Why Most Construction Interviews Are Broken (And How to Fix Them)
TJ Kastning
🚧 The Hard Truth: Most Construction Hiring is Guesswork
Construction leaders pride themselves on precision. If a measurement is off by an inch, the whole structure can suffer. Yet, when it comes to hiring, many companies rely on gut feelings and unstructured conversations—leading to costly mistakes.
Your interview process might feel fine, but if you’re constantly dealing with bad hires, slow hiring cycles, or high turnover, it’s broken. Let’s fix it.
🛠 The 3 Biggest Problems in Construction Interviews
1. No Clear Plan for the Interview Process
Most construction companies don’t define how interviews should be structured. Who’s asking what? What competencies are we evaluating? How do we know if someone is a good fit? These questions go unanswered. Instead, interviewers wing it, leading to inconsistent evaluations and poor hiring decisions.
🔧 Fix It: Develop a structured interview roadmap that outlines:
- Who is involved in each stage
- What key skills, values, and behaviors to assess
- A scoring system to compare candidates objectively
2. Overvaluing “Gut Feeling” Over Data
It’s easy to mistake confidence for competence. A candidate who talks a big game might not be the one who actually delivers in the field. When interviewers rely on gut instinct instead of structured assessments, bias creeps in, and hiring decisions become unpredictable.
🔧 Fix It: Use a mix of:
✅ Behavioral interview questions (“Tell me about a time you had to solve a job site conflict.”)
✅ Work sample tests (Give them a real-world problem to solve.)
✅ Personality & skill assessments (Tools like ProfileXT give objective insights into fit.)
3. Failing to Align Interviews With the Role’s Reality
Many construction interviews don’t test real job performance. A candidate might ace a conversation but struggle on-site. Or a company hires based on technical skills alone, ignoring leadership, teamwork, and adaptability—only to watch their new hire fail.
🔧 Fix It: Add practical evaluation methods:
🏗 Job simulations – Have them walk through how they’d handle a real problem.
📋 Reference questions that go beyond the basics – Ask, “Would you enthusiastically hire them again?”
📊 Interview scorecards – Rate candidates on predefined job success factors.
🔄 Stop Making the Same Hiring Mistakes
If your hiring process feels chaotic, you’re not alone. Most construction firms make the same costly errors over and over again—delaying hiring, hiring the wrong people, or losing top talent to competitors.
It’s time to build a repeatable, data-driven hiring system.
📅 Ready to Upgrade Your Hiring Process? Let’s Talk
Struggling to make better hires? Schedule an exploratory meeting with Ambassador Group to discuss how to improve your hiring strategy: Schedule Here
Let’s build teams that don’t just fill roles—but drive growth. 🚀
