ANNOUNCEMENTS

Octopus would like to advise that we are seeing an unprecedented number of candidates looking to “re-engineer” their skills into the Building Services and Pharmaceuticals sectors. Many of these candidates are ex building services and/or pharmaceuticals professionals who have previously “re-engineered” into other industries (we believe this is due to the downturn in Oil and gas and other sectors).

Octopus specialise in re-engineering candidates from industry to industry, we do however first of all look to source candidates currently operating within the industry related to the role. When this fails to draw suitable candidates we home in on candidates not always found by other recruiters.

We have a number of candidates who are fully familiar with GMP requirements, have a good level of clean room experience and are familiar with validation requirements and processes.

Examples of personnel we are currently representing who are actively looking for work in Building Services are as follows:

• Senior Management up to Director level
• Project Managers
• Project engineers
• Mechanical engineers and designers
• Electrical engineers and designers
• Piping Engineers and designers
• Control and instrumentation engineers and designers
• Pre-Commissioning and Commissioning engineers
• Validation engineers
• Planners
• Estimators
• Sales/BD
• H&S and CDM personnel
• Construction managers

EMPLOYERS - WHY US?

• We are exceptionally low cost.
• We take care to ensure submitted candidates skills align with your job specification (we can assist with producing a job specification if required).
• When we cannot source within industry personnel, we pro-actively seek out candidates with re-engineering potential (most engineers have skills that are easily transferrable between industries).
• We question our candidates on their attitude to safety and will not put forward candidates who do not display the expected level of regard for safety.
• We fish in alternative seas for candidates (avoiding recirculating CV’s) and do this at low cost.
• We provide a highly pro-active and competitive recruitment service ( We head hunt the right candidates for you rather than just posting adds on job boards and waiting for applicants to apply).
• We can assist with filling a one off vacancy where you are not receiving the right candidates or engage with you on an ongoing basis as an alternative resource finder.
• We are highly customer focused and will do all within our power to meet your expectations.
• We tailor the level of service you require to meet your needs. This can range from providing candidates for one specific difficult to fill vacancy through to a full recruitment partnering agreement. Some additional services we provide for our clients are:
• Psychometric testing.
• Competency assessment.
• Initial interviews.

CANDIDATES - WHY US?

• We take time to carefully match you to the right role.
• We will consider you for re-engineering roles which most agencies would bypass you for (Engineers have skills that can be transferrable between industries).
• We can assist you in becoming a limited company should you wish to become a contractor. We can also assist you with contracting through an umbrella company.
• We have clients throughout the UK and Europe and will notify you should a suitable vacancy become available.
• We provide a low cost recruiting service meaning clients tend to use our services exclusively to keep costs down, improving your chances.
• We can offer you interview techniques and advice providing you with the tools to succeed in interviews
• Our friendly team of recruiters are dedicated to satisfying our candidates and clients, so will only put you forward for roles we feel are suitable for your experience.
• We will not pressure you into going forward for a role you are not keen on.

WHAT IS RE-ENGINEERING?:

In simple terms, Re-Engineering is the assisted transfer of personnel with the right skills and experience from one industry to another or from one role to another.

At Octopus when a role is identified the initial work is much the same as other recruiters in that we seek out personnel with the right skills who are already within the industry. If there are insufficient suitable candidates we then look at alternative engineering industry backgrounds to see if an Engineers skillset and knowledge could be easily transferred over into a new sector with some initial support and/or training.

Considerable numbers of people continue through their working career in a position and industry which offers them no prospects or progression route. They do this because humans by nature like routine and avoid change. The world around us continues to evolve and change and most areas of industry see peaks and troughs. We at Octopus actively advise and encourage people with transferrable skills to consider reengineering and adapt to their current environment “like the Octopus”

Why is Re-engineering necessary?

