Finding and hiring good tradies

Most trade job ads on Seek carry the same headline. "Carpenter." "Plumber." When every ad looks identical the only visible difference is the hourly rate, so the ad competes on money alone and attracts people who are shopping on money alone.

The fix starts before the ad is written: getting specific about who you are actually looking for, what the role genuinely requires, and what keeps that person awake at night, so the ad can speak to them instead of describing a trade. That clarity is also what lets you approach good candidates directly rather than waiting for applications.

Interviewing is where the second set of mistakes lives. Hypothetical questions get textbook answers, because a candidate asked what they would do simply says the right thing. Asking what they have done forces them into real experience, and the gap between the two answers is usually the interview. The rest of these lessons cover the traps that cost the most: hiring in desperation because the need was spotted too late, skipping reference checks, writing a job description vague enough that nobody is accountable to it, and taking on the brilliant jerk whose output is excellent and who costs you every apprentice who works under them.