How To Get Multiple Offers & Decline The Wrong Ones (without burning bridges)

As a Site Manager aspiring to reach new heights in your career, it’s imperative to articulate and showcase your expertise. Setting yourself apart from your peers through your skills and career experience increases your chances of fielding multiple job offers.

But once you’re receiving multiple offers, how you handle declining those that aren’t right for you can make or break your job opportunities in the future.

We’ve outlined how to attract multiple offers, decide which is the right offer for you and then decline the others (without burning any bridges you may need in the future).

Articulate Your Strengths in Program Delivery

A great Construction Site Manager possesses a diverse skill set that goes beyond technical knowledge. While understanding construction processes, safety regulations, and quality standards is crucial, equally important is the ability to lead, communicate, and adapt.

Include the following to showcase the best of your experience:

1. Your skill set
   • Sector experience
   • Project sizes
   • Years of experience
   • Stakeholder management (internal & external)
   • Competency in Construction programs / applications
   • Leadership, conflict resolution, time management, and other soft skills
2. Your certifications
   • Trade qualification
   • Further education (diploma’s, etc)
   • All certifications

Communicating Your Project Experience

Details of your project experience is a fantastic way to give a potential employer insight into your abilities in a snapshot.

What to include:

• Project names / sites
• Value
• Sector
• Timeframe
• Scope of works

Here’s a CV Template including a Project Portfolio Section for. Complete the form below to download it.

Interviews

Prior to applying for roles consider the following:

What do I want?

• Salary
• Project sectors
• Project size
• Company size
• Career opportunities
• Work hours
• Work days
• Overtime
• Employee benefits such as time in lieu, company share programs, CPD, wellness programs (if that’s your jam)
• Culture

Then consider which are non-negotiable and which are negotiable.

Armed with a thorough understanding of what you want and what you will (& won’t) accept, you can weed out the roles that are unsuitable from the get-go. You will find a lot of these answers in the job advertisement itself or worst case, you can ask the questions in your first phone conversation prior to an interview.

Looking Beyond Salary

While a competitive salary is undoubtedly important, focusing solely on monetary rewards can limit your career growth and fulfilment as a Site Manager.

Look for positions that offer opportunities for advancement, skill development, and challenging projects. A supportive and inclusive work environment can contribute significantly to job satisfaction.

Consider the company’s commitment to safety, sustainability, and innovation, as these factors can impact the overall success and reputation of the projects you manage.

The modern construction company has evolved and more builders are introducing incentives to support better work life balance.

Kapitol Group is one example of a construction company who has successfully implemented the ‘10 in 14’ fortnight initiative. They are also looking to minimise the number of hours worked by holding process and efficiency sessions, with the goal of having no one work more than 50 hours per week.

Jardon Group and Roberts Co are some great examples of other builders that strive to run five-day per week programs on all their projects.

These initiatives put great talent first and make the construction company more attractive in the marketplace, allowing them to recruit great employees and retain them for longer.

Remember that you’re likely looking for a company you’ll join on a journey for the next 3-5 years, potentially more. Look for clarity in the company’s vision and what success looks like during this window of time to ascertain if this company is a great fit for you moving forward.

Handling Multiple Job Offers

While multiple offers is a fantastic place to find yourself, it’s essential to handle job offers with professionalism and prudence.

Conecta’s Customer Success Manager, Daniel Tacconelli, provides the following points to follow when handling these discussions.

Here’s Dan’s advice:

• Be up-front with all employers about having multiple offers
• Don’t feel pressured to make a decision, maintain a good level of communication but take the time you need to make the right decision.
• Take time to consider which offer suits you given your current wants and needs
• Don’t ghost an employer – respectfully decline. Example –
  • “I appreciate being considered, however I’ve decided to accept another role. I hope we can stay in touch for future opportunities.”

Over the years it’s possible to build up a number of relationships with potential employers and keeping in touch with these businesses will make sure that if the need arises you can reconnect with them without having to go through a full recruitment process.

On the flip side, an employer who feels a candidate has negotiated in bad faith, has led them to believe their process is concluded and they have found the right resource, will most likely not engage with that person in the future. This limits your pool of future opportunities.

While the industry is large, the network is tight – the grapevine is well and truly alive in construction. Use this knowledge as a guiding principle when managing your personal brand during job hunting and across your wider career.

If you’re considering a new job and your career experience is in the construction management industry, take the simple route by using Conecta to find your next opportunity. 

Conecta is a construction management job platform that connects you directly to multiple hiring construction firms. You don’t need a CV – we ask you the right questions to cover everything a potential construction employer needs to know.

Your application goes directly to their internal team of decision makers (ie. Construction Manager, Director or HR). Think of us as your direct intro when you don’t have a personal referral of your own. We connect you with the right person every single time.

Learn more about us
Create a profile on the platform
See the construction companies who use Conecta to hire
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Image Source: The Dragon Group