Construction Job Search Tips | Stop Doomscrolling

“Doomscrolling” is the act of excessively scrolling through websites and social media, often to gather or end up confirming negative opinions about something. According to Nuffield Health doomscrolling can adversely affect your sleep and your interpersonal relationships.

In the context of looking at construction industry job vacancies, if you feel your are "doomjobbing" you can easily end up feeling disheartened. The good news is that feeling this way can be avoided with a few changes in approach.  With over 25 years of construction recruitment experience, I believe I can identify where most online dead ends and negativity originate and can facilitate a high-quality end-to-end recruitment process for the candidates we work with.  Avoid the pitfalls and work together with Maxim Recruitment to achieve the possible, rather than chase the impossible, both online and in all aspects of your job hunting.

Problem 1 | AI produced jobs

There are an infinite number of construction jobs listed online and many are vague, generic, scraped, out of date, or just AI-produced slop!

It is easy to feel lost online with the sheer volume of job vacancies vying for your attention.  The best place to start is with the niche websites of trusted construction recruitment consultancies. Specialist recruiters know the market and have built a reputation in their specialist area, so they can get straight to the accurate and useful details. For example, Maxim Recruitment can help construction dispute professionals, Quantity Surveyors, Schedulers and Clerk of Works with career information, blogs and updated live job and salary information.

•          Avoid applying for jobs on unknown websites that likely scrape jobs from other sites, as they may not be live or genuine roles. 
•          Steer clear if a website doesn’t provide accurate or comprehensive vacancy details explaining what the role actually is. They may not even share your CV with the actual organisation doing the recruiting, and this may create more issues than are solved

Limit your applications to a small, manageable number at a time, and keep a record of each application, the date you applied, and the website you used. Aim for quality applications, not large volumes.

By avoiding unknown/iffy websites and ‘intermediary’ websites and speaking to a trusted recruiter about the best companies in your industry, you can avoid inferior AI-produced job descriptions that is out there. Find real career job opportunities and don't waste your time and add to your stress levels chasing made-up job roles.

Problem 2 | Is the job vacancy selection criteria clearly stated, and do you meet these criteria? 

One of the biggest issues with ‘doomjobbing’ is that generic job descriptions and the ubiquitous “easy apply” features make it really easy to apply for jobs, but near-impossible to get any feedback. The best way to mitigate this is to do your own quality control:

•          Only apply for jobs that allow you to assess whether you meet the suitability criteria
•          Only apply for jobs where you do actually meet the stated suitability criteria

While it is still acceptable to put in a generic or ‘speculative’ application, note this separately to your hot list of premium roles where you know you do match the key criteria.  Professional and well-run employers and recruitment consultancies like Maxim Recruitment maintain a ‘talent pool’ of strong candidates to approach proactively when a new role becomes available, but if you are after a live role now, this is a different category of urgency.

If you don’t meet the location, salary, experience, qualification or other criteria clearly stated as essential, it is better to prioritise roles that are a full match.  Then for roles that you are a strong candidate, you can legitimately expect contact and feedback from the recruitment agency or employer.

Problem 3 | Is the salary or salary range acceptable to YOU?

This is a related issue to Problem 2: if you are applying for a job and seeking an interview for a role with a stated salary or salary range that is lower than what you would accept, is it surprising that the job-seeking process may not conclude successfully?

It can be helpful if you still want to apply, to state the salary range you are likely to want, and see if they are still willing to progress on that basis.  I still regularly encounter candidates wanting to negotiate above the top end of the salary range at 2^nd interview stage as if the rules of pay scales and of supply and demand don’t apply to them! Getting all the way to the offer stage and then rejecting it at a level you never wanted is a waste of time for everyone.  A bit of old fashioned expectation management is what is needed but without underselling yourself either.

Problem 4 | Go for quality, not quantity, to avoid feelings of negativity

As hinted at already, selecting a manageable number of jobs or having your applications managed by a responsive and engaged recruitment consultancy will be a massive help. As Morrissey once said (albeit in a different context!) “rejection is one thing, but rejection by a fool is cruel”!  If you didn’t want the job anyway, why bother applying and worrying about it!

Problem 5 | Have you prepared the best application and CV you can?

If you are going for the quality not quantity approach, this gives you the time to be able to curate and optimise each application to the role and company you are interested in. In practice, this should mean that you can keep your CV a sensible length (3-4 pages) but be able to include the most relevant projects, duties and experience that matches the requested criteria of the job description.

It is always critical to provide an updated CV and one that is accurate in terms of employment dates, duties and opening statement/profile that summarises why you are a strong candidate for the role you are applying for. The team at Maxim Recruitment have written a wealth of advice on writing CVs here and here. 

Problem 6 | How to Get a second opinion with honest feedback?

Finally, we all sometimes need to be given some honest feedback and advice on the CV you have prepared, your suitability for a job or just about ensuring the right level of ambition and speed of career growth.  This is where a trusted recruiter can come in who is an expert in your area of the construction industry. Honest advice and feedback based on current salary levels, live jobs and fresh market intelligence is much more valuable than what you can gather from “doomjobbing” or unreliable AI generated overviews.

Summary

In summary, changing employers and progressing your career are serious and important events. Give the recruitment process the time and preparation it needs to be done properly.  Engage the help of like-minded recruitment professionals to assist you and avoid low-quality invitations online to shortcut the process. There is no need to be doomjobbing if you surround yourself with the right career professionals.

Steve Thomas
Construction Recruitment Director, UK & Canada
Maxim Recruitment
LinkedIn

Steve is responsible for Maxim Recruitment in the UK and Canada. He is based in the Maxim head office in Leicester, UK and the Toronto office in Canada. He regularly travels to meet employers and job seekers and attend construction industry networking events in the UK, Canada and worldwide. Steve has over 25 years of experience in construction and property recruitment and enjoys working with many repeat clients. He manages dedicated search and headhunting assignments for a range of premium UK, Canadian and international clients.