The Engineer’s Guide to Finding New Job Opportunities

Finding a professional recruiter who can effectively find you the perfect engineering job can be difficult and confusing. 

Here's our guide for choosing the right one for your job search - and what to look for in your new employer.

Find a culture where you can thrive

The strong demand for highly skilled engineers - along with the pandemic - has forced candidates to take a closer look at workplace attributes. This includes finding a positive work culture, which leads to both growth and a high level of teamwork and engagement.

When seeking a new opportunity, there are several cultural factors to look for in an organisation:

• Embracing diversity - You want to ensure the company has an awareness of different cultures and genders. They need to focus on tolerance and acceptance of others, which supports healthy teamwork and provides a sense of collaboration.  

• Engagement and loyalty - While fair compensation contributes towards job satisfaction, it’s not always the day-to-day motivator of employee engagement.  Companies that ensure their engineers feel valued and respected will drive employee engagement, and keep them emotionally and physically engaged.

• Growth and development - Successful company cultures offer their employees opportunities for growth. This might be presented as training and acquiring new skills.

Choosing the right recruiter

A recruiter should understand a candidate’s career goals, background, motivations, and intangible needs. Here at CGC Recruitment, we don’t just look at the above traits - we also bring expertise and a human touch to the job search process.

When choosing a recruiter for your next engineering role, you should consider someone who:

• specialises in and has intimate knowledge of the engineering market. They’ll know what the employer is looking for, what jobs are in demand, and what positions are available within the sector.
• has a clear idea of what you want and don’t want from a job.  If you are upfront about the type of role and conditions you’re looking for, you’ll be  considered for the right opportunities. Reject interviews or job opportunities if the role doesn’t interest you and don’t feel pressured to go anyway. Make sure the recruiter can accurately gauge how good of a fit you are for the job. 
• has great relationships and networks. This will save you time when exploring opportunities, as not all vacancies are advertised. A recruiter could help you access hidden opportunities or know about the role before it’s made public.  
• will help you during the interview process.  They’ll know the types of industry specific questions the employer is likely to ask.  

Building relationships with your recruiter

If you know which companies you’d like to target for a future role, and you’re in no rush to change jobs, we recommend maintaining a strong relationship with recruiters.  They’re in the best position to know the ins and outs of the company - and also tend to have working relationships with and access to various functional teams or departments within the organisation.  

Develop a personal relationship by contacting them once in a while about non-job related items. Ask for help when it comes to perfecting your job search technique. Furthermore, once the recruiter has found a suitable opportunity for you, make sure you ask the right questions. Be well-prepared for interviews by asking your recruiter about the inside scoop on the job, company, interviewers, and non-salary benefits of working there.

How to be identified as top talent

Do you consider yourself a high performer?  Here are some key characteristics and behaviours that employers are looking for:

• High quality output: Do you consistently deliver an excellent standard of work?  
• Skills development: Are you always seeking ways to improve and learn new skills? 
• Feedback seeking: Do you regularly seek feedback from your boss, peers, and customers? Then look for ways to improve? 

For more ways to stand out as a top talent employee, read our article here.

About CGC Recruitment

CGC Recruitment is a specialist consultancy with offices in Sydney and Brisbane. We specialise in fulfilling roles in the construction, infrastructure, engineering, and architecture sectors at all levels. As a leading industry recruiter, we always have a long list of opportunities for ambitious and professional individuals. 

You can search our latest vacancies here, or alternatively, upload your CV and we’ll contact you when we have a suitable vacancy available.