After advertising for a Chief Engineer position in one of our smaller markets and interviewing literally dozens of candidates, I did the unthinkable.
A few months ago, our Chief Engineer moved on to another market and I began to search for his replacement. There was a lot of interest in this position and received a ton of resume's. Between the local GM and me, we interviewed about 30 candidates and actually had 3 of them into the market for a face to face interview and site reviews.
The last time I filled a position in this market, it took me 6 months. I knew this would be a process and we decided to hire a contract engineer to do the heavy lifting and the IT/Assistant would cover the day to day duties. After 4 months, we were in better shape than when the old Chief left.
I had narrowed down the list of prospects to 4 candidates and had heard that the IT guy wanted a shot at the job. After all, he'd been doing it for 4 months with the contract engineer. The local GM liked the situation because his needs had been met, and his budget was intact over the last 4 months. While my experience told me otherwise, I decided to fly into the market and allow the IT guy to pitch the job.
He's a younger guy, early 30 something, who came to us from the newspaper industry a couple years ago. He had demonstrated a willingness to take on the responsibility of the postion and had seemed to find solutions to solving problems around the station. They staff was satisfied with his work, and as engineers go, he's pretty normal. Save the fact that he's working on a way to produce biodiesel on his own... but I digress.
I listened to his compelling pitch. I had come to the market fully expecting to allow him his time, and then offer the job to the candidate I had been talking to and who had 30 years of experience in all facets of radio engineering. My eyes usually begin to spin in my skull when the IT guy talks to me. Too many acronyms, but he spoke engineering. He talked about what he had found over the last few months, the ways he solved problems, and his comfort level in the position. I was quick to outline the needs of the position and the enormous responsibility it entails. While he doesn't know everything he needs to, he has the desire to do the job... and had basically been doing it - and doing it well.
Through the day, I discussed this with the local GM and a Chief Engineer who had been montoring him over the last couple months. While he wasn't qualified for the position, the situation was working and it allowed us to create an environment for him to learn on the job and achieve a level of competency we were all comfortable with. Here's what we did.
We offered him the job with the following stipulations. He would take a correspondence course in electronics. The course will take about 18 months and it would be on the company's dime. An investment in our future. I also set a couple benchmarks for him to achieve. Of course, a successful completion of the coursework was one, but I also insisted he be SBE certified as CBT as soon as possible, and a CBRE within 2 years. He eagerly accepted the offer.
A gamble? Absolutely. An investment? Definitely. How many 30 somethings do you know that want to be a radio engineer? I decided to farm our own. I'd had aspirations for other guys I'd brought into the company before, and for one reason or another, it didn't pan out. Some left, some just settled at a level where they were 'comfortable'. I pushed them and it didn't matter. The IT guy pushed me... he asked for the order.
SO... we've got a 2 year plan and by the time we're done, they'll be weaned off the contract engineer, have a completely competent Chief Engineer with an SBE Certification, and I'll have brought one more young person into radio. We need them. We've lost too many.
A few months ago, our Chief Engineer moved on to another market and I began to search for his replacement. There was a lot of interest in this position and received a ton of resume's. Between the local GM and me, we interviewed about 30 candidates and actually had 3 of them into the market for a face to face interview and site reviews.
The last time I filled a position in this market, it took me 6 months. I knew this would be a process and we decided to hire a contract engineer to do the heavy lifting and the IT/Assistant would cover the day to day duties. After 4 months, we were in better shape than when the old Chief left.
I had narrowed down the list of prospects to 4 candidates and had heard that the IT guy wanted a shot at the job. After all, he'd been doing it for 4 months with the contract engineer. The local GM liked the situation because his needs had been met, and his budget was intact over the last 4 months. While my experience told me otherwise, I decided to fly into the market and allow the IT guy to pitch the job.
He's a younger guy, early 30 something, who came to us from the newspaper industry a couple years ago. He had demonstrated a willingness to take on the responsibility of the postion and had seemed to find solutions to solving problems around the station. They staff was satisfied with his work, and as engineers go, he's pretty normal. Save the fact that he's working on a way to produce biodiesel on his own... but I digress.
I listened to his compelling pitch. I had come to the market fully expecting to allow him his time, and then offer the job to the candidate I had been talking to and who had 30 years of experience in all facets of radio engineering. My eyes usually begin to spin in my skull when the IT guy talks to me. Too many acronyms, but he spoke engineering. He talked about what he had found over the last few months, the ways he solved problems, and his comfort level in the position. I was quick to outline the needs of the position and the enormous responsibility it entails. While he doesn't know everything he needs to, he has the desire to do the job... and had basically been doing it - and doing it well.
Through the day, I discussed this with the local GM and a Chief Engineer who had been montoring him over the last couple months. While he wasn't qualified for the position, the situation was working and it allowed us to create an environment for him to learn on the job and achieve a level of competency we were all comfortable with. Here's what we did.
We offered him the job with the following stipulations. He would take a correspondence course in electronics. The course will take about 18 months and it would be on the company's dime. An investment in our future. I also set a couple benchmarks for him to achieve. Of course, a successful completion of the coursework was one, but I also insisted he be SBE certified as CBT as soon as possible, and a CBRE within 2 years. He eagerly accepted the offer.
A gamble? Absolutely. An investment? Definitely. How many 30 somethings do you know that want to be a radio engineer? I decided to farm our own. I'd had aspirations for other guys I'd brought into the company before, and for one reason or another, it didn't pan out. Some left, some just settled at a level where they were 'comfortable'. I pushed them and it didn't matter. The IT guy pushed me... he asked for the order.
SO... we've got a 2 year plan and by the time we're done, they'll be weaned off the contract engineer, have a completely competent Chief Engineer with an SBE Certification, and I'll have brought one more young person into radio. We need them. We've lost too many.