What a 6-month search for a solar construction manager in KSA told us
A solar EPC contractor delivering a utility-scale project in KSA came to us after six months of searching for a Construction Manager. What should have taken four to six weeks had turned into a half-year ordeal.
We went through more than 60 interviews. Not one of them was right. The CVs looked fine on paper, but almost none of the people matched what was written about them. We were losing weeks we did not have.
Source: HR Director, solar EPC contractor
Why the search had stalled
It was not a talent shortage. Qualified solar construction managers with utility-scale, regional experience exist in enough numbers to fill this role several times over. The failure sat upstream of the interviews. The CVs arriving from various agencies were built on keyword matching, with little verification of how a candidate actually operated on site. Sixty-plus interviews were not a sign of a thin market, they were a sign of a filter that let volume through and screened almost nothing out, and it meant the client's most senior people spent months evaluating candidates who never should have reached them.
What this pointed to
This is the gap TalSource is built to close. A CV can describe experience; it cannot show how someone communicates, handles a subcontractor dispute, or holds up when a project is behind schedule under pressure. Our video-first process is built to answer exactly that: a hiring manager watches a candidate work through a real scenario before a CV is ever in the mix, so the mismatch this client hit at interview 40 gets caught before interview one.
Where this leaves the search
Re-scoping the brief around what the role actually needed on this site, EPC-side construction leadership, direct management of local subcontractor crews, and the ability to operate independently without constant escalation, is the starting point, followed by video assessment from a domain expert ahead of any CV review. The aim is not a longer list of interviews. It is a shorter one, made up of people already shown to think and communicate the way the role demands.
The takeaway
- A high interview count is usually a symptom of a broken filter, not a thin market.
- A CV alone cannot show how a candidate actually operates; a structured video conversation, done early, can.
- The fix is sequencing: assess before the CV decides who gets a call, not after.
If a search has produced a lot of interviews and very little confidence, the CVs are very likely the problem, not the market.