The construction industry has been picking up after the recession, at a fast rate and the growth is forecasted to continue in the coming years. With this growth the employment at various levels has increased, and companies are looking for skilled workforce to keep up with the fast pace. The role of construction job recruiters plays a crucial role, especially when they have to hire for technical or executive level. In a saturated market like the present day, it is very difficult to find candidates who are well qualified and have the capability to fill a skilled and demanding position.

To find the best suited person for a specific job opening, executive recruiters design a set of tricky questions, depending upon which they make their final decisions. As job seekers, whether at the entry level or executive level, it is very important for you to be aware of such questions, so that you can prepare yourself to craft the most impressive answers.

Here is a set of some questions that you might have to face while attending an interview with a construction company:

Ques. 1: Tell me about yourself

An interview opener in most cases, recruiters ask this to find out how articulate and confident you are about yourself and how you handle situations. Recruiters also want to know about your past experiences, your expectations since you’re changing your job, etc. This question offers you with the option of placing yourself positively and confidently in front of the interview panel. Prepare yourself well for this.

Ques. 2: Your Tenure with the Past Employer

You will be asked this, if you have been changing jobs too frequently. Loyal employees tend to complete 3-5 years before changing a job. Be prepared for an explanation.

Ques. 3: Talk about your weaknesses

A confident and impressive response on your part would show you are competent enough to handle constructive criticism and are also capable of taking responsibilities. Be honest in answering this question and tell how you can improve from your mistakes. Tell them you’re working hard to overcome the weakness and this makes you nothing less than other capable candidates.

Ques. 4: Tell me about a situation where you failed

The recruiter needs to know your capability of taking responsibility and decision-making powers. Discussing failures show the depth of experience that’s needed for a specific job and the ability required to recover from a mistake. Tell them what you have learnt from your mistakes.

Ques. 5: Talk about your strengths

Highlight two or three skills that are relevant to the present job opening and tell your recruiter how they can benefit from your skills.

Ques. 6: Why did you leave your last job?

The recruiter wants to know about possible conflicts with the past employer or other personality traits that may harm the work environment for the company they are considering you. Be honest when answering this, talk about the growth opportunities that you see in the present job or how you can increase your productivity if given a chance.

With the growth in construction industry, the employment rate has also increased. More and more companies have job openings that require talented people who can work in this competitive environment. The increasing number of job openings makes finding jobs easier, but getting construction job is very tough.

Even relevant experience and advanced education might not help you to land on a job. This might become very frustrating at times and you may find yourself in depression. Don’t be heart-broken; there still can be a way out. Today there are a number of online job portals that will help you in finding the right job for you.

• Use relevant keywords when searching for construction jobs
• If you don’t have enough experience, try searching for construction labour jobs, or general labour jobs. Such jobs will help you gain experience, needed for better jobs along with allowing you to do what you like.
• If you are experienced, narrow your search with specific keywords according to your expertise.
• For executive level jobs, search for keywords like construction management jobs, business management in construction, etc

Why is it so tough to get a construction job?

While there are so many construction job listings, why is it so tough to land on a job? There can be many reasons for this:

• The interviewing skills may not be satisfactory
• Your resume might not be well-written or does not attract employers or recruiters
• You may not have the skills to be in the construction industry

Writing the perfect resume may sound easy, but someone else’s resume might be more compelling. Even a little difference matters when hiring for executive levels. Always highlight your work experiences; if you do not have experience, put stress on the volunteer work that you did. You can consider consulting a professional resume writer. Be confident while answering interview questions. Many construction companies hire construction staffing services, which look for positive and professional candidates who can take up challenges. You’ll have only one chance, so make the most of it to make the perfect “first impression”.

Stay Determined

Even with the most relevant experience and education, it might take you very long to find an appropriate job. Don’t be disheartened; employers need to find how dedicated and desperate you are to be in a construction job. To get a highly-paid construction job, you should have enough determination and put forth all the effort to grab it. The most determined and experienced workers get the top jobs, so the competition is very high. To make it easier, you can get in touch with construction employment services, which work on behalf of construction companies, and would be the best people to tell you about the job openings.

