Aerospace might sound like the absolute technical sector; however, you don’t have to be an aerospace professional yourself to hire the right person. Hiring for the aerospace industry is not a short term deal. You need to plan long before the recruitment. Most aerospace projects run for several years, making it crucial for a hiring manager to recruit personnel that will commit for the long term.
Whether you are in charge of the whole recruitment or decide to hire a third-party recruiting agency for doing the job, you need to understand how recruitment in the aerospace industry works.
Each Position Has a Definitive Purpose
Each sector in the aerospace industry requires employees to fulfill a definite purpose; be it the design and development team, maintenance team, or research team. Different aspects of the industry require different skill sets. As a hiring manager, you need to ensure that the selected candidate’s profile matches the required skills. To get the whole picture of what the job entails and what to look for within a candidate, consult with the project head or the project manager.
Even if you lack the technical know-how about the position, you can get some idea about what to look for. You should also include the project head in every step of your recruitment process, so the recruitment is up to the mark.
You Can Delegate the Task to a Third Party
Hiring in the aerospace industry might turn out a long term procedure. To ensure proper recruitment, you can delegate this task to some third-party recruiting agency. Search firms like Bob search that specialize in the aerospace industry can help you find the outstanding candidate for any position. It will also ensure fair recruitment. However, before you assign a recruitment agency, make sure they have a thorough understanding of what you want in a candidate.
Otherwise, the collaboration will not be worth the time or money. Provide them with your company’s recruitment guidelines so they can recruit without violating that guideline. You should also have regular correspondence with the agency to fix any stumbling block regarding the recruitment process. Delegating this task to an agency will take some load off from you.
Your Job Posting Should Attract Deserving Candidates
The most crucial part of recruitment is the job listing. If it lacks clarity, you will not be able to attract deserving candidates. Ensure the job listing gives a clear idea about what the job entails and what a potential candidate can expect from your organization. The job listing should also include all future prospects that the company offers to attract qualified candidates to the position.
Screen the Candidates According To Qualifications
Once you post a job advertisement on job boards, you will get swarmed with many job applications. Screening through all those applications will be a lot easier if you have a job profile. You can have an initial screening over the phone or an online interview. However, a physical interview should determine the final screening.
While technical skills and background are essential for the aerospace industry, you also evaluate their competency to adapt to your company environment. While academic knowledge or experience can be judged from a candidate’s profile, measuring their competency can be trickier. One key indicator for candidates’ potential is their motivation for their job and how much they cared to learn about the specific aviation project they are about to join.
Common Characteristics to Look For
Aerospace engineers should have a problem-solving attitude, even more so than an average engineer. Most of their work entails designing, analyzing, and detecting glitches in the system. Besides, the aerospace industry is ever-evolving. It is not just limited to building aircraft and managing aviation.
Aerospace can also deal with space travel and space vehicles. If your organization has a future goal of venturing into space research, you need to onboard researchers willing to take up the challenges. You need to find a self-motivated and innovative person for such positions. With the project manager’s help, you should prepare a profile for the position and guide you to find the right candidate.
The Pay Should Be According to the Market Standard
The demand for engineering professionals is ever rising. It is a very competitive market place where companies are in a race to snatch the top tier engineers at a higher salary. As per the current market trend, an aerospace engineer’s average annual salary ranges between $72000- $ 160000. If your budget is lower than the average, you have slim chances of getting the right candidate.
More than 130000 engineers are hired in the aerospace industry every year, and there is no shortage of options for an experienced candidate. Many companies in the industry are willing to go even higher if they find a candidate that deserves it. So make sure you are offering the right pay to your candidates.
The Bottom Line
In a billion-dollar industry like the aerospace industry, the consequence of a bad hire can cost you hundreds of thousands each year. So you need to learn early on what you want in a candidate and what you need to avoid. To find the right person, you need a thorough assessment of qualification, character, and competency.
