Your process lost the candidate

Top AEC candidates move fast, and firms with slow hiring processes are losing talent before they can make an offer.

I recently heard a statistic that immediately reframed how I think about recruiting in the AEC industry: Civil engineering prospects are on the market for roughly 10 days. That's 10 days from expressing interest in a firm to receiving an offer.

Let that sink in: The best candidates may be available for only 10 days.

AEC firms these days are not just competing on compensation or culture; they are competing on decision speed. In a market where top candidates may be available for 10 days, a 60- or 90-day hiring cycle is not a process problem, it is a talent-loss mechanism.

Deltek’s 2025 A/E Clarity Report found only 9% of positions are filled in 0-30 days, 39% in 31-60 days, 32% in 61-90 days, and 20% take more than 90 days. Engineering and A/E firms were especially slow: only 6% filled roles in 0-30 days. Clearly, something has to change.

Think about what that means. If your firm requires a requisition approval, a recruiter screen, two rounds of interviews, leadership consensus, compensation approval, and reference checks before extending an offer, you've likely consumed most – or all – of a top candidate's decision window.

In my experience, we rarely lose candidates because they dislike our projects, culture, or opportunities. More often, we lose them because another firm simply moved faster.

If top candidates are making decisions in 10 days, then every step in the hiring process deserves scrutiny. Here are 10 practical ways AEC firms can reduce hiring cycle times and improve their ability to secure critical talent:

1. Set a 10-business-day hiring SLA for priority roles. Treat “best candidates are gone in 10 days” as the operating constraint. For project-critical roles, the process should move from application/referral to offer decision in two weeks or less.
2. Pre-approve job posts before the need is urgent. Maintain evergreen, pre-vetted job descriptions for recurring roles: civil EIT, roadway engineer, bridge engineer, water resources engineer, rail/transit engineer, construction inspector, PM, and seller-doer. The delay should not be “we need to write the posting.”
3. Use intake meetings, not email chains. Before posting, require a 20-minute recruiter/hiring manager intake meeting: must-have licenses, years of experience, technical domain, geography, salary range, hybrid expectations, interview panel, and decision authority.
4. Publish salary ranges and flexibility clearly. Civil engineering candidates will not wait through an opaque process. Include information about compensation range, hybrid/remote expectations, career path, project types, licensure support, and mentorship.
5. Screen within 24-48 hours. Assign recruiters or HR staff to review applicants daily, not weekly. For hard-to-fill roles, the first qualified screen should happen within one to two business days.
6. Replace multi-round interviews with one structured panel. Use one 60-90 minute panel with the hiring manager, technical lead, and culture/client-fit reviewer. Avoid sequential interviews that add calendar drag.
7. Score candidates immediately. Use a simple rubric: technical fit, licensure trajectory, project experience, communication/client readiness, availability, compensation alignment. Require same-day feedback.
8. Empower hiring managers to decide. The biggest delays are often internal consensus delays. Define who can say yes, what approvals are needed, and the maximum turnaround for offer approval.
9. Make conditional offers faster. For licensed/technical roles, separate “decision to hire” from background/reference completion. Do not wait to express intent.
10. Build warm pipelines before requisitions open. Use interns, former employees, retirees, client/project contacts, conference contacts, university advisory boards, and silver-medalist candidates. AEC firms cannot rely only on active applicants.

Every AEC firm says people are their greatest asset. The firms that prove it make hiring decisions at the speed today's market demands. Because if the best candidates are available for only 10 days, the question isn't whether you can find great talent. It's whether your process can reach them before someone else's does.

Mark Felici is vice president and director of human resources at Urban Engineers, Inc. Connect with him on LinkedIn.