Industry | Construction: Overview

Welcome, this is the first post in the Industry Overview Series!

I’m excited to give you a bit of insight into an industry that you may be unfamiliar with. Hopefully this will help to open your mind to the different kinds of opportunities available to you that you may not have considered.

This first entry is about the Construction Industry.

The construction industry is often thought of as a sector that primarily involves hard labor and physically building structures. However, the industry is much more diverse and offers a wide range of roles that cater to different skills and interests. From project management to design and engineering, sales and business development to quality control and safety, there is a role for everyone in the construction industry.

The goal of the industry is to create functional and aesthetically pleasing structures that meet the needs of the community and clients. Whether you are just starting your career or looking for a change, the construction industry offers exciting opportunities for those looking to make an impact in the built environment.

There are various roles that one might find in the construction industry, and they can be broadly grouped into several categories:

 

  • Project management:

    These roles involve overseeing all aspects of a construction project, from planning and design to completion. They are responsible for the coordination of all aspects of the project, including scheduling, budgeting and resource allocation.

  • Design and Engineering:

    These roles involve the technical aspects of construction, such as designing, engineering and creating blueprints of the structure, while also ensuring that it meets all necessary codes and regulations.

  • Skilled labor:

    These roles involve physically building the structure, such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, masons and so on. These tradespeople use their skills and knowledge to construct the building according to the plans and specifications.

  • Sales and Business Development:

    These roles involve finding and securing new business, such as sales representatives, and business development professionals. They work to generate leads and close deals for the company. A sales related role in this industry that might appeal to creatives would be a marketing representative.

  • Quality Control and Safety:

    These roles involve ensuring that the structure is built according to code and safety regulations, as well as ensuring that quality standards are met throughout the construction process.

  • Customer service and client management:

    These roles involve maintaining the relationship with the client and ensuring that their needs are met, such as site managers and customer service representatives.

Each role in the construction industry plays an essential part in the success of a project.

Project management roles ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget, while design and engineering roles ensure that the structure is designed and built according to code and safety regulations. Skilled labor is responsible for physically building the structure, sales and business development roles bring in new business, and customer service and client management roles maintain the relationship with the client.

Together, these roles form the backbone of the construction industry, working together to create functional and aesthetically pleasing structures that meet the needs of the community and clients.

In conclusion, the construction industry is a vital sector that plays a crucial role in the development of our built environment. The industry offers a wide range of roles that cater to different skills and interests, from project management and design to skilled labor and customer service.

Whether you’re just starting your career or looking for a change, the construction industry offers exciting opportunities for those looking to make an impact in the built environment. With a variety of roles available, there is a place for everyone in the construction industry, and it is worth exploring the different options available to find the right fit for you.

If this article sparked your interest, check out our currently available jobs in the Construction industry!

If you liked this article, stay tuned for more in this series. I am conducting a similar series on Job Types as well, giving examples of what a particular job type’s role might be across different industries. As time goes on, we’ll move on from overviews and transition into more specific information of interest.

(Our first entry in the Job Types series was on Sales. Give it a read!)

 

Why Should You Use LinkedIn?

​If you’re looking to network or are interested in keeping up to date on your professional industry, there’s no better place than LinkedIn.
Here you can find a vast network of professionals like you across any and all industries. Think of it almost as social media for business, with the benefit of affording you new opportunities.
So why should you use it?

Information

First off, if you’re looking to grow in your career, LinkedIn is a great resource.
Stay on top of market trends and new technologies to get ahead of the curve and improve your skills. Build your network of people from your company, industry, or Job Title to get unique insights that may help inspire or educate you.

Build a Personal Brand & Network 

Join in on the conversation! Share knowledge of your own to help others, and build a strong reputation for yourself in the process. You may even get noticed as a result, possibly offering you unique opportunities. All in all, it can be an enriching resource for passive and active career growth.

