Tag: skills

What Does a Senior/Principal CAD Technician Do?

A Senior/Principal CAD Technician is responsible for producing precise technical drawings and digital models for engineering and construction projects. They collaborate with engineers, architects, and designers to develop accurate 2D and 3D designs that meet project specifications and industry regulations. These professionals play a key role in infrastructure, transportation, and construction sectors, ensuring that design documentation supports efficient project execution. To stand out in your job search, check out our guide on Creating a CV That Gets Noticed.

What Are the Key Responsibilities of a Senior/Principal CAD Technician?

Senior/Principal CAD Technicians create and refine CAD drawings, ensuring that all technical designs align with project requirements and industry standards. They oversee design quality, manage drawing revisions, and maintain detailed records of project documentation. Additionally, they support project teams by resolving design challenges, optimising workflows, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations and engineering best practices – read our article on 5 Ways to Stay in the Loop with Industry Trends to stay ahead in the field.

What Skills and Qualifications Does a Senior/Principal CAD Technician Need?

To succeed in this role, proficiency in CAD software such as AutoCAD, Revit, or MicroStation is essential. A strong understanding of engineering principles, construction methods, and design regulations is also required. Senior CAD Technicians should have excellent problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, and experience in managing multiple projects. Leadership skills are beneficial, as they often mentor junior technicians and contribute to team development.

Why Choose Advance TRS for CAD Technician Jobs?

At Advance TRS, we specialise in recruiting top talent for engineering, infrastructure, and construction projects. Our industry expertise and network of employers provide access to exciting Senior/Principal CAD Technician opportunities across various sectors. Whether you’re looking for career progression or a new challenge, browse our latest job openings today.

Explore Senior/Principal CAD Technician Opportunities

Ready to take the next step in your career as a Senior/Principal CAD Technician? Browse our latest job openings and discover how Advance TRS can help you secure your ideal role. View our latest CAD Technician jobs here.

Looking to enhance your networking skills? Read our article on Networking Tips for Engineers: How to Network and Get Noticed.

If you’re considering a move from sales to recruitment, you’re already equipped with valuable skills that can help you succeed. Recruitment shares many similarities with sales, from building relationships to achieving targets. Here are five transferable skills that will give you a head start in the recruitment industry.

1. Communication and Relationship Building

In sales, you’ve learned to:

  • Build trust with clients through clear and persuasive communication.
  • Understand client needs and tailor your approach accordingly.
  • Maintain relationships over time to encourage repeat business.

In recruitment, these skills help you connect with candidates and clients, ensuring you match the right people to the right opportunities.

2. Negotiation

Successful sales professionals know how to negotiate deals that work for everyone involved. This skill directly applies to recruitment, where you’ll:

  • Negotiate salaries, benefits, and contracts between candidates and employers.
  • Balance the expectations of both parties to create win-win outcomes.

Your ability to navigate these conversations can make placements smoother and more successful.

3. Target-Driven Mindset

Sales roles often involve meeting quotas and achieving KPIs. In recruitment, you’ll need the same focus on targets, including:

  • Filling roles within specific timeframes.
  • Achieving placement or revenue goals.
  • Building and maintaining a healthy pipeline of candidates and clients.

A competitive mindset and goal-oriented approach are key in both industries.

4. Problem-Solving

In sales, overcoming objections and finding solutions for clients are everyday tasks. Recruitment similarly requires:

  • Resolving mismatches between candidate skills and job requirements.
  • Addressing client concerns about candidates.
  • Adapting quickly to changing priorities or urgent roles.

Your problem-solving skills ensure you can tackle challenges effectively.

5. Time Management

Managing leads, calls, and meetings efficiently is a cornerstone of sales success. In recruitment, you’ll juggle:

  • Sourcing candidates for multiple roles.
  • Scheduling interviews and follow-ups.
  • Prioritising urgent vacancies alongside long-term client relationships.

Effective time management allows you to stay productive and meet deadlines.

Final Thoughts

Sales professionals often transition smoothly into recruitment because of these transferable skills. If you’re ready for a career that combines relationship-building, problem-solving, and achieving results, recruitment could be the perfect fit.

Interested in making the switch? Explore opportunities with Advance TRS today.

The infrastructure sector is booming, with numerous projects underway and more on the horizon. However, this rapid growth is being held back by a significant challenge—skills shortages. With the demand for skilled professionals in fields like rail, construction, and energy outpacing supply, many businesses are struggling to find the right talent to complete their projects on time and within budget.

At Advance TRS, we recognise this challenge and have developed strategies to help our clients navigate the talent gap in today’s tight market.

