Before anything was read
What the posting asks for, and what the job needs
The posting was read first, on its own, before a single resume was opened. Controls resumes are unusually hard to screen because everyone lists the same six PLC platforms and almost nobody says what they built with them. The line that actually predicts success here is whether someone has worked from a blank page and stood next to the machine when it first ran.
This is a judgment, not a fact. It is here so you can disagree with it, and so you know what the ranking was built on.
Load-bearing
- Has commissioned, not just codedThe posting mentions commissioning once. It is the single clearest divide in this pile. Writing code in an office and making a machine run in front of a customer are different jobs.
- Blank page design capabilityOEM work starts with a mechanical concept and nothing else. Half the applicants have only ever modified someone else's running system.
- Functional safety to PLeNamed in passing. On bespoke machinery with UL/CE listing requirements it belongs at the top of the list.
- Genuinely willing to travelNot a skill, but it removes more good candidates late in the process than anything else. Flagged per candidate where the resume gives a signal either way.
Probably carried forward
- "Siemens TIA Portal essential"Costs more of this pool than anything else in the posting. A strong Rockwell or Beckhoff engineer picks up TIA in weeks. The reverse is also true.
- "Five years OEM experience"Title and setting based rather than capability based. Several end user engineers have done harder work with less support.
- Degree in electrical or control engineeringListed as essential. Three of the six shortlisted came through apprenticeships or associate's programs, and two of those are the strongest on the list.
- "Food and beverage sector experience"Reasonable as a preference. Washdown and hygienic design matter, but they are learnable and this filter removes a lot of capable people.
How this was read
Three reads, then a person decides.
Every resume is read three times, from three different angles. The readers work independently. None of them sees the others' verdicts, so agreement means something and disagreement means something else.
Where all three land in the same place, the ranking is easy and you can move fast. Where they split, you get told, and you get both arguments. Those are the ones a single score would have quietly hidden.
The strict read
Scores against what the posting actually asks for. Absence of evidence counts as absence. Unforgiving on purpose.
The transferable read
Looks for evidence the person could do the work even when the platform, the sector or the job title does not match.
The hiring manager
One interview slot this week. Would you spend it here, and what would you be hoping to find out?
Then the review
We read every resume ourselves alongside the three verdicts, and we write the ranking. Where the readers agree we are checking their work. Where they split we are choosing between two arguments, and we tell you which one we went with and why.
That decision is a recommendation, not a filter. Every applicant appears somewhere in this document, including the ones we ranked last.
The pile
Where forty-nine applications landed
Included so you can see the shape of the response, and so the ones we cut are accounted for rather than disappearing.
ShortlistedRanked below, reasoning on each
6
Read closely, not shortlistedReason recorded, overrule if you disagree
10
Maintenance and end user onlyReal depth, never designed from a blank page
15
Too earlyUnder three years, or still supervised on every project
11
Not closeOther disciplines, or no industrial controls at all
7
Ranked shortlist
01
A. KowalczykAgreed
Senior Controls Engineer, special purpose machinery · 12 yrs · Gastonia NC
Siemens TIA and Rockwell
PLe safety, UL listing
Commissioned in 9 countries
Blank page design
EPLAN
Associate's degree, not bachelor's
Reader scoresSpread 1
0510
Strict8
Meets every load-bearing requirement without interpretation. Twelve years with two machine builders, TIA Portal and Studio 5000 both at production level, safety systems designed to PLe and listed for UL.
Associate's degree rather than a bachelor's, which the posting lists as essential. Held the point back rather than deducting, because the project record answers the same question better.
Transferable9
The resume does what very few controls resumes do: it names machines rather than technologies. A palletizing cell, a rotary filler, a vision-guided pick and place, each with what it ran at and what went wrong first time.
Nine countries of commissioning is not a travel boast, it is evidence of standing in front of a customer's production manager when the line will not start. That is the hardest part of this job.
Hiring manager9
Yes, first slot of the week. One line stands out: a filler that failed FAT twice and what changed in the sequence logic afterwards. Very few resumes at this level admit to a failed FAT.
Would use the interview on how much travel is genuinely sustainable now, and why they are leaving a machine builder they have been with six years.
Our call
Top of the list and it was not close. The degree line is the only thing standing between this resume and a clean sweep, and it is the requirement most worth confirming with your client before it costs them the strongest applicant in the response.
