And it’s those things that tend to make the difference over 24 hours.
That’s something I’ve come to appreciate even more since moving into recruitment.
Because when I look at how most engineering roles are defined, very little of that ever makes it onto the page.
Job descriptions tend to focus on qualifications, tools, and experience. And those things matter, of course they do. But they only tell part of the story. They don’t capture how someone works under pressure, how they fit into a team, or how they deal with the reality of a project when things don’t go to plan.
And that’s where I see a lot of hiring processes start to fall short.
The assumption is often that if someone has done the job before, they’ll be able to do it again in a different environment. But in practice, engineering isn’t that simple. Context matters. Team structure matters. The way people communicate and solve problems together matters more than most job specs ever reflect.
You see this very clearly at Le Mans.
It’s not just about having strong individuals. It’s about how those individuals operate as part of a system, particularly when things start to get difficult. When fatigue kicks in, when issues start to appear, when decisions have to be made quickly and collectively.
That’s where teams either hold together or start to come apart.
I see a similar pattern in engineering businesses.
On paper, the hire looks right. The CV ticks the boxes. The experience is there. But once they’re in the role, the fit isn’t quite what was expected. Not because they’re not capable, but because the environment, the pace, or the way the team works doesn’t quite align.
And by the time that becomes clear, the project has already taken a hit.
The businesses that tend to get this right are the ones that look beyond the job description. They spend more time thinking about how someone will actually operate within the team, and less time trying to create the perfect list of requirements on paper.
That doesn’t mean lowering standards.
If anything, it’s the opposite. It means being more realistic about what actually drives performance.
Final thought
Le Mans is a good reminder that performance isn’t just about what you can measure easily.
It’s about how people work together when it matters.
And in engineering recruitment, that’s often the part that makes the biggest difference—but gets the least attention.
Photo by Mark Bideleux