The Skills Shortage Challenge

The infrastructure industry is experiencing an acute shortage of qualified professionals across various disciplines. The shortage is especially pronounced in specialised areas like civil engineering, project management, signalling and telecommunications, and construction management. With many workers in the sector nearing retirement and few new professionals entering, businesses face heightened competition for the available talent, which often leads to project delays.

Organisations need a recruitment partner who understands the industry’s complexities and can access a wide pool of skilled candidates. That’s where we come in.

Navigating Skills Shortages in the Built Environment

How Advance TRS Tackles the Skills Shortage

At Advance TRS, our industry expertise and extensive network enable us to effectively address the skills gap. Here’s how we help clients find the right talent:

Industry Expertise and Network

Our team consists of professionals with a deep understanding of the built environment and infrastructure sectors. This allows us to quickly identify candidates with the right skills and experience. We don’t just focus on qualifications—we consider cultural fit, ensuring the talent we source aligns with our clients’ values and team dynamics.

Proactive Talent Sourcing

In a competitive market, sourcing talent often requires a proactive approach. We engage with candidates who may not be actively job hunting but are open to discussing future opportunities. For example, when a rail sector client needed a signalling design engineer, we tapped into our specialised network and found an experienced candidate who had worked on large infrastructure projects. This candidate had the technical expertise and experience to integrate quickly into the team.

Building a Sustainable Talent Pipeline

At Advance TRS, we don’t just fill current vacancies; we focus on building long-term talent pipelines. We collaborate with educational institutions and industry bodies to promote careers in infrastructure, helping attract new professionals to the sector. Through partnerships with universities and training programmes, we’re helping to nurture the next generation of skilled workers.

Our ongoing engagement with candidates ensures that we have access to a steady stream of potential talent, keeping them informed about industry developments and future opportunities.

Supporting Clients in a Competitive Market

As skills shortages continue to challenge the infrastructure sector, Advance TRS is committed to helping clients find the right talent to meet their needs. By combining our expertise, proactive approach, and long-term talent strategies, we’re ensuring that our clients can overcome these challenges and deliver their projects successfully.

How to Remain Competitive in the Evolving Built Environment Job Market

Partner with us to navigate today’s talent acquisition challenges and secure the skilled professionals you need to succeed. Explore our services, here.

Recruitment and sales share a fundamental principle: success depends on effective communication. If you have a background in sales, the skills you’ve developed—like active listening, persuasion, and managing relationships—provide a strong foundation for a career in recruitment. Here’s how these skills translate seamlessly to the recruitment world.

Could you transition from sales into recruitment?

Active Listening

In sales, listening to your client’s needs is essential for closing deals. Recruitment works the same way. Understanding what a client wants in a candidate—or what a candidate seeks in a role—requires you to actively listen, not just hear. Asking the right follow-up questions and showing genuine interest builds trust and helps you uncover insights that lead to better matches.

Persuasion

Sales experience equips you with the art of persuasion, a key skill in recruitment. Whether you’re encouraging a client to consider a candidate outside the original brief or helping a candidate see the benefits of a particular role, your ability to present compelling arguments makes all the difference. Effective persuasion isn’t about being pushy; it’s about understanding needs and framing solutions in a way that resonates.

Building Relationships

Strong relationships are central to both sales and recruitment. In sales, you work to build trust with clients to secure repeat business. In recruitment, the relationships you develop with candidates and clients create long-term partnerships. Your sales background likely taught you how to nurture these connections, handle objections, and maintain a professional rapport—skills that are just as important when managing recruitment pipelines.

Tailoring Your Communication

Salespeople excel at adapting their pitch to suit different audiences, and this adaptability is crucial in recruitment. You might need to explain technical roles to candidates with limited industry knowledge or present a candidate’s strengths to a sceptical client. Tailored communication ensures your message lands effectively, no matter who you’re speaking to.

Handling Rejections

Both sales and recruitment come with their fair share of rejections. Your experience in sales likely taught you to handle “no” professionally and pivot to the next opportunity. In recruitment, this resilience helps you stay motivated when placements don’t work out and keeps you focused on finding the right solution.

Why Communication Matters in Recruitment

Recruitment is about connecting the right people to the right opportunities, and communication is the glue that holds everything together. Sales experience gives you the tools to engage effectively with people, adapt to their needs, and build trust. These skills help you not just succeed in recruitment but thrive.

Could You Turn a Job in Sales into a Career in Recruitment? – Advance TRS

If you’re considering a career in recruitment, your sales background may already have set you up for success. Ready to take the leap? Get in touch to learn more about recruitment opportunities with us, here.

