How to Hire Engineers From Outside Your Area

Maile Goss

November 21, 2021

While the sheer number of qualified engineers available in every state and in most cities is astonishing, the demand for specific talents and engineering disciplines across the United States creates a consistent demand for engineers to either relocate or to be hired remotely. Avoiding the all too common pitfall of only hiring from one’s local area, is part of the flexibility required for developing a high-performing team that achieves its goals with a nimbleness that fosters innovation. 

Employment of Engineers is Growing 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “employment of engineers is projected to grow 4.0 percent from 2014 to 2024, adding about 65,000 new jobs. Among engineering specialties, several are projected to grow even faster than the 4-percent growth for engineers or the 6.5-percent growth for all occupations: biomedical engineers (23.1 percent), environmental engineers (12.4 percent), and civil engineers (8.4 percent).”

Benefits of Recruiting from Other Locations

Recruiting from outside of your geographic location opens up the opportunity to select from a larger pool of applicants with a greater diversity of professional, personal, and educational backgrounds. Having a team with several different skills and mindsets can be extremely beneficial for your company. This allows room for top-tier candidates with more experience to increase the performance of a team. It can be difficult to track down the most promising candidates if they don’t reside in the same location as you or your company. 

Using Tools to Make Hiring Easier

Amtec offers hiring managers several tools to ease the steps of the hiring process. There are the Amtec Hiring Guides that serve as a playbook for distinguishing between different hiring types and how job opportunities differ between cities. The Job Posting Generator makes writing a great job post a snap! When you’re ready to interview top candidates, the Behavioral Interview Questions Generator will help to distinguish who is the best fit.

Let the Amtec Hiring Guides Do Some of the Work

Hire the best employees from outside your area by helping them to understand how your company compares. When they understand the exceptional opportunity your company is offering then relocation or working remotely can both become more attractive options in their local job market. Also, use the hiring guides as a point of reference for defining the difference between the position you are offering and other kinds of positions the candidate may hear about from other companies.

Amtec’s hiring guides summarize key points of information regarding a position or job title, salary ranges, necessary skill sets, and required education. While not every location is part of the guide, its variety of locations can also be a useful point of comparison for cities that are not included. The guides cover location-based job market comparisons for specific positions across 33 cities throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. For instance, if you need a mechanical engineer in Los Angeles, California, you can turn to Amtecs hiring guides to write a job description and to gain a better understanding of what it takes to find the candidate that meshes with your company in Los Angeles.

There are several different factors that must be considered when hiring outside of your area. One thing to think about is the current state of the economy and the difference in salary rates between different places. For instance, Arizona’s average yearly salary for mechanical engineers is $95k, whereas Washington State’s average yearly salary is $116k. Meanwhile, aerospace engineers in Orange, California get paid about $125k yearly. Amtec’s hiring guides can help to give insight regarding how a candidate is going to respond to the salary you set with them. 

This comparison of employment compensation between geographic locations is a result of a difference in the economy and local demand for work and cost of living. Local demand for specific engineering jobs is yet another crucial factor to consider when hiring outside your area. Candidates that highly value warm weather and a consistent climate, may search for employment in Los Angeles or Southern California areas. With that being said, if you’re recruiting engineers in Los Angeles, you should examine the tradeoffs or pros and cons. Yes, LA is a commonly desirable destination to settle down in and accept a job, with the heavenly weather, city life, and countless activities to go do. The downside of accepting a job in Los Angeles would be the extraordinarily high housing cost and traffic congestion for commuters. Although, as an engineer in such a rapidly growing and changing city it could be extremely beneficial in the long term, and more enjoyable if housing and work are within close proximity to one another. Plus, with infrastructure continuing to age over time, more engineers will be needed to manage projects, update buildings, roads, airports and organize the freeways of LA. 

Alternatively, let’s say you were looking for a civil engineer in Seattle, Washington. This would be a great fit for an applicant who prioritizes easy access to nature, enjoys rainy weather, expects good public transportation, and works well amongst the biggest names in the high-tech industry. Taking into account all of these different factors when interacting with a potential hire, can help you to navigate hiring from outside your area and to help the candidate feel more confident with accepting the offer. 

Hiring outside of your immediate geographic location can be incredibly beneficial to the success of your company and the team of engineers you are building. Be sure to take advantage of Amtecs hiring guides before you make any final decisions, as there is an unimaginable amount of talented engineers who are only a few clicks away.