Electrical Automation Services, Direct Hire Staffing

Electrical Automation Services, Direct Hire Staffing Direct Hire Staffing

06/06/2026

I got over 170 reactions on one of my posts last week! Thanks everyone for your support! 🎉

One thing I’ve learned in recruiting:A bad hire doesn’t always mean the person was a bad candidate.I’ve seen candidates ...
06/06/2026

One thing I’ve learned in recruiting:

A bad hire doesn’t always mean the person was a bad candidate.

I’ve seen candidates struggle in one organization and go on to thrive in another.

Why?

Because success isn’t determined by skills alone.

Culture matters.

Leadership matters.

Expectations matter.

Pace matters.

The environment someone walks into can have just as much impact on their success as their experience or technical ability.

That’s why I spend a lot of time learning my clients before I ever send a candidate.

I’m not just looking for the most qualified person on paper.

I’m looking for the right fit for that specific team, culture, leadership style, and work environment.

The goal isn’t simply to make a placement.

The goal is for the company to gain a great employee and for the candidate to build a long-term career.

When those things align, everyone wins.

It’s also why I’m very selective with the candidates I present. I offer a 6-month placement guarantee, so I have a vested interest in making sure both sides are set up for long-term success from day one.

The best placements happen when the right person meets the right environment.

That’s where the real value is.

Not all maintenance leaders are the same.Anyone can manage a department that’s already stable.The real test is taking ov...
06/03/2026

Not all maintenance leaders are the same.

Anyone can manage a department that’s already stable.

The real test is taking over a reactive department with no foundation.

A department where:

• PMs are behind
• Breakdowns are constant
• Technicians are frustrated
• Production is driving every decision
• Nobody trusts the process

At that point, you’re not just managing maintenance.

You’re rebuilding trust.

Creating accountability.

Developing technicians.

Establishing standards.

Building a culture.

Most people only see where the department is today.

They don’t see the foundation being built underneath the chaos.

That’s why companies sometimes make a critical mistake.

They remove the person leading the turnaround before the turnaround is complete.

Then they’re shocked when everything starts falling apart again.

The best turnaround leaders don’t inherit great systems.

They build them.

A lot of organizations don’t need another maintenance manager.

They need a maintenance turnaround leader.

Hot Take:It’s easier to develop a productive maintenance mechanic than it is to develop a productive electrical controls...
05/25/2026

Hot Take:

It’s easier to develop a productive maintenance mechanic than it is to develop a productive electrical controls technician.

That isn’t a knock on mechanics.

A good mechanic who understands bearings, alignment, hydraulics, pneumatics, power transmission, and wear patterns is incredibly valuable.

But electrical troubleshooting is different.

You can often see a mechanical problem.

You usually have to understand an electrical problem before you can find it.

A failed sensor can look like a mechanical issue.

A mechanical issue can create an electrical fault.

A controls issue can look like both.

That’s why the technicians who understand mechanical systems, electrical systems, and how they interact are worth their weight in gold.

As manufacturing becomes more automated, I think the shortage of these technicians is only going to get worse.

What’s harder to develop in your experience?

05/22/2026

Most people have no idea how small the industrial maintenance workforce really is.

The U.S. workforce is about 170 million people.

Industrial maintenance, controls, automation, industrial electrical, and reliability professionals?

Only about 900,000 to 1.3 million.

That’s less than 1% of the workforce.

Yet these are the people who keep:

⚙️ Manufacturing plants running
🍞 Food production moving
⚡ Energy facilities operating
✈️ Aerospace production on schedule
📦 Distribution centers functioning

When a PLC faults…

When a motor fails…

When a production line goes down…

They’re the people who figure it out.

Demand continues to grow, but qualified talent remains hard to find.

As a recruiter in this space, I’ve learned one thing:

Some of the best problem-solvers in America work in industrial maintenance.

If you’re a maintenance technician, electrician, controls technician, reliability professional, or automation specialist…

Thank you for what you do.

Most people don’t realize how important your work really is.

Most maintenance techs didn’t get a structured training program.We got handed a radio, pointed toward a machine, and tol...
05/19/2026

Most maintenance techs didn’t get a structured training program.

We got handed a radio, pointed toward a machine, and told to figure it out.

And honestly… a lot of us did.

We learned through:
• breakdowns and on call situations
• pressure during downtime
• chasing electrical faults with no prints
• senior techs who either helped you… or told you to stay out of the way
• making expensive mistakes and remembering them forever

That pressure builds strong technicians.

But it also burns a lot of people out before they ever reach their potential.

The industry keeps saying:
“Good maintenance techs are impossible to find.”

Meanwhile many plants still have:
• no structured development path
• no troubleshooting progression
• no real electrical or PLC training
• no simulator work
• no safe place to fail and learn
• no roadmap from beginner → experienced technician

We expect people to troubleshoot modern automated equipment while training them like it’s still 1995.

