Category Archives : Career Advice

Candidate Telephone Interview Tips

Please read the following important refresher and PRINT A COPY so you can review and make notes. I created these tips to be for even the most experienced interviewees and I think you’ll find then to be extremely helpful.  I guarantee you a better experience if you take the time to PRINT A COPY, read it well beforehand and read it one more time before you meet the potential employer.

The interview is the ultimate test of a candidate’s suitability. A strong personal interview can often compensate for a weak resume or minimal experience.

Candidate Interview Tips for a Personal Meeting

Please read the following important refresher and PRINT A COPY so you can review and make notes. I created these tips to be for even the most experienced interviewees and I think you’ll find then to be extremely helpful.  I guarantee you a better experience if you take the time to PRINT A COPY, read it well beforehand and read it one more time before you meet the potential employer.  Remember, you can never overdress for an interview – it shows intent even if the position does not typically call for a shirt and tie; ladies wear very professional clothing as well.  Make sure your hair is neat and that your overall appearance is well-groomed.

Candidate Interview Tips

The interview is the ultimate test of a candidate’s suitability. A strong personal interview can often compensate for a weak resume or minimal experience.

Best Ways to Discuss Your Career Mishaps in a Job Interview

A significant way that prospective employers evaluate a candidate’s potential for success or failure is their response to this question: “Tell us about one of your significant professional disappointments or failures.  What caused it and how did you handle it?”  This requires an interviewee to come up with a particular event specific moment rather than asking them the typical “What are your weaknesses?” question. This asks them to describe a definitive professional occasion which gives them plenty of options: Do they focus on a promotion they felt they deserved or a project that failed? Do they make it about themselves or do they make it about their company? You can learn a lot about them by how they interpret and then answer the question.

In addition, the question doesn’t require an applicant to take responsibility for the failure although they might choose to.  Here are 3 types of answers and then let’s evaluate the pluses and minuses of each.

How to Write an Effective Job Description to Attract Top MEP / HVAC Talent

All your best employees were once candidates going through your hiring process. It is important to understand how you attracted those candidates, so you can improve your recruiting and continue bringing in candidates that help grow your business. Attracting top talent can be especially difficult in an oversaturated job market, so it’s important to stand out from the crowd. In today’s environment of public job boards and social media platforms like LinkedIn, where any HR manager can continuously post ads, gaining visibility is especially tough. In order to differentiate yourselves from the crowd, you need to make a lasting first impression with a great job description.

Hiring Managers – Recruit MEP Employees with these 6 Soft Skills

As a hiring manager for a building contractor, engineering, or consulting firm, you look for specific technical skills when recruiting mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) employees. But, what about soft skills? What personality traits and other qualities should you be looking for when hiring MEP employees? This post examines the most important soft skills and how to measure them during an interview.

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Soft Skills Matter in the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Professions

Hiring managers know that each open position requires certain technical experience – working with specific equipment, or on certain types of jobs. Drafters need AutoCAD skills. Estimators may need to know RSMeans. Electrical controls engineers need to understand power distribution circuits.

How to Hire a Facilities Management Executive

Facilities management (FM) executives work at large buildings or organizations with significant infrastructure. These organizations range from medium-sized retirement communities and hospitals, to hotel chains, to large companies like Gap or Coca Cola who employ FM executives in distribution centers all over the world. It can be tough to find people with good management skills, impressive credentials, and years of hands-on facilities experience. In the 10th year of an economic expansion, the United States has seen lots of new building construction and business formation. As a result, there are lots of opportunities for FM executives and the top talent mostly have good jobs already.

The Risks of Accepting a Counteroffer

You’ve been unhappy in your current job and started looking. Now, you are lucky enough to get an offer for a role you like, at a company you respect. In addition, the salary and benefits are a step up from where you are now. This is all great news, and you want to take the offer. But first, you need to inform your current employer and handle the exit professionally.

To your surprise, when you tell your boss about the offer, she asks you for some time to make a counteroffer. Within 24 hours, your current company gets back to you offering a raise and more vacation time. Their counteroffer is actually better than the one you were about to leave for. What do you do?

Why First Impressions are so Important When Onboarding an HVAC Employee

You only get one chance to make a first impression. This popular saying also applies to onboarding new employees for your business. It’s important for any company to uphold their reputation from the minute someone walks through the door — especially for new hires. Company culture is crucial for employee retention, and as we all know, it’s not an easy task to recruit and retain top-talent. Making a great first impression and following through on the promises made during the interview process is a critical recruiting step that companies can’t afford to skip.

Why HVAC Careers Tend to be Recession Proof

Our economy has been strong for several years now. But those of us who have been around a while know that it is only a matter of time until the next recession hits. If you are thinking of a career in HVAC, now is the time to make your move. Jobs are plentiful, employers are hiring and training. By starting your HVAC career now, you will be in a safe position when the next recession hits. Why? Because HVAC careers are among the most recession-proof you can find.

HVAC Professionals Bypassed the Great Recession

During the global economic recession of 2007 – 2009 ago almost every economic sector experienced significant job losses. The stock market cratered, banks severely restricted lending, businesses were forced to cut back, leading to job cuts everywhere. Many people with stable jobs and promising careers found themselves jobless and trying to switch careers.

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