When we walk into a General Contractor, sit down with the team, and start reviewing resumes with hiring managers – Vice Presidents, COOs, Senior Project Managers, Field Exec – whoever, here is what they all skim for:
1. Tenure
Comments we hear: “Well, they really weren’t here long,” or “5 jobs in 5 years!” Or, “Wow, they stuck it out at THAT company 3 years!”
2. The Implicit “Story” of the Resume.
Comments we hear: “Great, so they started their career in the field, and then went into the office. I love that. That’s really important.” Or, “Why were they an APM so long?” Or, “How in the world did they get a job as a Superintendent after working on Wall Street? Weird.”
3. The Companies
Comments we hear: “[Redacted Company]? Hmm, they aren’t builders. She was just managing. She probably didn’t learn anything about construction there.” OR, “[Redacted Company]? Never heard of them. We like to hire from Top ENR firms, they might not work.” Or, “Wow, why would they want to leave [Redacted Company]…nobody ever leaves that company.”
4. The Projects
Comments we hear: “I don’t see anything about what they’ve built. Do you have a project list?” Or, “Oh, wow, we also build for [Client/Owner], we should talk to this guy.” Or, “Well, we build healthcare and all they’ve done is retail, that probably won’t work.” Or, “We build healthcare, and they’ve done some retail, there is actually some cross-over there with schedule demands and occupied spaces – that might work.”
5. The Timeline
Comments we hear: “They just graduated! And they’re asking for that much money already?” Or, “They were VP of Construction in 1995 – why are they still working?”
And a lot more.
Probably one of the most undervalued elements of working with a recruiter is you get to connect with someone to frame the resume you have. Maybe you’ll get suggestions on how to tweak it, maybe you get to share the story of why you only stayed at Company X for six months.
We all make quick assumptions. Sometimes, our job as recruiters is too slow down. We can get the facts from you so that when we are sitting in front of a company, telling them about YOU, the story is straight.