AEC Leaders Archives

An open notebook with a pen resting on a blank page beside a coffee cup, suggesting the pause before a considered decision.

The Difference Between Hiring for Skills and Hiring for Judgment

by Lynn NovoCandidates, Employers, Hiring, Interviewing July 6, 2026July 6, 2026No Comments

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 …

A woman listening attentively to a candidate during a job interview, illustrating the diagnostic value of listening in the first ten minutes.

What a Principal Should Listen For in the First Ten Minutes of an Interview

by Lynn NovoEmployers, Hiring, Interviewing June 30, 2026June 29, 2026Comments are Disabled

The resume tells you what the candidate has done. The first ten minutes tell you who’s actually sitting in front of you. Most principals spend that window asking instead of listening — and miss the whole interview. In my last post, I made the case that most AEC firms run senior interviews as a …

Two professionals having a candid conversation across a table in a modern office, illustrating a senior-level job interview.

The Biggest Mistake AEC Firms Make When They Finally Land the Interview

by Lynn NovoEmployers, Hiring, Interviewing June 2, 2026June 2, 2026Comments are Disabled

In a market where the best people aren’t looking, getting a strong candidate in the room is the hard part. Most firms then spend the next hour undoing it. Getting a good senior candidate to sit down with you right now is an achievement. I wrote last time about why the best people in Western …