Who is qualified to select/hire competent senior BIM managers (heads/directors) for AEC companies?

This post is for HR people doing (or considering to get into) the recruiting of BIM-people for strategic, senior BIM roles within AEC companies.

It includes a very simple message and an easy to use tool.

Success is 100% guaranteed.

The message is this:

1.       Currently and globally there are very few people that are properly qualified to identify, assess, rank and recommend people that may become good strategic BIM leaders with the right training and support.

2.       There are altogether only a handful of good, senior level, strategically clued-up BIM ‘operators’ off-the shelf existing worldwide.

3.       Equally, there are similarly tiny numbers of top executives wanting a strategically placed BIM person high level in their company for the RIGHT reasons.

This message offers two additional lessons to note:

BAD NEWS:

The likelihood of an HR person operating within AEC to be from group one (1) and to be given the opportunity to pair up representatives from the other two (2 and 3) is extremely low.

GOOD NEWS:

See above;

Because of the majority of group ‘number  3’ in the message above is extremely well established and strong in the field, you can place just about anyone in the position that has ‘BIM’ in its name or description as long as you use the tool described below correctly.

What you need to do (this is the tool):

1/ check that the client is definitely not an ‘enlightened, good 3’ – again, extremely unlikely but they do exist…so just to be on the safe side;

2/ ask for the serving CAD manager, BIM coordinator, incumbent visualizer, engineering manager, (or equivalent director, if the role is senior enough) to do the interviewing;

3/ do a good check-up on the weaknesses of the interviewer (start with the software packages that the company is ‘supposed to be using’ and how long have they been in their position);

4/ select a candidate that has moderate experience in the aforementioned software but is timid and will not challenge the interviewer, even if the role is on paper more senior than his/hers;

5/ sit back and enjoy your commission.

for further reading on a topic relevant to this one, check out my previous blogpost:

http://debunkthebim.blogspot.com/2013/01/let-me-spell-this-out-for-you-footnote.html

cartoon from here:

http://baloo-baloosnon-politicalcartoonblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/army-recruitment-cartoon.html