• Helps to fill the current and future skills gap, providing a fresh prospective and sharing industry knowledge.
• There are fewer graduates and appropriately qualified apprentices entering the market.
• The energy industry has been losing one in four employees to adjacent markets.
• Conservative estimates show that the UK needs to double its output of graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) within the next decade.
• The UK will require an estimated 87,000 new engineers a year over the coming decade.
• Many senior engineers will retire in the next decade with no available replacement.

Benefits of Re-Engineering:

• Cross-fertilisation of industries often breeds new working methods, helps to remove the industry “we have always done it this way” blinkers.
• Most engineers have skills that are easily transferrable and are generally working very effectively within just a few weeks.
• There is a huge void and labour shortage across the majority of disciplines in the energy industries. This void will never be filled if employers are forever competing for the same pool of personnel.

Octopus provide a service that differs in a number of ways:

• We assist reengineered personnel, this is generally sourcing suitable training course(s) and/or discussion with the client regarding additional assistance for a reengineered candidate in the early weeks to allow familiarisation with the new industry specifics.
• We take time to ensure prospective candidates CV’s match the job specification and discuss with the client their suitability for the role.
• We formally question our candidates on their attitude to safety, we will not put forward candidates who do not display the expected level of regard for safety or who score below 70% on our safety questionnaire.

CASE STUDY 1

After over two decades in active military roles, located in some of the most troubled areas of the world Dave C was ready for a change. Dave had 20 years of experience in the military repairing servicing, maintaining, and modifying heavy weapons and other military equipment in arduous or austere conditions. He later Project managed/lead a multi-skilled engineering and logistics teams, this involved looking after 50 men. Dave left the military and was engaged as an Oil &Gas Project engineer in the North West of England for an Oil and GAS major engineering and FM contractor. One year on he is a Project Manager based in Aberdeen. The skills developed and the Project management software/tools in the military are much the same as within the engineering industries, the transition was fairly straight forward. Arranging procurement, assembly, delivery of mechanical equipment and military infrastructure to budget and within tight timescales carries the same set of skills as an engineering Project manager, but as they say “with military precision”. Dave is now progressing to become a chartered project manager.

CASE STUDY 2

After nearly thirty years working in the food industry at a UK chocolate manufacturing facility Senior Electrical Engineer Clive decided it was time for a change. His career prospects were low and so was his job satisfaction level and morale. Clive was engaged as a senior engineer with a North West England SME who carried out consultancy and design work for a number of industries. He is now a Principal electrical engineer and made an almost seamless transfer to work on numerous other projects including Tank Storage, Waste to Energy and downstream Oil and gas.

CASE STUDY 3

John was a piping design model maker (He physically made models of process plant from plastic prior to the arrival of 3D computer models). He has now re-engineered his skills to use a new tool to do what is essentially the same job. He initially progressed to 2D ACAD, and now is a very highly rated 3D piping designer working for an SME across a number of industries. The transfer of his skills meant learning how to handle the software, this was done by him initially spending some of his own time on ACAD training courses followed by support from a company where he had spent many years building plastic models.

TESTIMONIALS

A London based Building Services design consultant - “We were initially sceptical after spending two months trying to source a Senior Electrical Engineer ourselves, Octopus managed to provide a number of candidates who ticked the majority of our requirement boxes within two weeks of signing up”

A North West UK based Construction consultancy – “ We have not required re-engineered candidates to date, the service received was pro-active friendly and we were not swamped with none relevant CV’’s”.

A North West based SME in Energy and Environment – “ We required a team of multi-discipline engineers for a fast track design project at very short notice. The Octopus staff pulled out all stops working evenings and weekends to assemble a team of 8 personnel over a 4 week period.

A Midlands based medical equipment provider – “We were getting nowhere with our search for an estimator. Initially Octopus found it difficult to source a candidate to exactly fit our job spec. Our Octopus assigned recruiter made some suggestions regarding a candidate that he believed had the right skills to re-engineer into the role. The candidate has fitted in well after an initial period of support and is a now valued member of our team”.