There are several key personality traits that you should look for in your engineering candidates. These personality traits should be evident during the interview process and can be used to help you narrow down the right candidates for the position. While you can’t paint all engineers with the same brush, the top players in the field all share some common characteristics that help them do what they do even better than their peers.
Creativity
Wait, aren’t engineers analytical by nature? Yes, they certainly are, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t also be creative. A great engineer will have developed both sides of their personality and will display creativity, particularly when it comes to problem solving. This is the type of candidate who will reach what looks like a brick wall in a project and come up with a solution to get around the problem.
Give your candidates hypothetical scenarios and find the candidate who gives you the most creative answer for working around an issue.
Curiosity
Top engineers are also very curious by nature. They want to find out the “why” behind everything and won’t rest until they figure it out. The secondary trait that should go with curiosity is tenacity — the willingness to stick with a problem until they have completely figured out how to solve it and typically, they’ll come up with an even better solution that will solve other problems that stem from the main issue.
Self-Motivatation
Engineers also need to be self-motivated since they are typically let loose on a project and told to get the job done. If they aren’t good at finding their own motivation, their performance levels will suffer. That’s not to say that some engineers procrastinate — that’s just human nature. But a great engineer will buckle down and get the job done before it’s due.
Do you need help identifying what characteristics your engineering candidates need to have? Give the experts at SoloPoint a call today for all of your staffing needs. We’ve helped thousands of companies find the perfect candidate for their engineering positions.