Engineering Recruitment Business - Info Needed

[Johno_UK]

Hi all, I'm a long time lurker, first time poster!

Okay, so I'm a seasoned engineer with >10yrs experience and currently work as Principal Engineer at a tier 1 automotive manufacturer. From my experience I know I'd be good at finding the right person to fill various engineering roles. In short, I know engineering, but I don't know recruitment.

How would I go about getting paid in recruitment? Would appreciate an overview on how the client/recruitment agency process works.

Many thanks!
Johno

 

[The Byre]

I am assuming that principle engineer at a Ford/GMC level earns at least six figures. Engineers (as you know) are so bloody short in every field, well, the good ones are, that we are being forced to cut back. Finding people who can do it all and understand it all and don't tell you that the dog ate their home work, is unbelievably difficult.

Top engineers are even more difficult, because they need to have a wider perspective and have addition skills that have nothing to do with Jules law, or the strength of materials.

Finding such people is never going to be as well remunerated as being one of those people.

That's my way of saying 'Stick with the day job!'

 

[Johno_UK]

Haha, I'm not leaving my current job Byre. I'm looking to start-up an engineering recruitment business as a side-project. Once I've established the business I'd like to handover the day-to-day running to a small recruitment team.

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

As someone who used to work in engineering recruitment, as tough as it can be to find good candidates, it's even tougher to get clients.

Ultimately, recruitment is about sales, so you may be a good engineer, but how good are you at sales? Because you're going to need those sales skills to build your client base and keep developing it.

It's not something that I think you can do as a side project. If you've got lots of contacts, you might be better working out a deal to refer candidates. Lots of agencies pay a couple of hundred quid if you refer a candidate that secures a permanent job through them.

 

[Richie N]

I agree with Scott, it's not something you can do as a side project.
Some see recruitment as a good money earner but it's a complicated industry and if you don't know what you are doing then it can backfire on you.
Find an established agency and agree a referral scheme as suggested, that way you don't have any costs or hassle with ensuring you are complying with various legislations.

 

[Ian J]

I'm looking to start-up an engineering recruitment business as a side-project. Once I've established the business I'd like to handover the day-to-day running to a small recruitment team.

When I started in factoring more decades ago than I care to remember it seems that there was just the one major recruitment company (Blue Arrow) until all of the senior managers got fed up working for someone else and left to set up their own recruitment companies.

A couple of years down the line having trained up several managers in each of these companies they in turn all left and set up on their own and so the cycle carried on for the last forty years and nothing is likely to change that nowadays so if you put management in to run the company on your behalf it won't be long before they are off taking all of your contacts with them

 

[The Byre]

Not only is what Ian stated very true, but there is another problem - due diligence!

So your man/woman comes to us and states "I can find that bilingual electronics/IT engineer with experience in time-division multiplexing for display systems."

The very first thing I will do is find out who she is working for and who these people are. Just who owns and runs JohnO Ltd. Oh look - it's John from that car company. So we are working on a new ultra-hi-res display architecture for a Berlin company contracted to Bosch Automotive and here's someone working for an automotive company - and he's not just working for them, he's their bloody PE!

At that moment, I have a choice - I can either give you the old body-swerve, or I can accuse your employer of trying to work a fast one!

Just how long do you think it would take for the board at your company to be alerted to the fact that you are involved with other companies? Because that is how some of the more po-faced individuals on the board will view the whole enterprise! You risk getting booted out on your ear, or at least jeopardising that lucrative move to HQ. Bye-bye options package!

When I look at a company, be that for purposes of market intelligence, investment, or as part of due diligence, because we want them to supply something, recruitment is the second thing I look at, after ownership/structure and the books.

Who are they employing? R&D? Sales? Numbers? Recruitment information is every bit as important as their books. The books tell me where they have been, but recruitment tells me where they are going - any recruitment agency would have to sign an NDA.

And that means you will not be able to tell yourself what you already know!

So I stick to my first point, unless you are leaving the company soon anyway, stick with the day job!