Our History
Our founder and President, Edward Piergies, has
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering
- B.A. in Business Management,
- A.S. in General Business
- Has served as an Adjunct Professor at Wright State University.
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, specializing in Civil Engineering Design. Our process was designed BY engineers, FOR engineers. Many engineers are pleasantly surprised at our careful and "long-term" approach to their career requirements. We simply place character-driven people into like-minded 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.