Seeking a Mid-Career Change - Strategies from an AEC Recruiter
With AIA Women’s Leadership Summit 2022 fast approaching, I am revisiting my 2021 webinar at the summit, “Seeking a Mid-Career Change or New Path – Strategies from an AEC Recruiter”.
As a recruiter and founder of NDH Search with 24 years of experience, I work placing elite talent in executive level architecture, interior design & landscape architecture positions throughout the U.S. and globally. I teamed up with Mia Scharphie, founder of Build Yourself for this discussion.
Mia helps mid-career women find their most suitable roles, helping them become valued, confident and fulfilled leaders. Together we answer some of the pressing topics among professionals looking to make a career change or seek a new path:
What does a recruiter look for in job candidates in the architecture field and how to apply that to your job search: Typically, a recruiter will receive dozens of resumes a day and will likely review and evaluate a candidates’ resume for 10 seconds. The industry standard resume should be 2 pages of experience and 1 page of projects. Your resume must be fine-tuned and free of typos. This is your first chance to make a good impression and set yourself apart from the competition, and you will want to create the best possible perception of you.
How to confidently answer difficult questions during a job interview – including breaks in work and career changes: There are many reasons why people may have employment gaps on their resume. Some people take time to be a stay-at-home parent, others may be studying or engaged in a higher education program/ getting a degree, traveling, or they may have been looking for work but have been unsuccessful.
The best strategy includes letting the recruiter or hiring manager know of any relevant work you may have done in that gap time, including consulting work, freelance, ad-hoc tasks, volunteering and any related work tasks. If you haven’t done any work, it is best to reference your most recent position and emphasize the tasks and responsibilities you had and line them up to show how they are relevant to the job that you are applying to. There are many tools and strategies available on interviewing and answering difficult questions. Linda Raynier, career strategist offers help with this on her website: www.lindaraynier.com and has many resources on her YouTube channel.
It is also important to understand that when speaking to a hiring manager - that they want to know how you can bring value to their company and what you can offer – so it is a good strategy to focus on them!
How to represent yourself as a three-dimensional person with more to offer than what is on your resume: Candidates can represent themselves as three-dimensional individuals by finding common ground with the client. A connection made via shared professional experiences, organizations, or mutual colleagues goes a long way and humanizes the conversation. Other strategies include: being prepared to show off your specific accomplishments, making the client picture a future with you, personalizing the conversation, researching the people who you are speaking with and referencing past conversations to further build the connection.