Generation (Hire) ME

You are extremely lucky that this publication found out I was available for a writing project and that I am taking my valuable time to write this insightful article. Without my expertise, it is likely you would not be fully educated on this topic and this publication would lose credibility having not published this article. Additionally, I had several offers I was fielding from other orthopaedic publications that were aggressively coming after me, and I chose this particular magazine because it’s the best fit for me and offers me personally the most exposure to an audience that desperately needs my expertise. All that said, try to keep up with me as I cover a very complex topic. Oh, and did I mention I look great in a suit? I look really great in a suit.

Please forgive me for the hyperbole. What you just read was a slight, and I mean slight, exaggeration of the mindset of many of today’s young professionals. Particularly the mindset of someone who has the responsibility of designing and developing orthopaedic and spine implants. One would think that, with an economic downturn that has pushed most industries into major recession, working in an industry that is posting eight to ten percent annual growth would be considered a privilege. To many, it is. But if you have spent any time interviewing the next generation of orthopaedic talent (ages 24-32), you have probably experienced otherwise. Unrealistic expectations, over-confidence bordering on arrogance, aggressive compensation and title demands, and let’s face it – the comeback of over-the-top ties. (It’s true!)

What exactly is going on?? Let me be the first to welcome you to Generation ME. I will skip the broad psychological and generational study on how we as a “society” got here, and instead focus on why you as a hiring authority in this industry are here and what you can do to be successful in the acquisition of this group of professionals.

Our industry is wholly unique. Not only are we charged with producing products that save and improve lives, but our customers are surgeons – a group held in high esteem in general society. These customers are demanding, egocentric and highly opinionated. (Did I say that out loud?) When you combine those high-profile customers, important products, highly regulated design environments that require expertise and training, and the operating room as the showroom floor – well, it’s enough to give anyone a healthy shot of self-esteem when they are successful in such an environment.

Added to this equation is the boom that has occurred in our industry – particularly in spine – that had companies coming into existence almost by the week for a period of three to five years. A wave of new companies, abundant capital and innovation drove the need for highly qualified and experienced engineers. Very shortly, demand exceeded supply. For a time, recruiting and hiring engineers was like working with Jack Bauer. Shoot first and ask questions later! A 20% increase in base? Done! A Director title with only five years in the business? Done! Pay the closing costs on your mortgage? Corner office? Sign on bonus? Four weeks vacation? Whatever it takes!

Much like the housing industry, value became over-inflated. Though the bubble has burst, you are dealing with an entirely new set of challenges. The gainfully employed are valuing safety over risk, especially if they received any deals like those mentioned above. Many start-ups have underperformed, and so today, many people’s appetite for risk is diminished.

Finding, recruiting and screening this group of R&D professionals comes with unique challenges. If you are not prepared for what you will encounter, the interviewing and hiring process will be overly frustrating and your team will be prone to high-turnover. With a few insights, tips and techniques you can position yourself for better interviews, better hires and a better team of engineers – which will ultimately lead to better products. Think of this as a part of your quality assurance and design controls process. There is no better way to position yourself for success than to be intentional and quality-minded about the R&D team you put before your customers.

Cast a Vision

One of the hardest jobs for a hiring manager in the recruiting and interview process is stepping into an entirely different role—one that is contrary to how they perform most other responsibilities within their company.

A good engineer is almost a skeptic at heart – constantly testing and re-testing their products, fine-tuning designs, documenting every step, looking for every possible hole or flaw in a product’s design. Enter candidate A into your office for an interview and let the same process begin – a litany of questions to test their skills and knowledge. To the Generation ME candidate, this will send the wrong message and only injure their egos. We must understand that even engineers generally change jobs because of emotional reasons. We must engage their emotion early to engage their passion before we can dig deep.

While it is unwise to skip the technical screening process, it is equally unwise to screen before FIRST casting a vision about your company, team, department and the opportunity before them. Find the best person on your team to do this, and have them be the first point of contact for an on-site or phone interview. This will provide context to someone who themselves is skeptical by nature and valuing safety over risk.

