Company Description:

In 1959, Robert Underwood took over what was then a floundering, debt-ridden staffing company whose goal was to find the right candidates for its customers. Renaming it Amtec Engineering, Inc., Bob worked hard to pull the company out of the red and honor his predecessor’s debts. With God’s help and a lot of elbow grease, he succeeded, and the little company grew under the leadership of Bob and a new partner, Pete Van Dyken. At first located on Commonwealth Avenue in Fullerton, California, the company served mainly technical companies like Beckman, General Dynamics, Honeywell, and Rockwell. Without the invention of computers or fax machines, candidates hand-delivered or mailed in their resumes, which were coded and painstakingly filed so they could be retrieved for the right job. Many came in each week to pick up their checks, too, and were always greeted by name.

Wanting more space, Amtec moved to Brea in 1978, and the advent of computers began making it much easier and faster to serve our candidates and customers. In 1983, Scott Kuethen joined the Amtec team as a recruiter. Young and full of new ideas, he constantly made suggestions for improvement, including bringing in new technology (the fax!) and ways to cut costs so the company could survive the latest economic downturn. Scott loved the win/win opportunity that recruiting afforded him; helping both a candidate and an employer in one fell swoop was almost as good as eating ice cream!

When Pete decided to retire, Scott and a partner bought his share of the company. A few years later, when Bob wanted to semi-retire also, they bought him out, too. The wind of change blew through Amtec as computer technology rapidly evolved, enabling us to be even more efficient in tracking candidate resumes and employers’ open positions.

Since then, change has become the norm, as software, firmware, and hardware seem to constantly need updating. And some new partners have joined our vision. But the passion with which Amtec serves its clients and candidates is still what motivates us. Although we’ve improved our process and systems, our main goal is the same, to find the right candidates for our clients’ positions. Yes, some things never change!