A full backlog is supposed to be the good problem. For bridge and temporary works firms, it often exposes a different one: not enough senior engineers to lead the jobs they want. A healthy pipeline is the clearest sign a firm is growing. Strong client relationships. A solid backlog. Everything pointing the right way. Then …
Read more “The Bridge Work Is There. The Capacity to Lead It Is Harder to Find.”
The skills that made you the person everyone relies on are not the skills that run a practice. Six things worth building now, while nobody has given you the title and the stakes of learning them are low. The last piece in this series argued that the move from department manager to practice leader isn’t the next …
Read more “If You Want to Lead a Practice, More Technical Depth Won’t Get You There”
Firms talk about recruiting far more than they talk about succession. The result is a generation of strong technical managers with no clear route into business leadership, and a generation of practice leaders with no obvious successor. Both sides are usually waiting for the other one to start the conversation. AEC firms spend a great …
Read more “Succession Planning in AEC Firms Runs in Two Directions”
The strongest senior hires you’ll ever make are the ones where you screened for judgment. The costliest failures are the ones you screened for skills alone. Almost nobody interviews for the first, and almost everybody thinks they already do. This is the last piece in a series about senior hiring in the Western New York …
Read more “The Difference Between Hiring for Skills and Hiring for Judgment”
A record state construction backlog is the strongest retention tool WNY engineering firms have ever had. For the engineers it’s keeping in place, that’s worth a closer look. Every June, the calculus shifts a little. The spring scramble to get projects moving for the construction season has settled into a rhythm. This is the stretch …
Read more “Why Western New York’s Best Engineers Are Staying Put — and What It’s Costing Them”
Searching for an AEC recruiter in Western New York might lead you to firms that look local but aren’t. Many national recruiting companies create city-specific pages designed to rank in Google, even if they have no real presence in Buffalo. In an industry where relationships and regional knowledge matter, that difference can impact hiring outcomes more than many firms realize.
Everyone is talking about Coach Sean McDermott’s termination. I won’t add to the buzz about this topic specifically, but it did make me wonder about the leadership versus results tension we see in business all the time. What about managers who are loved by their teams but aren’t delivering the results ownership needs? In this …
There’s been a flurry of discussion lately in the architecture world about whether cover letters are still relevant. Archinect published a thoughtful series that captured a range of perspectives — from those ready to declare the cover letter extinct, to those still clinging to its formalities. Here’s the thing: this cover letter debate misses the …
Read more “Cover Letters Are Dead — And That’s Not a Bad Thing”
You’ve probably worked hard to craft your resume. You’ve listed your experience, emphasized your strengths, and positioned yourself to stand out. But here’s the truth: I’ve reviewed enough resumes—particularly in the construction, architecture, and engineering world—to know when something feels off. And when it does, I can’t ignore it. I don’t jump to conclusions. I …
Read more “What Makes Me Think You’re Lying on Your Resume “
Picture this: You’ve got 15 years of rock-solid experience, a portfolio of $50M+ projects, and references that would make your grandmother proud. Yet somehow, your resume is disappearing into the architecture, engineering, and construction resume black hole. Sound familiar? We’re about to dissect some real resume failures, decode what architecture, engineering, and construction hiring managers actually look for, and hand you a proven playbook for landing those interviews.