This blog content comes from an interview conducted on July 16, 2026. For more information or context, watch the full episode where you get your podcasts.
“I think we approved a $30,000 check because he brought three senior PMs over at one time. And it was just like, yeah. And he deserved it. And we were so happy to give him that.”- Caroline Bishop, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist, Tighe & Bond
“It’s well worth paying that kind of an incentive to our employees to help us fill these critical roles.”- Jo Martin, Talent Acquisition Manager, Tighe & Bond
Finding talent is the biggest obstacle to growth for most AEC firms. Tighe & Bond, an employee-owned firm with more than 600 people in 16 Northeast offices, has built an internal recruiting team that treats it as a competitive advantage. In this segment of the AEC GrowthCast, host Greg Hart talks with Jo Martin, the firm’s talent acquisition manager, and Caroline Bishop, a senior talent acquisition specialist, about how the team works and what other firms can borrow.
1. Recruiting in AEC is a sales job
“I like the word talent acquisition, but I think there’s a very different meaning of talent acquisition in the AEC industry versus other industries. We’re not getting applicants. We’re not fielding resumes. I’m not here with finalists for a position. I have one person, if I’m lucky, if I get an applicant, and then we go through the process.”
“What makes us different compared to all the other talent acquisition peers in this industry is that we’re actually really more sales. We really go proactive. We are trying to sell our company. We’re trying to get people engaged. We’re trying to tell them about Tighe and Bond, who we represent, what we’re all about. And we have to be the ones who are pursuing versus fielding a bunch of resumes.”- Caroline Bishop
The stakes of each outreach are high:
“We have one opportunity to connect with these people. It has to be powerful, it has to be impactful, and it has to be different than all the other messages that they’re getting from our competitors and other recruiters.” - Caroline Bishop
She says the investment shows up in the numbers. The firm has hired more than a hundred people each year for the past two or three years:
“It’s very interesting when we look at all of our graphs, because they really are hand in hand. The angles are the same.”
2. Know the work, the people, and the business
“Part of what we do as recruiters is understanding the day-to-day work and what they’re doing and trying to figure out with that team where that person’s going to fit and how they’re going to be able to contribute and complement that team. When we’re digging into the technology and really understanding the workflow of the engineering, that’s also part of our work: communicating with the teams and understanding exactly what they’re going to be doing, so that when we’re talking to them, we can really be an educated advisor.” - Jo Martin
Internal recruiters also need business context that outside recruiters rarely have:
“I need to know internally what’s going on with the business. I need to know where we’re investing. I need to know who’s being respected by our clients, who’s respected by the vendors that we use, who do our employees like working for? So there’s a lot more in-depth knowledge. When we reach out to people, it’s intentional, because before reaching out, we know exactly who they are and what would make them move.”
- Caroline Bishop
Martin sums up the ideal profile for an internal team:
“I think that internal team needs to have people that have that technical aptitude but also the ability to sell. That’s kind of the sweet spot for me.”
3. Make the business case with data
Martin was the firm’s first recruiter in 2017. By 2021, she knew she needed help:
“It became very obvious to me very quickly, in 2021 heading into 2022, that in order for the firm to remain competitive, we needed more people to recruit. I had a conversation with the leadership and showed them the data. And I just said, this is an unsustainable model.”
Her advice to any CEO weighing an internal team: “How much money are you spending on external recruiters? Because they’re collecting between 25 and 30% of a person’s salary, typically, from what I’ve seen. And so you look at how much outlay of capital you have to have in order to have an internal recruiter, and then figure out whether or not your growth strategy matches what you would want to invest in for an internal team.”
And on building out the team: “You need all of those pieces. It’s really important, at least from my perspective, to have people working within their strengths and being able to shine where they shine.”
4. Employees are your best recruiters, so equip and reward them
“I can reach out to someone 10 times. I’ve reached out to this poor woman probably over 10 times in the past two years and I’ve gotten no response. And that’s totally fine. I expect that. But when someone they know personally, or a peer, comes to them and says, ‘Wow, that was an amazing presentation. You really impressed me. Would you ever consider working with me?’ that is a lot stronger of a connection.”- Caroline Bishop
Martin describes a long search that ended with a referral:
“We had been looking for somebody to head up our hydrogeology practice for a long time. And just at the last minute, we had an employee contact me and say, ‘Hey, this person’s ready.’ And they were just perfect for the role.”
Referrals make up a meaningful share of hiring:
“It’s probably between maybe 20 and sometimes 25% of our hires are from employee referrals.” - Jo Martin
The firm pays well for them, but with conditions:
“It starts at $500 and it goes up to $10,000. We would much rather have somebody come in that’s vested, that somebody has a connection to. There’s an opportunity cost every day that that position isn’t filled, right?”
“We had to be really clear about the policy. We built technology around it. It’s not like, ‘Hey, here’s a resume.’ It’s, ‘All right, here’s a resume. And how are you going to help us make sure that that works out and that the person is able to come on board?’” - Jo Martin
They also coach employees on how to make the approach:
“We help educate and prepare people internally for going to conferences and doing the networking. We let them know what the open positions are, and we ask them the ways that we need them to help. We help write emails for them sometimes if they’re feeling awkward. We ask, ‘Would you actually really love to work with this person? If you would, tell them!’” -Jo Martin
Bishop tells the story behind the lead quote:
“He was nervous to leave his company because he didn’t want to leave the people. And now he just brought the people with him. It was an easy check to write.”
5. Meet busy, mid-career talent where they are
“We’re not going to find a senior project manager who has wastewater work in their background sitting on Monster, for example. They’re just not really there. That’s what’s challenging.” - Jo Martin
The hardest roles to fill sit in a specific range:
“The hard-to-fill jobs that we look at are probably the five to 25 year PE-specific technical expert. For our entry levels and for some of our corporate positions, we do get hundreds of resumes.” - Caroline Bishop
Martin explains why those candidates are difficult to reach: “Those individuals are really busy. They’re building their life. They’re often building families. They’re in transition. They’re doing so much. I think we try to meet them where they are. We’ve all gone to professional conferences, really worked hard to meet people personally. Having those personal one-on-one conversations, we’ve utilized other individuals in the firm that are at their same level and know each other to discuss why Tighe and Bond might be a great place to build a career.”
Bishop likes to talk to vendors, too: “I love talking to vendors because they work with so many other companies. They’re also salespeople. And I love saying, ‘Well, who do you like to work with? What projects were you excited about? What projects went well? What projects were your clients happy about?’”
6. Treat every candidate as a person, and play the long game
On reaching out to people who already have jobs, Martin says the question has changed: “I don’t think it’s if, I think it’s how. We’re being very conscientious about not overstepping the ways that we do things and trying to be very ethical about how we do it.”
Bishop’s approach to the call: “Every time I call, I say, ‘If you’re happy, that’s great. But if you’re not, let me tell you about what’s here, and maybe if that’s an improvement for you, let’s talk more.’ Acceptance or a decline, it’s okay. We leave the door open, even with people that leave us. We’ve had those boomerang employees come back... Everyone is a person. That’s the difference. As a TA person, I’m looking at them as a person versus a third-party recruiter looking at them as a dollar sign. I have to work with these people afterwards, and I get to know their families, and I know their personal lives. We give them this white glove service, we like to say.”
For Martin, the motivation is personal: “My personal why is that I’m bringing in extraordinary talent that’s going to help build our company and it’s going to benefit everybody here, because we’re employee-owned. This placement is going to help be another building block to build our company. And that, to me, is a much deeper reason to recruit somebody.”
Hear the full conversation
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