Recruitment is often seen as a role focused on matching candidates to jobs, but it’s far more dynamic than that. A career in recruitment equips you with a diverse range of skills that you might not anticipate when starting out. These abilities can shape you into a well-rounded professional, opening doors to other industries and leadership roles. Here are five unexpected skills you’ll gain as a recruiter:

1. Negotiation

Recruitment is all about balancing the needs of candidates and clients. You’ll regularly negotiate salaries, benefits, and start dates, finding solutions that work for everyone involved. These negotiations often go beyond numbers, requiring you to manage expectations and align interests delicately. Over time, you’ll develop a confident and persuasive approach to handling these conversations, a skill that’s invaluable in business, sales, and leadership roles.

2. Emotional Intelligence

Recruitment puts you in the middle of people’s career journeys, often during moments of change or uncertainty. You’ll need to understand motivations, read body language, and respond empathetically to concerns. Emotional intelligence becomes second nature, allowing you to build trust and maintain strong relationships with both candidates and clients. This skill isn’t just about connecting with others—it’s about managing your own emotions during high-pressure situations, which is essential for professional growth.

3. Time Management

Recruiters juggle a lot—multiple vacancies, competing client deadlines, and candidate communications. You’ll quickly learn how to prioritise tasks, work efficiently, and manage your time effectively. With so many moving parts, recruitment sharpens your ability to keep things running smoothly without missing key details. This level of organisation and adaptability is highly transferable to project management, operations, and other demanding roles.

4. Industry Expertise

When you recruit for a specific sector, you gain a deep understanding of that field. You’ll learn about industry trends, technical jargon, and what top talent looks like for various roles. Over time, this knowledge makes you a trusted advisor to clients and candidates alike. Whether it’s construction, telecoms, or finance, this expertise sets you apart as someone who doesn’t just fill jobs but truly understands the market.

5. Resilience

Recruitment is a high-pressure field with plenty of highs and lows. Candidates might drop out at the last minute, or clients could change their requirements unexpectedly. These challenges teach you to bounce back quickly, stay positive, and focus on the next opportunity. Resilience is an underrated skill, but it’s crucial for thriving in any fast-paced or competitive environment.

Why Recruitment is More Than Just Filling Jobs – Advance TRS

Why These Skills Matter

The skills you develop in recruitment aren’t limited to the job itself. They can enhance your performance in other industries, strengthen your ability to lead, and make you more effective in building meaningful professional relationships. Recruitment doesn’t just grow your career—it equips you with tools that stay with you for life.

Why No Two Days in Recruitment Are the Same – Advance TRS

Ready to explore what recruitment could do for you? Take a look at our work for us page, here.

Could you transition from sales into recruitment?

Staying on top of industry trends is essential, especially in fast-paced fields like construction, rail, energy, and environmental engineering. Knowing what’s coming next can give you a competitive edge, keep your skills relevant, and help you adapt to new opportunities. Here are five practical ways to keep up to date with the latest developments in your sector. 

1. Engage with Professional Networks and Organisations 

Networking is not just for job-hunting; it’s a powerful way to stay informed. Joining professional organisations and attending industry events can provide direct access to the latest trends and developments. Organisations like the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) frequently share insights, host webinars, and hold events where experts discuss emerging practices. Engaging with these networks keeps you connected and informed. 

Leveraging Online Platforms for Digital Networking – Advance TRS

2. Keep Up with Industry News and Publications 

Reading industry publications and subscribing to newsletters is one of the simplest ways to stay informed. Whether it’s Construction News, Rail Technology Magazine, or The Engineer, many publications focus on the latest news and trends in specific sectors. Many also offer newsletters, which bring curated updates directly to your inbox, making it easy to stay in the know, even if you have a busy schedule – us included, you can sign up, here!

3. Leverage Online Learning and Certifications 

New skills and certifications can set you apart in a competitive field, and online platforms make it easier than ever to stay updated. Websites like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and Udemy offer courses on everything from project management to sustainable building practices. Not only do these courses keep your skills sharp, but they also allow you to explore new areas that might be gaining traction and keep up to date with any industry regulations. 

4. Follow Industry Leaders and Influencers on Social Media 

Social media platforms – particularly LinkedIn – are excellent for real-time updates on industry trends. Following influential figures and leading companies can give you insights into emerging developments and best practices. Additionally, LinkedIn groups and discussions around hashtags like #RailIndustry allow you to participate in conversations with other professionals and stay aware of current trends without searching for individual news articles. 