The present day scenarios in the construction and building materials companies show constant growth as a result of mergers and acquisitions and also help the companies to remain competitive. Construction headhunters are frequently seen to look for candidates with the right skill and experience to fill executive positions in order to maintain the quality and grow the efficiency.

Many well known and reputed companies hire headhunters to fill the senior-most and highest-paid positions, so it would be a good idea to maintain a healthy relationship with executive headhunters. It takes a lot of time to build good relationships, so don’t wait until you are looking to change jobs start earlier. We’ll discuss some tips how to develop good relation with construction executive headhunters:

Tip#1- Always own a copy of The Directory of Executive Recruiters

This list would help you to contact those executive headhunters that work for filling top-level positions. Keep in mind, there are basically two types of executive recruitment firms:

• Contingency Firms: These are hired junior to mid-level recruitment. These firms are paid only when they complete a recruitment cycle. They provide a number of candidates on a quick basis, regardless of the specific job description, so the candidate quality is not always superior.
• Retainer Firms: These are hired for higher-level recruitment and get paid regardless of the results. They work for specific job openings and have access to better quality candidates.

Tip #2 – Consider the type of companies your recruiter works for

Executive recruiters work as consultants for companies who wish to hire candidates for specific positions. Since recruiters get lump-some compensation from companies they are working for, they would call you only if a position matches your profile or to get references of other candidates.

Tip #3 – Offer references of good quality candidates

This is will assure that you are on a recruiter’s good books. Recruitment is a target based job and recruiters are paid only when they fill a job position. So if you help them accomplish their targets, they’ll surely present you as a desired candidate to their clients.

Tip#4 – Always be transparent with recruiters

Never make the mistake of exaggerating credentials, income, education, etc. Recruiters will have thorough background checks done, so any lies on your part will hurt your reputation and diminish your chances of being contacted by recruitment firms any further.

Tip#5 – Get in touch with recruiters only when you’re sure about a job change

Ask yourself many times whether you want to leave the present job, before you get in touch with headhunters. Turning down an interview invitation or backing out of a job offer may sour your relationship with the firm and they might not want to work with you anymore.

Tip# 6 – Stay involved with your recruiter

Executive recruiters are busy people, so you have to help yourself with some research on the companies you are considering. Let you recruiter know you preference and in case you reject an offer, explain why you did so, to prevent false impressions. Once they have scheduled an interview, always remember to give them a feedback.

With the rapid growth in the construction industry, there is constant need of highly qualified and skilled personnel with decision making capabilities. This increases the pressure on construction executive recruiters to find appropriate candidates who respond positively to such changing demands and have to ability to work in teams to increase the bottom-line of the construction companies.

Whether construction staffing services admit it or not, screening candidates using social media has become a recent trend in the recruitment industry. Employers and recruiters screen Facebook and Twitter profiles to dig deep information about applicants. Social networks are used by corporate to find active and passive candidates. Many companies are building company brands in social networking sites to interact with potential candidates and portray themselves as the best people to work with.

So how do social media networks help recruiters to decide whom to hire? What do recruiters look for in a candidates’ profile? We’ll discuss the factors that influence recruiters to either hire or reject a candidate:

Reasons to hire a candidate:

• Creativity in profile
• Positive personality impression and traits show the candidate is fit for a specific organization
• Excellent communicative skills
• Profile supported professional qualifications
• Candidate shared good references posted by others

Reasons to reject a candidate:

• Profile has a bad impression; posted inappropriate pictures, irrelevant comments etc
• Bad-mouthed previous employer
• Poor communication skills
• Made discriminatory comments
• Lied about qualifications and experience
• Not having social presence

How do recruiters use the top three social networks to screen candidates?

LinkedIn: Most of all recruiters (almost 93%) use LinkedIn to discover new talents and more than 80% of them have hired from LinkedIn. Moreover, the LinkedIn Recruiter also helps employers and recruiters to reach passive clients that are otherwise hard to find. SO it is advised for the job seekers to maintain a clean and flawless profile so that employers take you seriously. Fill in all the necessary fields and use specialty key throughout your profile.

