Looking for the Best Graduating Engineers? This Recruiting Firm Can Do It for You

3P Mechatronics Group matches promising future engineering graduates with manufacturing and distribution companies in the automation industry.

When tasked with hiring for an open engineering role, setting your sights on the graduating class can be a smart investment. And if you need help finding the perfect candidate, 3P Mechatronics Group should be your first stop. With over 30 years in the business, 3P specializes in recruiting graduating engineers for the automation industry right off of college campuses.

With access to thousands of young professionals and strong relationships with career services at the top engineering schools, 3P Mechatronics Group takes a personal approach to matching the best candidates with the right roles in the automation industry.

Recent Hiring Trends

In this competitive market, Katie Surkamer, president of 3P Mechatronics Group, believes the fall semester is the best time to capitalize on incoming talent to the industry. These soon to be grads are eager to secure their first role early so they can return their focus to school. Over the fall semester, they treat their job search as another class, says Surkamer, researching companies, taking part in job fairs, and interviewing for multiple open roles. And they're not just looking for their first job out of school. They're looking to build their career with whichever company they decide to sign with.

Combatting a Labor Shortage and Growing Skills Gap in Automation

As companies across industries struggle to fill their open roles, Surkamer argues that this entry-level talent pool offers a blank slate to build upon. "You're getting someone fresh out of school who's open minded to learning new things versus hiring someone with three to five years of experience from someone else. And you have to untrain them to retrain them for exactly what you’re looking for," she explains. "So just build your bench from the get go and bring these candidates up through your ranks over the years so they can work with you."

How to Find the Right Candidate

While good connections can be made through job boards, listings often bring in hundreds of resumes from qualified and unqualified candidates alike. Similarly, a candidate may look good on paper, but that doesn’t always account for interpersonal skills or confidence levels. With these factors at play, choosing this route can squander hiring resources and leave crucial positions open for longer than necessary. Opting for a recruiter takes a lot of the pain points out of hiring.

The 3P Mechatronics Group Difference

Because 3P Mechatronics Group focuses solely on the automation industry, they possess unparalleled expertise in hiring engineering roles. With access to thousands of candidates throughout North America, 3P selects from mechanical, electrical, computer, and mechatronic engineering majors to place these promising individuals with leading manufacturers and distribution channel partners.

Preselection Process

Working with the top college campus engineering services, 3P is able to preselect the right kind of candidates to put through the interview process. Each year, Surkamer personally reads through thousands of resumes to pick promising individuals based on her 30 years of recruiting experience.

Emphasis on Soft Skills

So what makes a great candidate? Surkamer believes it's someone who's not only a promising engineer but also a well-rounded and confident individual. These soft skills, she explains, will be crucial down the line when dealing with customers and even interacting with others in their company. Finding someone with the right balance of both technical and soft skills is the goal. To reach this goal, Surkamer puts the recruits through a rigorous interview process before matching them with a company.

"They're all great engineers that I'm interviewing. I'm recruiting from the top engineering programs in the country. But I really want to make sure that when they are put in front of a customer or put in front of a client, that they can hold their own." Therefore, she says, "I'm going to make them wiggle a little bit during that interview process to see what I can get out of them."

Personal Approach

To really go beyond the typical recruitment process, Surkamer treats these candidates like they're her own kids. She's available to them around the clock, working through any issues, and getting to the heart of what they want. In her "war room" as she calls it, Surkamer sets up a visual representation of her candidates and their particular needs and skills in order to match them to the right opportunity.

The 3P recruitment process works. In the past seven years, only two candidates have left the company they've been placed with, a figure way beyond industry standards. With a track record like this, many companies look to 3P mechatronics to fulfill their recruiting needs, setting 3P up as a powerhouse contending with the bigger forces in the industry.

"Several years ago," Surkamer shares, "I was at the University of Wisconsin recruiting and John Archibald, who is the head of engineering services, came up to me and he said, 'Do you know that 3P Mechatronics Group is the third largest recruiter out of University of Wisconsin?' And we’re not Tesla. We're just representing all these smaller companies and some larger companies, but we’re just out here grinding away. And we have hired so many engineers into this program over the past 30 years, and I'm really proud of it."

Work with 3P Mechatronics Group

The process is simple if you’re ready to start recruiting your next engineer. The Association for Advancing Automation, in partnership with 3P Mechatronics Group, is offering an exclusive opportunity to A3 members: recruiting graduating engineers across North America and matching talent to a company's needs. Simply, fill out the form here to get in touch with 3P Mechatronics Group today and start filling your open roles with promising grads.