Our History

Our founder and President, Edward Piergies, has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, a B.A. in Business Management, and an A.S. in General Business and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Wright State University. Prior to founding CWP, he had some formative experiences with the recruiting industry.

As a Hiring Manager for a billion-dollar firm with operations in 28 states, Ed interviewed thousands of candidates. He found that when you interview and hire people as permanent employees for your own firm, your reputation is on the line with each hire.  He always felt that when he interviewed and hired someone, it was like they had his name stamped indelibly on their forehead.  He was partly responsible for their success or failure.  Therefore, he developed a careful and thorough style of interviewing.  He also retained many outside recruiting firms.  He found that not only did recruiters not give a careful and thorough interview... but most didn't understand his business at all and were simply looking for a few "buzzwords" on a resume before they stamped it and sent it on.  They couldn't tell a good widget from a bad widget because they didn't even know what a widget was!

Later in life, Ed became the Manager of Engineering Recruiting for a large 22-office recruiting firm based in Ohio.  He witnessed how, in an effort to be all things to all people, the big firms tried to be an expert in everything.  One day they would "specialize" in chemical engineers, the next day they would "specialize" in manufacturing engineers, and the next day the focus would change yet again. He realized that to do this job right and become a real asset to both sides of the hiring process, you had to truly specialize in one single area and learn that market even better than your clients.  If we're going to be the guide on this trip, shouldn't we at least know the lay of land? Shouldn't you be connected to the powerful decision makers and performers in the industry?

As a result, in 1993, Ed decided to start his own recruiting firm which specialized in civil engineering. Many of the candidates we work with have heard from many other recruiting firms in the past.  They are usually pleasantly surprised at our careful and "long-term" approach to their career search.  Since most people we work with are currently employed (and doing quite well), they are not looking for just "a job".  However, if a really outstanding opportunity from an "A+" company confidentially presents itself, they'd probably like to hear more about it and possibly explore it further.  We simply place great people into great companies … that's our recipe for success.

And, by the way, what does CWP stand for?  Chester Walter Piergies, the President's father and namesake of the firm.  Chester served as a tailgunner on B-24 and B-17 bombers in WWII.  He was proud of that.