Facebook: Facebook has seen the steepest increase in the way recruiters use this platform to hire skilled candidates. Recruiters promote their company pages and post job advertisements through Facebook Ads platform. For job seekers, they should carefully turn on the privacy settings, and should be very careful while posting. Any bad impression or offensive post might drive away potential employers. “Like” the company page you are considering to keep yourself updated with their happenings.

Twitter: Twitter is a part of every employer’s job search process. Employers use Twitter to post job openings and some companies are also hiring 3rd parties, like construction executive recruiters to promote job listings. Job seekers should follow desired companies to watch for job openings. Job seekers can also interact with employees working there. Also maintain a clean and strong profile and post relevant comments.

Construction employment agencies work on behalf of construction companies to fill job positions with the best candidates from the industry. They work on behalf of companies rather than job seekers. So it is very important for job seekers to present themselves well in front of staffing agencies, so that they consider you to be fit enough for the job position.

Since most of the construction companies and business houses rely on construction employment agencies for hiring, you should have a great resume to attract the recruiter’s attention. Recruiters have to go through stacks of resume and they have less than a minute to scan through a resume initially. So you have about 6-10secs to catch the recruiter’s eyes.

You know how to make a great resume, but do you know what can make your resume land in trash? Here are things that construction job recruiters don’t want to see in your resume:

• Irrelevant Work History: Job seekers want include all the past job experiences whether relevant or irrelevant to the current job opening. Recruiters looking to fill a specific position would look for relevant experiences, so make your resume likewise.
• Untidy and Messy Resume: Recruiters want to find information quickly since they are busy professionals. Make your resume as precise as possible. Mention relevant experience with organizations you have worked for, include start and end date and mention your responsibilities and achievements in a bulleted format.
• Photos and Physical Descriptions: Recruiters are interested about your experience and capabilities and not about your beauty. So including physical descriptions and photos only make your resume superfluous.
• Vague Objective Statements: Having a positive attitude is good but mentioning vague objective statements only make your resume look unprofessional. Make sure you’ve understood the job responsibilities of the current job opening, and place yourself likewise.
• Mentioning Ordinary Skills: Most people applying for IT jobs would be affluent with Microsoft word and excel. Include the special skills that highlight your capabilities and make you stand out from others.
• Poorly Managed Social Profiles: Executive recruiters scan your social profiles to dig out more information about you. So be careful about what you post, share and comment on your profile.
• Resumes with No References: Rather than waiting for the recruiter to ask for references, it is a good idea to include a few references. Reference checking is an important part of hiring, so why not make their task easier.

In order to make your resume stand out, keep it simple and to-the-point. Leave out fancy fonts, dramatic headers and include information that the recruiters want to see. That is the only way to get through the first phase of selection to a desired job.

It has always been very challenging to identify and recruit the right executives for open positions. The Internet has ushered in several ways of job posting, job searching and professional social networking but with proper guidance from a professional recruiter you will get much better results in a shorter period of time. In this regard some staffing firms do a better job than others. Whether it is construction executive search firms or general search firms, mentioned below is a list of top 10 staffing service firms in the United States:

1.Boyden: Founded in 1946, they serve a multicultural client base which includes mature markets, emerging economies and developing markets around the world.

2.Korn Ferry International: They are known to design, build, attract and ignite talent. Their solutions include executive recruitment, leadership development, succession planning, enterprise learning and recruitment outsourcing.

3.Spencer Stuart: Founded in 1956, this is a privately owned company, which works with clients across a range of industries, from large to medium-sized and small businesses and non-profit organizations.

4.Heidrick & Struggles: This Company has been helping their clients with hiring for over 60 years and represents well known companies including Kmart, Coca-Cola, and MasterCard.

5.Egon Zehnder International: Founded in 1964, it is a trusted advisor to many of the world’s most respected organizations. It consists of more than 420 consultants and 69 offices in 41 countries spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Their clients range from the largest corporations to start-up companies, government and regulatory bodies, and major educational and cultural institutions.