To do this, you need to explain the following: First, what makes your company different than your competitors? (I hope you know you are competing with every company in the market for talent!) Your technology – great! But what else? What is the DNA of your culture? Who will they be working with and guided and trained by? What resources will they be given to help them grow as a professional beyond just a title and bump in pay? And why did YOU relocate your family and join the team?

Second, what can this person become? By this I mean, how is your job going to set them up uniquely for career growth and how does it align with their goals? Which is why it is a good idea to ask them what their goals are, and take an interest in them as individuals, not just “candidates.” When you have this understanding, you can explain to them where a Senior Research and Development Engineer can go in your company or in this industry by joining your team versus staying where they are or going to another competitor.

Again, by doing this, you are providing context to your screening process. You do the same thing to your customers. You certainly don’t jump directly to how much your product or engineering services costs, but first explain what makes your company and/or process different and unique. Then, when the price or exclusivity question comes up, you are positioned to sell your products’ value rather than focusing solely on price. You will need this context when dealing with this generation of engineers – it will be part of the cement shoes you will need to ground them in reality.

Be Flexible and Realistic

To reiterate, we are in a market where demand still exceeds supply, we need highly specialized skill-sets, and our talent pool is from Generation ME. Therefore, you also need some cement boots to ground your expectations of a candidate’s skills, motivations and compensation in reality. Business and companies are progressing faster than ever. This means young engineers are going to make more today than you did at their age, and they are going to progress faster – you have to get over that – now! They are going to value security and safety, but they will do that by finding the company that will pay them the most and provide the best opportunity to prove their worth and make advancements. Accepting this reality and knowing what motivates this next generation of talent will help you to approach the hiring process with efficiency and effectiveness.

The ultimate recipe for disaster is to take a candidate with very high title and compensation expectations and put him in a room to be interviewed by another engineer who is looking for the perfect candidate with pure motivations. This will lead to a frustrating and long hiring process – and the failure for you to grow your business. At times, the knee jerk reaction to dealing with the Generation ME candidate is to raise your screening and hiring standards so high that it’s unattainable. The business is changing. People are advancing faster, and the best talent is keenly aware of their value in the marketplace – and they will remain aware of it throughout their tenure in your company.

So, be prepared to recognize that their monetary value may well exceed the value that you place on their talent.

Your choice is to continue your search indefinitely in hopes of finding someone more realistic or compromise by meeting them somewhere in the middle when it is time to make an offer and bring them on board. I always tell clients to “put their best foot forward” and make an offer that is competitive and incentivizes their egocentric candidate to accept immediately and reject the temptation of a counter-offer (the ultimate appeal to our egos).

Be a Leader

In my experience, I have found that most people respond to decisive, confident leaders who make decisions that are forward-thinking, at times risky, but ultimately exciting and rewarding for everyone around them. This is also absolutely true in the hiring process! After the finding and recruiting, the selling of your company’s vision, the technical screening process, the on-site interviews and screening processes, it’s time to make a decision. And let’s be blunt – many engineers are not by nature decision makers. Agree or disagree, I am sure you have seen more than a few hires fall through the cracks because the passage of time has caused candidates to lose interest.

Whether we like it or not, for the foreseeable future, the “Generation Me” engineers are here to stay. The way to compete for this up and coming talent is to execute a strategy for bringing them on without a major impact to the existing structure. This is possible, but requires that you are very proactive, realistic and decisive.

In summary, growing your development team and building your bench requires you to hire the next generation of talent. As in developing technology, you must change your traditional ways of doing things to attract this new class of talent. You must cast a vision about your company and the impact it can have on their career. You must be flexible and realistic in the interviewing and the offer process and be a decisive leader who is willing to take calculated risks on people.

With the right strategy, the people behind your products will be anything but “me too.” While many engineers in Generation ME may have inflated egos, they are also very talented and driven to succeed. The most successful companies will hire these people and continually challenge them, because that’s what they want. Are you going to win the war for talent, or lose to your competitors?


Ben Craigs is a Search Consultant centered exclusively on orthopaedics. With over six years at The De Angelis Group, Ben’s focus is recruiting engineering, regulatory and quality assurance professionals. 

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