Hiring technology workers has been challenging since the pandemic, with some workers still wanting to work fully remote, even when we offer only in-house positions, due to the difficulties that remote work presents us as a company – and likely those of you who face similar hiring challenges. Additionally, as we are a telecommunications consultant firm, many job candidates who apply are former technicians wanting to come out of the field and into the office, but, unfortunately, they don’t have applicable writing and communication skills.
We recently stumbled onto a new strategy in hiring technology workers from different industries, such as construction, architecture, government, real estate development, and utilities. In the past, we completely passed over these candidates, thinking they weren’t qualified because they didn’t have the technology knowledge needed. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
Project Managers (PMs) from these industries need to have some basic IT/data/voice knowledge to design or construct buildings and operate within regulatory areas. They need understand how infrastructure carriers operate, have at least a cursory knowledge of fiber, copper, and coax pathways along with demarcation points, and background knowledge of physical plant. They also tend to be more proficient with the use of their current employer’s telephone system than regular staff, and then easily understand the client needs for this area.
These PMs are sometimes intimately involved with the telephone or data service to peripheral life safety devices, such as elevators and fire systems, which are the often-ignored low-hanging fruit for significant savings to a building owner.
In addition to already having strong basics in telecommunications, PMs come to the job with strong writing skills, to document every stage of every aspect of the job, including every call, so they can easily return to their notes when something goes wrong or needs to take a different tact. Project managers also understand they need to be able to stay on budget, or report overages with the detail needed to understand why the overage occurred.
Another area that these industries produce in experienced staff is the ability to coordinate across multiple stakeholders, upwards and downwards, including the building owner, site-level staff, outside and carriers and utilities. Communicating using different language is often an over-looked skill. Being able to educate and explain why you need information or explaining something that is technical to a non-tech person is critical when bringing together a multi-faceted project. Project manager candidates should be able to demonstrate this technique both in email writing and over phone calls or video conferences.
Finally, PMs usually want to get out of the muddy fields and heat of job sites along with those cramped portable offices, and into professional offices, making them ripe for the picking. They are also not paid as well as traditional technology workers, so they can be brought in on a slightly lower pay – and then given raises quickly as they learn. Also, they are used to being on-site every day, so they aren’t spoiled by the luxuries of remote work.
In short, they are perfect candidates to transition fields almost seamlessly. Just tell them to leave their hard hats and badges at home.
Editor’s Note: Check out the following resources about “legacy” phone systems, POTS, PSTN and 911/E911/NG911:
