtech was a bit useless from the applicant point of view.Trade mags are generally bought by people who already have a job in the industry so you won't get grads that way.
Not going to go over the site in full right now but one thing that jumps out is the top bar changing colour as you scroll down. Neat trick but it's a gimmick, it draws attention away from the content which a website should never do.
Also, and this is me being picky, on the "who we are" page there is a white circle with an up arrow, that circle looks badly aliased to me. I realise that kind of thing is a PITA though. In general though I think it's rather good.
Edited by scarble on Friday 24th May 12:32
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