How do we hire electronics and firmware staff when we are mainly a metal and wiring business?

A starter panel maker decides to add a remote monitoring module. A motor works wants a smart controller for its pump sets. A board shop sees chargers coming and wants its own control card. Each of them has built its people systems around wiremen, fitters and winders. The first firmware candidate walks in, looks at the bench, reads the offer letter and does not join.

That refusal is seldom about money alone. Mostly it is about signals the shop sends without meaning to. What follows gives the full answer, then turns to the puzzles owners meet once their first engineer has joined.

Treat electronics and firmware as a separate hiring track. Give it a role description built around the product. Set its pay band against electronics employers rather than panel shops. Route its reporting line to the owner or a technical head. Keep it out of shop grades entirely. Be ready to describe the product roadmap, because good embedded engineers ask about it before they accept anything.

• The same channel as the shop. The labour supplier who finds wiremen will send you a diploma holder who once repaired a UPS card.
• An interview about attendance. A production manager asking about leave and overtime tells the candidate where the job really sits.
• Shift timings and gate punching in the offer letter. Embedded work needs quiet hours and some flexibility, and the letter reads like a fitter's.
• No tools named. No laptop, no debugger or programmer, no oscilloscope, no licensed compiler, no version control. A serious engineer asks about these first.
• A job advert asking for everything. Schematic capture, PCB layout, C on microcontrollers, an Android app and the cloud in one post signals that nobody inside understands the work.
• A desk on the shop floor. Next to the punching press, a debugging session is impossible, and the candidate notices on the walk to the interview room.

Electronics work splits into roles that rarely sit in one head. Pick the one your product needs in the next twelve months, and hire for that.

1. 1

   Board hardware

   Schematic design, component selection, PCB layout review, power supply sections and protection. Needed when you own the card, not when you buy it in.

2. 2

   Embedded firmware

   C or C++ on a microcontroller, bootloaders, drivers, Modbus or CAN communication, and field updates. Needed when the product's behaviour is your selling point.

3. 3

   Test and validation

   Writing test jigs, end-of-line test scripts and fault logs. Often the right first hire for a works that assembles bought-in boards.

4. 4

   Server and app

   Telemetry, the web dashboard, the phone app and the SIM or GSM data link. Frequently better bought from a software firm until volumes justify a hire.

ROLE: [firmware / hardware / test] engineer for [product name].
WHAT THEY WILL SHIP IN YEAR ONE: [first release, next revision, field update].
REPORTS TO: [owner / technical head]. Production is a customer, not a boss.
PAY BAND: set against electronics and embedded employers nearby, reviewed yearly.
HOURS: [core hours], with test days on the floor agreed in advance.
TOOLS PROMISED: laptop, debugger, bench supply, oscilloscope, licensed tools, a code repository.
WHERE THEY SIT: [room or corner] away from presses and grinders.
WHO REVIEWS THEIR WORK: [internal lead / external design partner].
INTERVIEW: one practical task, one technical conversation, one meeting with the owner.
DECISION: within [number] working days of the final round.

• A debug probe for JTAG or serial wire debugging, and a logic analyser for UART, SPI and RS-485 traffic.
• A bench supply with current limiting, so a shorted prototype does not cook its regulator.
• An oscilloscope with isolated or differential probes, because mains-side measurements on a starter card can kill an earthed scope lead.
• A soldering station with fine tips, flux and an ESD mat, for reworking surface-mount parts on prototypes.
• Spare boards and a version-controlled repository, so experiments never overwrite the only working firmware image.

The channels differ too. Placement cells at engineering colleges, embedded user groups, referrals from component distributors' application engineers and specialist search all reach people your shop channel never will. IT and specialised recruitment covers the search side. The EV charger page on recruitment process design shows how a hiring route for scarce electronics skills is laid out in this trade.

Expect four questions. What will I build first? Who decides features? How often do we release? What happens when a unit in the field needs a fix? Short, honest answers beat a glossy deck. Saying the second product is undecided is fine. Saying the engineer will also look after the CCTV and the office printer is not.

• Should we start with a design house instead? Often yes, for the first board. Hire when the product has a second revision coming and you want the knowledge inside.
• Will the senior wiremen resent the pay gap? Some will. Explain that the bands follow different markets, and keep your shop grades fair on their own terms.
• Keeping the engineer in touch with the floor? Seat them at the test bench for every new revision. Assembly then reports harness and connector snags to them weekly.
• What if our one engineer leaves? Insist from day one on a code repository, schematic files in a shared folder and short design notes. Then the next person starts from a record, not a mystery.
• Who manages them if nobody inside understands firmware? An external reviewer for code, and the owner for priorities, until you have a second engineer to lead.

Write down what the product needs in the next year, choose one profile and draft the one-page track before you advertise. Broader people strains in wiring, winding and fabrication shops sit under HR for electrical equipment makers. The guide to defining roles for chargers shows a technical ladder that lets engineers grow without becoming managers. To set the pay band, compensation benchmarking compares you with the employers your candidates are leaving. When you are ready to brief us, the requirements form takes a few minutes.