There are many ways for an employer to find workers. Placing an ad in the Sunday paper used to be de rigueur; now companies are placing ads on MySpace, and Hot Jobs, and Craigslist, and … well, just about everywhere on the Internet.

 

ABB Inc. took a different approach; they met with students who have graduated from universities across the country. The students were hand-picked for ABB’s “Engineering Leaders for the Future” program, and ABB division business professionals met with them at ABB’s Raleigh facility.

"We started the program this summer to give students with an expressed interest in engineering a very concrete track from study/graduation to employment," said Noelle Heinrich, program administrator. Over an 18-month period, graduates with mechanical, electrical or industrial engineering degrees go through three rotations across ABB’s five divisions, and visit businesses located in the U.S., Canada and/or Mexico.

At the end of the program rotation, the graduates are sought by, and placed into, the divisions and countries that graduates identify as a high point of interest – and where ABB managers have identified the opportunities they want to place graduates into.