02
R. SivakumarReaders split
Automation Engineer, FMCG manufacturer · 14 yrs · Concord NC
Siemens S7 and TIA, deep
Safety systems, PLd and PLe
Food and beverage
BS, electrical engineering
End user, not OEM
No customer commissioning
Reader scoresSpread 4
0510
Strict4
Fourteen years and not one day at a machine builder. Every role is site based at an end user, maintaining and improving lines that somebody else designed.
The posting asks for five years OEM experience and international commissioning. Neither appears anywhere in the document. On the words alone this is a straightforward reject.
Transferable8
The work is harder than the setting suggests. Fourteen years of debugging other people's code at three in the morning with the line down and a production manager standing behind you is the closest thing to commissioning pressure that exists off the OEM side.
Two line upgrades described from scratch, including a new safety architecture and a full retrofit of a legacy system. That is blank page work in everything but the job title, and the food sector experience the posting asks for is already there.
Hiring manager9
I would interview this one first if the client can be persuaded. End user engineers who move to a machine builder often turn out to be the best hires, because they have spent years living with the consequences of bad design.
The real question is travel. Fourteen years of a fixed site is a habit, and this role is on the road. No resume answers that. Twenty minutes on the phone would.
Our call · readers split
This is the candidate the posting loses, and the widest disagreement in the pile. The strict read is not wrong. Judged against the words on the page this resume fails, and anything scoring on keyword or sector overlap puts it in the bottom half of forty-nine.
Placed second because the underlying capability is there and the food sector experience is a genuine bonus your client asked for. Worth going back to them on the OEM requirement, because it is filtering on where someone has worked rather than what they can do. The travel question is the one to settle first.
03
H. NakagawaAgreed
Controls Engineer, systems integrator · 8 yrs · Rock Hill SC
Siemens TIA, WinCC
Commissioned US and Canada
Blank page design
BS, mechatronics
Robotics, ABB and Fanuc
No international travel
Reader scoresSpread 1
0510
Strict7
Hits nearly everything including the degree and the platform. Eight years is at the lower end of what the posting wants but the responsibility is real and the progression is clean.
Commissioning is all US and Canada. The posting asks for international, and there is no evidence either way about appetite for it.
Transferable8
Integrator work is close cousin to machine building. Different customer every time, unfamiliar equipment, and a fixed handover date. That is most of what this role demands.
Robot integration on two platforms is worth more than the posting acknowledges. Bespoke machinery increasingly arrives with a robot in it, and very few controls engineers are comfortable on both sides.
Hiring manager7
Solid yes. Would do the job well and the robotics is a genuine addition to the team rather than a duplicate of what is already there.
Would want to test the travel appetite properly, and whether eight years of integrator pace has left them wanting something steadier rather than something harder.
Our call
Reliable third and the most conventionally qualified on the list. All three readers within a point, which usually means the resume is telling you the truth. The robotics skill may matter more to your client than the posting suggests.
04
D. OyelowoReaders split
Software Engineer, motion control OEM · 10 yrs · Greenville SC
Beckhoff TwinCAT, deep
Structured text, motion
Blank page design
Commissioned in Europe
No Siemens TIA
No Rockwell
Reader scoresSpread 3
0510
Strict4
Ten years entirely on Beckhoff. No TIA Portal, no Studio 5000, and the posting names Siemens as essential.
Job title is software engineer rather than controls engineer, and the resume leans heavily on programming language rather than plant. On the posting as written this is a reject.
Transferable6
Platform is the most learnable thing on a controls resume and the least learnable thing is structured programming discipline, which this candidate has in unusual depth. TwinCAT engineers write proper software rather than ladder that grew.
Multi-axis motion and camming on high speed machinery is genuinely difficult work and it is the part of bespoke machinery that most often goes wrong. Six weeks on TIA and this is a strong hire.
Hiring manager7
More interesting than the strict score suggests. I have hired Beckhoff people into Siemens houses twice and both times the code quality went up across the team.
Would interview if the client can absorb a short ramp. Would not, if they need someone productive on TIA in week two.
Our call · readers split
Kept on the list rather than cut, because the essential platform line is filtering on the most transferable skill on the resume. A ten year Beckhoff engineer learning TIA is a matter of weeks. A ten year TIA engineer learning motion control properly is a matter of years.
Fourth, not higher, because the ramp is real and this role has projects waiting. Include if your client is hiring for the next three years, drop if they need output next month.
05
P. MarchettiReaders split
Electrical Design Engineer, machine builder · 13 yrs · Fort Mill SC
EPLAN, panel design
NFPA 79, UL 508A
13 yrs OEM
Safety circuit design
Limited PLC programming
Design office, rarely on site
Reader scoresSpread 4
0510
Strict8
Thirteen years OEM, which is more than the posting asks for. Machine building sector, bespoke work, safety design, local to the site, and every standard named correctly.
