By Martin Larkin, COO, Amundson Group
The construction recruiting industry has an average intake to shortlist cycle of about 6 weeks. At Amundson Group we close it in 7 days, and most hiring managers hear that and assume we are either cutting corners or making promises we cannot keep.
We are doing neither. The reason our intake is compressed is process design, not speed for speed’s sake. Here is exactly what happens at Amundson Group in the 7 days between a hiring manager’s kickoff call and the delivery of a qualified shortlist.
Why most intakes take 6 weeks
Before the walkthrough, the diagnosis. Here is the industry standard breakdown most recruiters follow:
1. Kickoff call with hiring manager (Week 1)
2. Candidate sourcing starts on Monday of Week 2
3. First batch of candidates passes initial screen by Week 3
4. Second round of sourcing based on initial calibration by Week 4
5. Final shortlist submitted at end of Week 6
The bottleneck is not any single step. It is the serial execution. Sourcing does not start until the intake call ends. Calibration does not start until the first batch lands. Every phase waits for the previous one to finish before it begins.
Our design changes that by running three processes in parallel: the intake call, the sourcing, and the calibration all overlap.
Our 7 day intake
Day 1 (Monday) — Kickoff plus parallel start
A senior specialist recruiter takes the kickoff call with the hiring manager. 45 to 60 minutes, no more. During this call two other things happen in parallel:
- A dedicated researcher pulls a broad name list based on the role and metro described. Not filtered yet, just scoped. Typical output: 200 to 350 names.
- The specialist recruiter’s assigned bench (their running list of pre vetted candidates in that role and market) is pulled and compared against the stated requirements.
At end of day 1 we have already narrowed from 350 to about 60 target candidates. The hiring manager has done nothing but the kickoff call.
Day 2 (Tuesday) — Calibration call
At 24 hours in, we send the hiring manager a 10 name calibration sample. Not candidates to interview, just a representative sample of what the market looks like for their exact role, comp, and metro. This is the step most recruiters skip, and it is the single biggest reason their timelines run 5 extra weeks.
On a 20 minute calibration call we confirm or correct: seniority targeting, comp ceiling, geographic scope, must have experience, deal breakers. This is where unstated assumptions get surfaced and corrected before we burn 3 weeks running after the wrong target.
Day 3 (Wednesday) — Deep sourcing pass
With calibration locked, the researcher runs the deep sourcing pass on the corrected target. This is the day where most of the work happens.
Where most firms source at this stage only from open LinkedIn and job boards, our researchers also run against our own internal placement history, candidate referrals from placed candidates, and adjacent sector crossovers that a pure keyword search will miss.
Typical output Day 3: 40 to 60 candidates worth an outreach conversation.
Day 4 (Thursday) — Initial candidate contact
The specialist recruiter makes first contact with the 40 to 60 candidates from Day 3. This is not a resume screen. It is a real conversation, 10 to 15 minutes per candidate, focused on three things: their current situation, what would pull them away, and whether the client role is a genuine match for what they want to build next.
Roughly 40% of these conversations end with “not interested right now, call me in 9 months”. We note that for our bench and move on. 25% end with “not a fit for this role but I know someone who might be”. We chase those referrals immediately. 35% are active in the conversation.
Day 5 (Friday) — Deep phone screen on top 12 to 16
The 35% from Day 4 lands us at about 16 candidates worth a deep screen. Our phone screen is 45 minutes and it runs against a 12 question template we have refined over six years. Half the questions are role specific (can they describe their last submittal schedule, can they walk me through a change order they fought for, can they articulate the tradeoffs on an RFI response). Half are about motivation, retention signals, and red flags.
Of 16 deep screens, 6 to 10 survive.
Day 6 (Saturday) — Written work products
For the 6 to 10 candidates who pass deep screen, we assemble the internal submission package. This is not a resume. It is a 2 page summary per candidate with:
- Role fit narrative (specific to this client’s needs)
- Current comp and what would move them
- Notable placements (both as a PM and as a hire they made)
- Red flags identified and explained, not hidden
- Reference anchors
Saturday is a paid day internally. This is when the senior recruiter’s write up happens, not during the week. Writing takes focus and compressing it saves the hiring manager 4 hours of reading time later.
Day 7 (Sunday) — QA pass plus hiring manager delivery prep
Sunday is a QA pass. A second senior recruiter who did not run the search reads the 6 to 10 submission packages cold and plays devil’s advocate. Anything that cannot survive 15 minutes of adversarial review gets pulled or corrected.
The final deliverable to the hiring manager on Monday morning of Week 2:
- 5 to 8 candidates in the shortlist
- 2 page summary per candidate
- 3 alternates flagged with context on why they did not make the shortlist
- Comp calibration update if the market moved during the 7 days
That is the 7 day cycle.
The three questions most recruiters skip on the intake call
The compression above does not come for free. It is enabled by asking three questions on Day 1 that most recruiters either do not know to ask or avoid because the answers are uncomfortable.
“What does your ideal day 90 look like for this person?” If the hiring manager cannot describe it, we build that scorecard together before the call ends. Without a specific day 90 picture, no shortlist is ever going to feel “right” because there is no measurement anchor.
“Who has failed in this seat before, and why?” Every hiring manager has a story. Surfacing it at intake tells us what the real deal breakers are, which may not match the job description. The job description says “team leadership”. The failure story might reveal “cannot push back on a tough sub”. Those are different targets.
“What is your walk away compensation number, not your posted range?” Published comp ranges are negotiating posture. The actual ceiling is usually 10 to 15% above the top of the range. If we do not know the real number, we waste candidates on both sides of the negotiation.
What 7 days buys a GC vs 42 days
The obvious answer is speed. The real answer is optionality.
On a live bid where a key hire is part of the commercial proposal, having a shortlist in 7 days means you can go into the final bid with a named team. Going in with “we will hire as soon as we win” is a loss to the competitor who has already named their Super.
On a live project where a senior person just gave notice, 35 extra days of uncovered time is a schedule killer. We have seen $200K to $600K in project cost swing on who fills the seat inside month 1 versus month 3.
And on retention. Candidates currently on the market have a half life. The best candidate we screen on Day 4 has a 60 to 70% probability of being off the market by Day 45. The recruiters who submit at Week 6 are working with a different sample than the recruiters who submit at Week 1, and not in the way they want.
Call to action
If you have a Project Manager, Superintendent, Estimator, or senior leadership search coming up, start a conversation. Our 7 day intake is the standard, not the exception. Meet the team who runs it.