Seeking work

On the topic of opportunities, your network of connections may expose you to interesting jobs that you would have otherwise not seen.
LinkedIn in particular has a reputation as being one of the best places to find quality professionals when employers are looking to hire. If LinkedIn is where many employers look first, it’s wise to have your profile in the mix.
If you’re actively looking for work, make sure to take the time to fill out your profile with your experience and skills so that you can be discovered passively by companies seeking your expertise.
Browse their Job Board, sporting over 6 million jobs, to get your resume out to the positions you want. You can also activate a setting that shows you are Open to Work, which will display a graphic over your profile image to increase your visibility. This will make it even easier for employers to find you.
Overall, using LinkedIn can change your professional career for the better, in a multitude of ways. Whether you plan to actively engage with the platform, or just make a profile with your information, it can serve to benefit you nonetheless.

How to Prepare for a Job Search

Feeling unfulfilled, bored, or like you’re not progressing in your career as you desire? If you’re ready to make a change in your job, it’s time to prepare yourself. Here’s some steps to take on how to prepare for a job search.

Planning

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Where do you want to go from here?

Take some time to really think about you. What are your goals? If you haven’t planned ahead, now would be a good time to take some personal inventory to make your planning easier. Are you looking for stability, or a more advanced role? Think about your strengths and what you enjoy. Explore what opportunities are a good match for someone with your strengths.

Whatever your aim is, do some research on the qualifications and skills that you need to move yourself in the direction you want to go. If there’s gaps in the experience you need for your goals, map out the steps you need to take to get the experience you need. Whether it’s education, or moving up through different roles, get an idea of what is necessary to achieve your goals. Having this intentional direction to your job search will help in identifying opportunities that fulfill your needs.

Consider internal opportunities

If you don’t mind your employer or the industry you are in, consider possible opportunities within your company.

Look at the roles that exist in your current company for any that you may be interested in. Talk to your supervisor and express an interest in growth or a particular role, and inquire as to what steps you need to take to get on track for acquiring those skills.

If your employer isn’t interested in training on a different role within the company, make sure that you are truly unsatisfied with your work, and if so, time to prepare to look at your other options.

Optimize your resume for your goals

Make sure to highlight your strengths that are geared towards the kinds of jobs you want. You’d be surprised at the employers that find your skillset desirable.

Check out our article on resume writing tips!

Put your resume up on Job Boards

Countless employers are scouring job boards for resumes just like yours at any given moment. Make sure you’re putting your resume on all of them you can find to increase your potential for opportunities.

Here’s some popular job boards:

  • Indeed
  • Monster
  • CareerBuilder
  • ZipRecruiter

And consider creating a profile on Linkedin if you haven’t already, it’s a great networking tool and a good way to be seen in a way that isn’t limited to just your resume.

Conduct your intentional Job Search

Shoot your shot! Now that you have an idea of the direction you want to move in, it’s time to explore your opportunities.

Since you’ve done some research on the types of roles you’re looking for, it should take some stress out of the process. Be dedicated in your search, and your efforts will pay off.

Keep an open mind. There may be positions you may have never thought you could be considered for but are interested in, check it out! Some employers are more than willing to train the right person, even if they may not have directly related experience. Having the right characteristics and aptitude or enthusiasm can influence more than you think.

Be proactive!

While you’re in the process of getting a new job, consider setting aside some time to develop skills independently. Whether it’s your communication skills or a software, continuing to grow will only serve to help you.

Let us help you in your job search! Send us your resume and our team of recruiters may be able to help you find your ideal job.

What do you really want to do?

What would you do with your time if money wasn’t a factor? Whose career are you completely jealous of? Figure out what your passion is and what it is that you’re really good at—your core values are key. And don’t just think about it…actively go out and seek the answers. Far too often I find people marinating versus engaging in some sort of action… Go to networking events and ask people to explain their jobs to you. Peruse LinkedIn and find people whose careers you admire. So often, we get so caught up at jobs we stay at just to pay the bills, or because we feel certain pressures to follow a certain path, that we lose sight of what we really want to do and what we’re really good at.