That model is breaking.

A lot of manufacturers are realizing they can’t rely on the market alone to magically produce experienced maintenance talent anymore.

The companies that are going to win long term are the ones that start developing people internally before the breakdown happens.

That’s a huge reason why I started building a structured industrial maintenance training platform.

Not another boring slide deck training.

I’m talking:
• real troubleshooting logic
• electrical diagnostics
• PLC fundamentals
• VFDs
• hydraulics
• motors and controls
• preventive maintenance
• root cause thinking
• interactive fault scenarios
• simulator based learning

We’re building out a full 4 semester curriculum with hands on style progression and simulator environments designed to develop real troubleshooting thinking, not just memorization.

Because maintenance shouldn’t have to learn everything through pressure and production losses.

Some struggle is part of becoming a good technician.

But chaos should not be the training plan.

The retention play nobody talks aboutWant to keep your best electrician or controls tech?Pay matters.But it’s usually no...
05/14/2026

The retention play nobody talks about

Want to keep your best electrician or controls tech?

Pay matters.
But it’s usually not the real reason they leave.

Good techs leave when they feel stuck.
Same problems.
Same shift.
Same meetings.
Same fires.
No path forward.

A clear future matters more than another small raise.

Lead tech.
Controls specialist.
Planner.
Supervisor.
Automation role.

Something.

Because eventually good people realize nobody notices the extra effort until they threaten to leave.

The best maintenance people want to grow.
If your plant doesn’t show them what’s next, somebody else will.

A machine doesn’t care about titles.At 2am, nobody gives a damn who has the nicest resume, who talks the best in meeting...
05/12/2026

A machine doesn’t care about titles.

At 2am, nobody gives a damn who has the nicest resume, who talks the best in meetings, or who looks the best on LinkedIn.

The line only cares who can walk up to the machine, troubleshoot the problem, and get production running again.

That’s why good maintenance people are hard to replace.

The real ones know:
You don’t fix problems by guessing.
You don’t fix problems by throwing random parts at the machine.
And you don’t learn this trade from sitting in a classroom alone.

You learn it:
on the floor
under pressure
covered in grease
getting called in while everybody else is asleep

Most of the best techs I know are not loud online.
They’re just dependable as hell.

That’s the side of manufacturing that deserves more respect.

Maintenance guys, controls techs, electricians, millwrights:
what’s one lesson this trade taught you the hard way?

One thing I’ve learned from years in industrial maintenance, controls, and recruiting:Some of the best Controls Engineer...
05/07/2026

One thing I’ve learned from years in industrial maintenance, controls, and recruiting:

Some of the best Controls Engineers I’ve ever worked with did not come from a traditional 4-year engineering path.

A lot of them came from:
• 2-year technical programs
• electrical maintenance backgrounds
• PLC technician roles
• field service
• years of troubleshooting real equipment in real production environments

They learned how to:
• diagnose problems under pressure
• navigate PLC logic
• troubleshoot electrical systems
• understand machine behavior
• keep production running when it matters most

That hands-on experience has tremendous value.

This is not a knock on engineering degrees at all. There are incredible engineers with bachelor’s degrees who bring deep design knowledge, system architecture experience, and advanced technical expertise to the industry.

But manufacturing needs to continue recognizing skill, troubleshooting ability, and real-world experience alongside formal education.

Some of the strongest technical talent in our industry earned their knowledge on the plant floor.

The best teams usually combine both:
strong theoretical engineering + strong hands-on field experience.

At the end of the day, production environments reward people who can solve problems.

You ever see a machine down and immediately someone starts throwing parts at it?New drive. New sensor. New contactor. ...
05/06/2026

You ever see a machine down and immediately someone starts throwing parts at it?

New drive.
New sensor.
New contactor.

And none of it fixed the actual issue.

I’ve seen it too many times.

A lot of training out there teaches people to memorize instead of actually troubleshoot and think through a failure.

After years in the maintenance field, that’s one thing that always bothered me, so I decided to build something around it.

I made a Guided Troubleshooting Simulator for maintenance techs, electricians, and controls techs that want to get better at real troubleshooting.

Not PowerPoints.
Not generic quizzes.

Real fault scenarios where you have to:
→ Read symptoms
→ Check the evidence
→ Test your theory
→ Trace the failure
→ Find the real root cause

PLC faults, electrical issues, logic problems, diagnostics, all based around real-world situations you’d actually run into in a plant.

The goal is to help build the troubleshooting mindset that separates a parts changer from someone who truly understands the machine.

If you’re in maintenance or know somebody in the trade, I think you’ll appreciate this one.

Link in comments 🔧

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Chicago, IL

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