6.Russell Reynolds: This is an executive leadership and search firm with global clients over the past 45 years. Russell Reynolds’s 350 experienced consultants are supported by a global research network.

7.Ray & Berndston: One of the leading staffing service providers representing over 3,400 clients.

8.IIC Partners: IIC stands for Independent International Consultants and is one of the top 10 executive search firms offering services for more than 25 years.

9.DHR International: Established in 1989, DHR is one of the renowned retained executive search firms in the world. It represents companies including The Gap, Disney, and Motorola.

10.TRANSEARCH: Founded in 1982, it is dedicated to assisting clients in acquiring leadership talents.

All of the above mentioned executive recruiting firms have helped start-up companies as well as industry leaders to fill the top positions in their respective industries. So if you are still looking for a key member of your executive team you should consider partnering with a search firm that specializes in your industry.

The top employer brands are ranked according to the analysis made on the basis of which job seekers engage with a company. James Beriker, President and CEO of Simply Hired said, “As the job market heats up, employer brand is an essential way to attract and retain talent who are looking for the right fit.” An upwark tick in employment statistics has been seen in U.S. job openings. The analysis is based on the engagement of a job seeker which means when a job seeker connects to a specific employer instead of connecting to its competitor. This also proves the brand strength of an employer that allows talent acquisition and helps to stand out against their peers.

The top employer brands from various sectors are listed below:

1. Top 5 employers in Financial Services are:

• Bank of America
• Wells Fargo
• US Bank
• JPMorgan Chase
• Capital One

2. Top 5 employers in the Healthcare sector are:

• Dignity Health
• Sutter Health
• Banner Health
• Palo Alto Medical Foundation
• Cleveland Clinic Foundation

3. Top 5 employers in the Automotive sector are:

• Ford Motor Company
• Tesla Motors
• CarMax
• Johnson Controls
• General Motors

4. Top 5 employers in Entertainment and Media are:

• Netflix
• Viacom
• Cartoon Network
• POPSUGAR Inc.
• Sony Music Entertainment

5. Top 5 employers in insurance sector are:

• AIG
• GEICO
• Liberty Mutual
• Progressive Insurance
• Allstate

6. Top 5 employers in the Technology sector are:

• Boeing
• Lockheed Martin
• Apple
• Google
• Xerox

7. Top 5 employers in the Transportation sector are:

• FedEx
• UPS
• SYSCO
• Saia
• JB Hunt

Every employer understands that employees are their most valuable asset. With a combination of social media and other channels employers have a better opportunity to showcase themselves as the most desirable employers to work for in their respective industry. Not only do branding employers need to focus on company values, attitudes, and strengths in order to retain talented employees for the long run. With the present resurgence in the construction industry, construction recruitment firms help employers build their brands as well as attract skilled candidates. Most of the above mentioned employers are known to partner with executive recruiters to hire the best people in the industry. If you are looking to place your organization at the top of the food chain, partner with the best recruiting firms in your city or town.

Recruiting Managers in construction companies are facing a difficult time in attracting quality hires as they are starting to pick up more and more business.. Construction activity has increased dramatically in North America in 2014 and 2015 and highly skilled candidates are required to manage these projects. Construction recruiting firms bridge the gap between construction companies and candidates.

Construction executive recruiters make sure that they find the right qualified person for a specific job opening in a specific location as well as making sure the candidate is a good fit for the culture of the organization. This means such companies must find the best candidates for the for their project needs. The obvious question that arises is the “cost of hire” to reach and hire such highly qualified candidates. Many companies try to do the hiring function themselves to keep the cost within their budget. Having no plan-of-action they end up hiring low quality candidates who are unable to perform and may leave the company after a short stint. According to leaders in the hiring industry “quality is paramount over cost”. Focusing primarily on cost leads to a lower quality of candidate and hence lower quality of hire as well. One way of preserving quality of hire is performing a reference check before and after recruitment. Another method is to check the academic background, quality of industry knowledge and quality of prior experience during the hiring process. Including assessment programs can greatly help to improve recruitment quality as well. Such programs help to reveal performance and personality traits that otherwise go unnoticed and may lead to poor decision making.