Let us at Career Paths guide you in finding the job that is right for you.

Want to succeed at work?

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

As much as you think you know, you don’t know it all. There are people with more experience than you, and with that experience comes knowledge. To get access to it, you need experienced colleagues, in addition to your peers, in your network. Establish a relationship with a mentor who can guide you through your career. In addition to advising you on how to advance, a mentor can help you learn about an occupation you are considering, get the lowdown on an employer before a job interview, and solve problems at work.

Want to improve your relationship with the Boss?

Don’t expect your boss to be your best friend – even the warmest of managers will sack you if they need to. But they should trust you to get on with the job, support you when needed and deal fairly and honestly with any problems.

Here’s how to improve the relationship with your boss:

1. Instead of only telling your manager about problems, make sure you tell them all the things you’ve done well. It helps build their trust in you.

2. Observe their communication style. What works for them? It may feel like they want to micro-manage you – but perhaps they are simply reassured by detail, and will leave you alone if you give them a clear explanation of your plan.

3. If you have a toxic relationship, find someone to talk to who can give you an objective view, like a career coach or HR. Remember things can be fixed.

Use Twitter to look for jobs in Seattle

Create a Twitter Job Search List to Track Job Listings From Thousands of Sources

Every day, recruiters are tweeting jobs they need to interview candidates for—making Twitter a seriously untapped resource for job seekers. To make sure you’re in the know about these leads, create a Twitter job search list that includes recruiters, hiring managers, company hiring handles , and job search websites . Then, review their tweets daily for potential opportunities.

Words to banish from your corporate communications

Touchbase (and other corporate jargon)

We need to remove corporate jargon from the world’s vocabulary.

“Touchbase”, “connect”, “take offline”, and the like are all passive phrases. Instead of asking someone to touch base on something, or if they have time to connect, or if they want to take something offline, propose a date, time, and place for you to actually have the conversation you’re emailing them about. It’s likely they will respond with either an acceptance or proposal for a new time. Regardless of the outcome, you’re a lot further along than if you kept it ambiguous.

Bellevue, Job Search Tips, Thank you Matters

Thank You Matters

I once placed a candidate into an engineering role with a company that manufactures packaging equipment. He was competing head-to-head with another engineer, who had similar talents and wanted the job just as badly. My candidate sent a thoughtful, non-robotic thank you note to each person with whom he’d interviewed, within about two hours of leaving their offices. The other candidate sent nothing.

Guess why my candidate got the job offer? Yep, the thoughtful, non-robotic thank you notes. They sealed the deal for him, especially considering the other front-runner sent nothing.

Tip

Consider crafting, original, genuine thank you notes (one for each interviewer) the moment you get back to a computer, following the interview. The speed with which you send the notes, and the quality, will make an impact.

And finally, remember that the interviewer cares much more about what you can do for them than what you want out of the deal. Certainly, they’re going to care a bunch about what you want once you establish your worth. But during the interview, you must demonstrate why you make business sense to hire, period.

Ultimate Guide to picking good job references in Redmond

You know you’re nearing the final stretch of an interview process (and that it’s looking good for you) when a potential employer asks these three questions:

  1. When would you be available to start? (Or, how much notice do you need to give your current employer?)
  2. Can we get you set up for your physical and drug screen?
  3. Will you please provide us with a list of professional references we may contact?

Question number three can rattle even the strongest of candidates if you’re not prepared to respond swiftly with names, titles, the nature of the relationship, and current contact information for however many people with whom they’d like to speak.

Don’t get caught in scramble mode at this stage of the game. Your prompt response and the quality of your references can take you the distance if you play this right.

Let’s begin.

Who Should I List (or Not List) as a Reference?