Transferable5
This is electrical design, not controls. Thirteen years of schematics, panel layouts and cable schedules, with PLC work described as supporting rather than owning.
The posting's OEM requirement points straight here, but the role is a programming and commissioning job. These two disciplines sit at adjacent desks and are not interchangeable.
Hiring manager4
Hesitant, and not on quality. Excellent electrical designer, and if your client also needs one of those this is the best in the response by a distance.
For this role I would want evidence of owning software on a project end to end, and the resume does not have it. Would interview only to find out whether they want to move across.
Our call · readers split
An inversion of the usual pattern. The strict read is the enthusiastic one because every sector and standard keyword lines up, and the judgment reads are cautious because the discipline is adjacent rather than matching.
Fifth rather than first because controls and electrical design are different jobs that share a lot of vocabulary. Worth flagging to your client as a strong candidate for a different vacancy, which is often more useful than a shortlist place they will not use.
06
S. ThackerayReaders split
Principal Automation Consultant · 11 yrs · Charlotte NC
Every platform listed
TIA, Rockwell, Beckhoff, Omron
BS, degree
Sector list covers everything
No machines named
No commissioning detail
Reader scoresSpread 5
0510
Strict9
Every term in the posting appears, most of them more than once. Four PLC platforms, five sectors, functional safety, commissioning, UL listing, robotics. Highest surface match of all forty-nine by a wide margin.
Transferable4
Eleven years across four roles without a single machine named, project value given, or commissioning location stated. For a controls resume that is a striking set of omissions.
Four PLC platforms in eleven years usually means competent on one and exposed to three. The resume gives no way to tell which is which.
Hiring manager3
We have read this resume many times over the years. Every platform named, no machine owned. I cannot tell whether this person has commissioned twenty systems or watched somebody else commission two.
Might be excellent. The document gives us nothing to test that against, and after eleven years that is information in itself.
Our call · readers split
Included deliberately, at the bottom, and it is the widest split in the response. This is the mirror image of second place. Highest keyword match in forty-nine applications, weakest evidence behind it, and anything scoring on overlap ranks this first by a distance.
Kept on the shortlist rather than cut because consultancy work is often bound by client confidentiality and the missing detail may not be the candidate's fault. One question settles it: name a machine you commissioned and tell us what went wrong on the day. If your client has no slot spare, this is the one to drop.
Read closely, not shortlisted
The near misses, and why
Ten applications came close. These five came closest, and the reason each missed is recorded so you can overrule it.
L. Brannigan
Maintenance Engineer, automotive tier one · 18 yrs
Eighteen years of genuinely deep fault finding on robot cells and press lines. Missed because every project described is a repair or an upgrade, never a design. The step to blank page work is real, and eighteen years of not doing it is itself a signal.
C. Whitmore
Controls Engineer, water treatment · 9 yrs
Strong Siemens and SCADA work with real commissioning exposure. Missed on the nature of the work. Process control on a continuous plant runs on loops and setpoints, and bespoke machinery runs on sequences and motion. Adjacent, but a longer learning curve than the top four.
M. Adeyinka
Controls Engineer, machine builder · 4 yrs
Exactly the right profile and genuinely too early. Four years, all supervised, and the resume is honest about it. Worth keeping warm, because in two years this is a strong senior candidate and your client will be hiring again.
J. Petrauskas
Senior Controls Engineer, packaging OEM · 15 yrs
On paper a top three candidate. States clearly that he is looking to reduce travel to a maximum of four weeks a year after a decade on the road. This role is heavier than that. Flagged rather than cut in case your client can structure a mostly office based role, because otherwise he belongs near the top.
T. Okonkwo
Automation Engineer, contract · 12 yrs
Twelve years of contract work across nine employers, with real depth and good machine detail. Missed on nothing technical. The pattern suggests a contractor rather than a permanent hire, and the posting is a permanent role. Worth a call if your client would consider contract.
About this document. This is a sample. The format, the reading method and the reasoning style are exactly what you would receive.
On a live role, every resume you send is read in full, and we write the shortlist ourselves. Nothing is filtered out before a person sees it and nothing is rejected by a machine. The ranking is a recommendation rather than a decision. Where the readers disagree you get told, and you get both arguments, because those are the ones where your judgment is worth more than ours.
SuperceptronEvery resume read. The reasoning attached. Your call.