Hardware Podcasts

S6E34 John Lembke | Best Practices for Hiring Engineers

Being an Engineer · 22 Aug 2025 · 39m · Episode 34

What this episode covers

John Lembke, a manufacturing engineering manager at Scythe Robotics and formerly at Phantom Auto, Seagate, and GE, discusses best practices for hiring engineering teams, emphasizing the use of skill histograms and targeted job descriptions to avoid hiring people who merely resemble the manager. He details interview strategies that prioritize interpersonal fit and collaboration over pure technical prowess, advising candidates to use the STAR method for concise, specific responses. In operations, Lembke explains how Scythe Robotics achieved a 60% capacity increase by resolving quality bottlenecks and specializing workstations, while also contrasting ERP and MES systems and advocating for specialized, short production lines over flexible, complex ones.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Scythe Robotics, Phantom Auto, Seagate, GE
Products
Hammer Nutrition
Tools
Tableau, Strava
Also
SAP

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