Generally speaking, your future employer wants to talk with the following people, in order of importance (depending on your role):

  1. Your current manager or supervisor
  2. Your prior managers or supervisors
  3. Your current peers or clients (if you’re interviewing for a client-facing role)
  4. Your prior peers or clients
  5. Your personal references or friends who will vouch for you

Number five, by the way, is a remote fifth place. Reserve this one for only those times you have few other options, and make sure to ask if it’s OK to include personal references before you do so. Also, if you’re a graduating college student (or recent grad), you can absolutely include professors who may be able to speak to your performance and work ethic.

Never (ever) include relatives, unless you happen to work directly for or with one. Oh, and absolutely don’t ever give a fake name and then commission your buddy to “pretend” to be your employer or peer. Recruiters are not stupid. Treat them so at your own peril.

Keep in mind that the primary reason why potential employers want to check your references is because they want a third party to vouch for your on-the-job performance and character. You can tout your greatness all day long in the interview, but it truly gels for decision makers when others tout it for you.

Should They Be on My Resume?

Nooooooo. Heavens, no. Not only do you not need to list out your references, you shouldn’t. It takes up unnecessary resume space, and there’s a remote chance that a recruiter may be more interested in, say, your manager (who you’ve listed) than he or she is in you. No need to hand over all of this information before you captivate him or her.

Likewise, no need to write out “References available upon request.” This is a given. When the hiring manager want them, he or she will ask for them. 100% of the time.

What If I’m a Covert Job Seeker?

This can be a tricky one. If you’re currently employed—and job searching on the sly—who can you trust in these final, important legs of a job transition? I can’t answer this one definitively because every situation is different, and the stakes can be quite high. Trust your gut.

Chances are, you aren’t going to be able to use your current manager as a reference. Certainly, consider enlisting former managers. But you should also think about asking one to two colleagues with whom you have a close personal bond (and established level of trust). If and when you ask them for this support, spell it out very clearly how important it is for you to keep your search under wraps—and the potential consequences for you if they blab.

Also, if you’re providing your potential employer with a relatively weak list of references, be sure and alert them that you’re aware of that, and explain why.

How Should I Ask?

I always encourage clients to approach potential references with specificity, instead of the old, “Hey, would you be willing to be my reference?” Do that, and you’re going to have to let the chips fall where they may in terms of what this person offers up. And along those lines, do this over the phone if possible. You’ll get a much better idea of how excited (or unexcited) this person is to help you.

Make sure to frame your request in a way that spells out the details of the role you’re pursuing, what you anticipate the caller is likely going to want to talk about, and how he or she can be the most helpful.

Example: “Because they’re going through so much change and restructuring right now, I’m guessing they’re going to want to make sure I have strong leadership skills and the ability to turn around struggling teams and programs. If you’re willing, I’d love for you to share some detail on the program we revitalized in 2014.”

Be specific, and also ask this direct question at the end of the call, “May I count on you to give me a favorable reference should the company contact you?”

Don’t assume your past co-worker or boss is going to sing your praises. You never know—she may be jealous of your opportunity here or feel like you dropped the ball on something last year. If you ask this question, you’ll either get a “Yes, of course you can count on me” or an awkward pause or waffle. Don’t list anyone who responds with the awkward pause or waffle. Lukewarm references can sink you in the home stretch.

Is There Anything I Should Provide My References With?

Ideally, provide them with a copy of the job description or an overview of the role and main responsibilities. If you can, also give them some background on the person you anticipate will be calling them, so that they can feel up-to-date and prepared for the conversation.

Also, if it’s someone you’ve used as a reference before (and you suspect would be fine being listed again), provide him or her with a heads-up. Don’t list people without giving them any indication that you’ve used them as a reference for this next opportunity. That’s rude, and it may annoy them to the point of not giving you a glowing review.

What Do I Do After They Are Contacted?

Honestly, you don’t always know when a reference has been contacted, but often times your people will follow up to let you know the conversation just took place.

What do you do? This one is easy—thank him or her, and offer to return the favor if it’s ever needed. And, when you land that job? Most definitely let each of your references know, and consider a small thank you gift, like a coffee gift card or lunch.

Get it right, take it the distance, and enjoy that amazing new gig in 2016.