Three Massive Mistakes to Avoid in Aerospace Recruitment

Perfect Your Hiring Strategy for Successful Engineering Recruitment

In aerospace recruitment, attracting and securing the most talented candidates is crucial to business success. In such an innovative industry, whether you’re designing next-generation aircraft or developing complex avionics systems, having the right engineers on your team can make or break a project. 

Yet even with this understanding, many companies still fall into the same traps when it comes to hiring. They forget that filling aerospace engineer jobs isn’t like hiring for other roles. You’re competing in a shrinking talent pool and a high demand market. This makes every mistake a costly one.

What mistakes should you avoid when recruiting for aerospace engineers? Here are three of the most common (and avoidable).

Taking Too Long to Make Hiring Decisions

The Problem:

One of the biggest issues we see hiring companies make in aerospace recruitment is employing an elongated hiring process. The company identifies a promising candidate, and then schedules multiple interviews across several weeks. By the time approval for hire is given, the candidate has accepted an offer from a competitor. Top talent doesn’t hang around.

Why It Matters:

In such a competitive jobs market, unnecessary delays are dangerous. McKinsey & Company research highlights just how crucial such delays can be – it found that for a medium size aerospace company, closing the gap between supply and demand could be worth more than $300 million.

Each potential hire you lose to a competitor is a cost. Feedback we received from candidates tells us that a slow hiring process sends the message that an organization isn’t decisive or serious. It also creates poor candidate experience, which can damage your reputation in the long run.

How to Fix It:

• Set clear internal timelines. Define each stage of the hiring process, from resume review to final offer, and stick to these steps.
• Involve decision-makers early. Ensure all stakeholders are aligned on job requirements and timelines from the outset.
• Partner with specialized recruiters. Agencies that focus exclusively on aerospace recruitment understand the market and your urgency to recruit. They already have vetted candidates ready to go, which can significantly shorten your time to hire.

Ignoring Passive Candidates

The Problem:

If you’re only looking at applicants who submit their resumes through job boards, you’re only skimming the surface of the talent pool. Often, the most talented engineers in the aerospace industry won’t be actively searching for a new role. But, given the right opportunity, you’ll find they can become available.

Why It Matters:

If you only target active job seekers, your reach will be too narrow. Passive candidates are among the most engaged in the industry, and bring a wealth of experience to the table. But they require a more strategic and personalized approach to move. Searching for candidates in the passive talent pool will give you a competitive edge and help to increase the quality of your engineering team.

How to Fix It:

• • Move beyond job ads. Join aerospace engineering forums, sponsor relevant conferences, and stay visible in technical communities.
  • Leverage employee referrals. Your current team will know others in the industry. By incentivizing introductions and referrals, you’ll engage your team in the goal of hiring quality candidates.
  • Promote what matters. Passive candidates are more likely to respond to compelling value propositions. Highlight the projects they’ll be working on, the technologies they’ll use, and the impact they’ll have. That’s what moves the needle in aerospace recruitment.

• Partner with a specialized staffing agency. With access to a huge network of talent, and the in-depth industry knowledge that can make a real difference in aerospace recruitment, a specialized staffing agency could be the secret weapon you need to move ahead of your competitors when hiring for engineering roles.

Offering Non-Competitive Salaries and Benefits

The Problem:

Too many aerospace companies build compensation packages based on internal policies or legacy pay structure, without benchmarking them against real-time industry data. The result? Great candidates walk away and existing employees start looking elsewhere, causing costly staff turnover to increase.

Why It Matters:

Engineers in aerospace are among the most technically proficient professionals in the workforce. They know their worth. A below-par offer isn’t just unattractive; candidates see it as evidence that your company is out of touch with its industry. The result? Damage to your employer brand and more difficulty in recruiting quality candidates in the future.

How to Fix It:

• Benchmark rigorously. Use sources like BLS data, aerospace salary surveys, and competitor analysis to understand what top talent expects, and what your competitors are offering.
• Offer flexible work arrangements. While some aerospace roles require on-site presence, many candidates are now prioritizing hybrid or remote options, especially for design and analysis roles.
• Add real value. Tuition reimbursement, clear paths to career advancement, mentorship programs, performance bonuses… these aren’t just perks. They’re deciding factors for many candidates when comparing multiple offers.

Transform Your Aerospace Recruitment Outcomes

Avoiding these three common mistakes in aerospace recruitment can dramatically improve your hiring outcomes and your staff retention numbers. The key is to move faster when hiring, deepen your candidate search in the passive talent pool, and ensure your compensation package values talent in line with the market.

At Precision Personnel, we specialize in connecting aerospace companies with experienced, highly qualified engineering professionals. Whatever your engineering needs, we’ve developed agile recruitment strategies built for speed, accuracy, and long-term success.

Aerospace recruitment doesn’t have to be an uphill battle, but it does require a strategic approach tailored to the realities of the industry.

Are you losing out to your competitors? We have the market insight, candidate access, and recruitment tools to help you win in the race for aerospace engineering talent. Contact us today to discover how we can support your hiring goals.