Construction executive search firms have strong networks within the industry and hiring managers who have a strong database of highly qualified and experienced candidates are able to complete the hiring process more quickly, hence lowering the cost per hire. They also have pre-planned assessment programs that enable them to choose the right candidate from the available talent for a particular job opening. Poor recruitment not only means spending money on a low performer but it also affects the overall team performance and ultimately client services Although it’s important to keep a check on costs it should not come at the expense of quality of hire.

The Internet has revolutionized the way people do job postings, job searches and employer research. While most companies and job seekers look online for new opportunities and ways to connect with each other, the World Wide Web has also introduced a dark side to this approach. With the introduction of online reviews for every possible thing in all social media, blogs and other sites; people have started having a love/hate relationship with reviews. While most people read reviews to make decisions; business owners look at these as fabricated reviews by competitors to defame them or raise serious concerns against them which can affect their reputations.

The new internet age is all about talking and discussing on social media, blogs, posting reviews and sharing tweets. With this ongoing trend, it is most predictable there will be some negative reviews or comments from people but these should be taken on a positive note. For example, if a company decides to hire construction staffing services, it would first look for personal and online reviews from other employers and then decide whether or not to partner with them.

Negative comments only make your presence feel more real. Something that is all good looks “fake”. Consider negative reviews as feedback from real people and then learn and respond accordingly. It may be there’s some area that has been overlooked which needs improvement, such comments prove to be an eye opener. Never make the mistake of reacting negatively or rudely to something that has already gone viral. You cannot suppress or hide it. It’s better to have a positive attitude and embrace it gracefully and let people know you have improved to make your service better. Once done correctly, connect with those people who posted negative reviews and ask them to try the improved service and comment on their new findings. This will only increase trust and improve your branding.

You can’t please all the people all the time. Even the best known brands in the world have negative comments. The way you handle a negative remark or review makes all the difference; especially when you’re trying to change the way others think about your services. While there may be people with truly bad experiences there may be others who post reviews just for the sake of it. Always be prepared with a proper plan-of-action when handling online reviews because it can make or break your reputation and how you are perceived.

No doubt recruitment is becoming more difficult everyday. Even if there are a lot of applications coming in everyday, finding quality candidates is the real challenge. The natural question that pops up is – what are other organizations doing we are not? Construction employment services along with other recruitment agencies use tools like social media, websites, job posting sites, to find suitable candidates. Unfortunately many still are not able to find talented people for their urgent and critical openings. So what should one do to attract skilled candidates?

Many staffing agencies and recruiting firms would claim they attract a lot of candidates on a regular basis, but are these highly qualified, and top candidates? The simple answer is NO! So why does this happen? This is mainly due to the fact that passive candidates are already happy with their present jobs and and aren’t looking for new opportunities. These candidates are not easy to identify or recruit but it is possible.

This is where an experienced executive search firm can add value to the hiring process. Such firms proactively reach out to such passive candidates and engage them in conversation through career advice, growth opportunities, etc. They constantly converse with them, over the phone and in person, and present new and challenging opportunities. At times this cannot be achieved through social media or job posting websites therefore you should partner with a professional recruitment service provider.

Many company’s are not the employer of choice to candidates because of bad reputations or misinformation in the market. Many times the career page of the company website is not updated regularly. So when a prospective candidate visits the webpage they don’t get the correct information. Many companies fail to take advantage of mobile and social media integrations that are largely available these days. Even if they are doing so, many companies fail to express their company culture clearly.

Professional recruiting firms help such companies to get their message across to prospective and passive candidates. Such search firms fill in the gaps which in-house recruiters are not able to. To attract top candidates that in-house recruiters can’t, you must have a precise plan-of-action that covers all the aspects of getting touch with and engaging the right candidates and this is best done by an experienced professional.