5. Listen to Podcasts and Attend Webinars 

Podcasts and webinars provide a flexible way to stay informed and learn from experts, especially if you’re short on time. Industry podcasts often cover the latest topics and allow you to hear directly from thought leaders. Webinars, often hosted by professional organisations or leading companies, offer insights into specific areas of interest and give you a chance to ask questions in real time. 

Staying Ahead 

Staying in the loop with industry trends is a proactive effort that can significantly impact your career. Whether it’s through networking, online learning, or keeping up with industry news, making these activities part of your routine will keep your skills relevant and your knowledge current. 

Exploring new roles in the industry? Check out our available positions, here. 

The COVID pandemic and events of 2020 have required everyone to adapt and change throughout the workplace in just about every industry you can imagine. But change does not have to be a negative, and can be a catalyst creating opportunities to find improvements and drive forward positive transformation. 

Here are some of the key skills to help people succeed in this new time of uncertainty. 

1. Adapting to change

An ability to accept and adapt to change is essential, change has always been inevitable but more than ever before, those who can think quickly and embrace the new normal (at every phase) are those who succeed. Employers are increasingly looking for people who can move out of their comfort zone and see change as an opportunity for growth and innovation.

Through the pandemic, you’ve likely faced and overcome new challenges that you didn’t foresee. So, although this may have felt difficult and uncomfortable at times, you will have been building up your resilience, adaptability and ability to deal with change in the process.

You should take time to acknowledge how your mindset may have shifted in recent weeks and months. If you’ve noticed that you’ve managed to adapt to the changes quickly, it’s likely that you will have done so using a growth mindset, which is a great attribute to highlight in interviews with employers. 

2. Creative problem solving

With a rapidly changing world of work comes the demand for people who are quick to adapt and solve problems efficiently and effectively. As leaders involve their teams in problem-solving discussions, they are looking for professionals who can come up with creative ideas and solutions to ensure deadlines are met and results achieved, despite limited or perhaps strained resources.

Chartered occupational psychologist Dr Maggi Evans explains some ways to help yourself to get your creative problem solving juices flowing;

  • Giving yourself some space; many people come up with their best ideas when they’re doing something unrelated, such as walking their dog
  • Be curious and playful; take fresh perspectives on a problem by asking yourself questions like, ‘What would my superhero do?’, ‘What if I had more time or limitless resources’, or ‘What if I had to find a solution today?’
  • Create a positive environment; if you’re working with a team on a challenging project, spend some time chatting or doing something positive first

3. Enthusiasm

People from all backgrounds and seniority levels will likely be feeling the pressure at the moment, from tough decision making to lingering uncertainty, by embracing the best and being enthusiastic to adapt, compromise, support and even upskill, you can set yourself apart. Your positivity and enthusiasm can be contagious and may just help set the tone for your team or be the positive kickstart someone needs to their day. 

Furthermore, we now live in a world where everything can change almost overnight, and with this change comes demand for different skills. As a result, upskilling should have moved up your priority list. By devoting time now to upskilling and learning, you will be demonstrating to future potential employers your willingness to learn through how you used this time to better yourself and grow your knowledge base.

Regardless of the industry, a willingness to learn and a desire to stay on top of current trends and changes relevant to your profession is valued by employers both large and small. Showing that you are willing to learn is key to learning about and understanding any new developments from a technical point of view, ultimately helping your organisation to progress. 

4. Effective communication

These above-mentioned skills are all well and good but get lost if you’re not able to communicate and demonstrate them successfully to others, such as a potential employer in a job interview.

For example, stating that you are adaptable to change isn’t enough; you need to use your strong communication skills to illustrate just how adaptable you are, perhaps by providing examples. After all, employers favour jobseekers who possess exceptional communication skills and are comfortable speaking with people at all levels of an organisation in a professional manner.

It’s worth acknowledging, too, that communication has now changed substantially and as we transition to a hybrid working world – with team members split between home-working and office-working – strong interpersonal and communication skills are only going to become more important as we learn and adapt to building and maintaining relationships, collaborating and sustaining productivity virtually rather than in person.

Video calls, virtual conferences and online presentations also require new levels of self-confidence you might not currently possess, but will be able to develop in time.

Are you looking to take the next step in your career?

Advance TRS are growing quickly and we are always looking for ambitious, driven people to join the team. If you are interested to find out more about our current opportunities, visit our website or for a discrete conversation, contact Paul Metcalfe, Advance TRS CEO on 07793 554 413 or email pme@advance-trs.com.