DECEMBER 15, 2000
HIRING LINE
Recruiting Q&A: Mentor Graphics' Gary Rebello | This maker of "electronic design automation" tools is a high-tech outfit that sees to the human needs of its workers
| If you're a consumer, chances are you're unfamiliar with Mentor
Graphics. It's another matter, however, if you're a computer
engineer or other high-tech tinkerer who designs modern electronics. As a
member of what computer professionals call the "electronic design automation"
industry, Mentor Graphics develops such engineering essentials as simulation
software to check whether a chip design works as intended.
The 19-year-old company, which is based in Wilsonville, Ore., outside of Portland, has 2,600 employees including a number based in overseas locations ranging from Paris to Cairo to Singapore.
Though its products may be nuts-and-bolts-oriented, Mentor Graphics has a
decidedly soft side, too. Mothers who return to work while their infants are
still nursing find on-site lactation rooms. After seven years of service,
employees are entitled to sabbaticals of up to three months.
The company recruits aggressively, using all the conventional methods --
print, word of mouth, the now standard Web -- and some not so traditional
ones. Among other things, it tries to get its name out to potential employees by sponsoring
concerts, marathons, and other events. "We have a booth, we do raffles, we
collect business cards, we do the whole nine yards," says
Karen W. Hansen, staffing manager for the company.
Recently, J. Gary Rebello, Mentor Graphics' vice-president for human resources, spoke with Business Week Online's Pamela Mendels about working life at the company. Edited excerpts of
their conversation follow:
Q: What are the jobs that most need filling at your company, especially [at
the] managerial and executive level?
A: For each product line, we have general managers or product-line managers.
[There are] 15 or 16 at least, and [they hold what is] probably our key
executive position. These folks are driving the business, growing the
products. They have responsibility for engineering as well as marketing and
profit and loss. We're looking for people who want to run a business, to
have a fair amount of autonomy in growing their business, and [to be]
rewarded for the success of growing that business.
These general managers have quite a bit of variable compensation. They've got
base [salary], plus a significant piece of total compensation tied to how the
business line does, as opposed to how the corporation does.
Q: What background would the ideal candidates have?
A: They need an understanding of the technology, some kind of technical
degree, typically. Ideally they would also have [a] marketing background. For
me, the ideal candidate would be somebody who's technically solid, has done
time in marketing or technical product marketing, and has had significant
managerial responsibility, somebody who has leadership skills, who can build
a team, grow a team. If they've got an MBA, that's great, but certainly not
required.
Q: Let's talk about professional jobs for a minute. You have a particular
need for people with very solid technical backgrounds?
A: Absolutely. There are two or three buckets that I would put those people
in. One would be R&D -- people writing the software code for the programs,
for the products that we sell. [Another] area is what we call application
engineering. These are people working in a team-selling environment with
account managers taking our products to our customers. These are technically
proficient [people who] can demo our products and talk at great depth about
[them] and compare it to our competition. Their counterparts are the back-end
technical people -- customer support.
Q: What's it like to work at Mentor Graphics?
A: It's an interesting blend. There's a very strong corporate identity as an
electronic design-automation supplier. There [also] tends to be some unique
level of personality in the product lines, based [on] the general mangers and
how they manage their group. But we do, at a corporate level, treat employees
consistently and fairly in terms of employee benefits, compensation plans, those type of things. You've got the upside opportunity of being very
successful through stock options and cash. And we have an outstanding
work/life benefits culture and environment.
Q: Can you elaborate on the benefits offered?
A: Gosh. In Wilsonville, we have a state-of-the-art on-site child-development
center staffed by Mentor employees. It's a beautiful facility with a
three-quarter-acre playground. We also have a facility in San Jose, which is
kind of [unusual] because we partnered with a local school district. The
child-development center is on an elementary school ground about a mile from
our campus. We provided the expertise to get that up and running. We also
provided the funding. All the spots in the child-development center in San
Jose are for either Mentor Graphics or the children of the teachers who teach
[in] the school district.
Q: Does the company make any special diversity efforts?
A: We have diversity career fairs that we go to, diversity advertising, and
outreach. And inside the company, diversity training is mandatory for very
new hire.
Q: How do you go about recruiting?
A: We look at it from different sources. And one obviously is internal
referrals. We feel like we hire very good people, so if they're referring
people to us, we feel that they've got somewhat of a Good Housekeeping Seal
of Approval. We motivate our employees to refer candidates -- for every
referral from an employee that we hire, there's a referral hiring bonus. And
they are fairly substantial. We [also] do, obviously, a tremendous amount of
Internet recruiting. Basically, if you want to apply at Mentor Graphics, you
need to apply online.
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