Mud & Microchips · August 2026

The Crew You Actually Want — a Mud & Microchips series for construction and restoration owners hiring in a Gen Z labour market. Post 1 of 4.

Your Job Ad Is Why You're Getting Bad Applicants

Before you blame the labour market or "kids these days”, look at your own ad again. The actual words you put out to describe your company. Most of the bad-applicant problem in this industry is self-inflicted, and it starts right there.

The "look professional" trap

I saw It first hand: good company, real work, a team that actually likes each other. And the first instinct was to strip all of that out. They didn't want to share compensation, and they wanted to cut a line about working hard and having a blast doing it. Why? "We need to look professional. What will our clients say?"

So they grabbed a generic template. Responsibilities, requirements, "competitive wages," done. It looked professional in the sense that it looked like every other ad, and it said nothing about who they actually are. The issue is: ”professional" and "generic" are not the same word. A template doesn't make you look serious. It makes you look interchangeable, which is the opposite of what you want when you're trying to get someone to choose you. And the clients you're worried about? They already know you. The people reading the ad who don't are the candidates, and you just told them nothing.

They're going to research you either way

Good candidates today don't just read the ad and fire off a resume. They investigate. Someone in their early twenties will look you up, find your LinkedIn, read your posts or notice you don't have any, check your reviews and socials, and stack all of it against the tone of your ad to build a full picture of your company and your team.

So the ad isn't standalone. It's one piece of a story that they're already assembling. If it's a cold template and your LinkedIn is a ghost town, the story reads: this place is a black box. The best candidates, the ones with options, don't apply to black boxes. The moment you post, you're not just screening them. They're screening you.

What this generation actually filters for

Skip the lazy "Gen Z won't work" take; it won't help you hire anyone. Here's what's true and useful. They filter for transparency, for a visible path, and for wider impact. Transparency means straight talk about the role and the work; vagueness reads as something to hide. A visible path is the big one: if they can't see where the job leads, a lot of them won't even apply. They're not looking at your job, they're looking at where it goes in two years, in five. And wider impact matters more than owners think. If your company restores homes after a flood or builds the school down the road, that's a reason to choose you, and most owners never mention it because to them it's just Tuesday.

Stop writing a task list. Draw a window.

I won't hand you a template, because a template is how you got here. The shift in thinking is this: your ad is a window into your company, the first look at what daily life there actually looks like. So do it on purpose. Show trajectory, not just tasks. Draw them a picture of where the role leads and what they'll get to build, the projects they'll work on, what's genuinely exciting about the work for someone still building their experience.

And look at your own work with fresh eyes. The things you do every week that are actually challenging and meaningful, you've stopped seeing them because to you they're just the job. Step back. You're probably doing impressive work for your clients. Let candidates see it and see themselves being part of it. One - very important - note: don't write "we're a family." It comes from a good place, but it's been used to justify unpaid overtime and blurred boundaries, and younger workers are wary of it (rightfully so). You're a team. Coworkers who respect each other and do good work together. That's the healthier frame.

The system that filters for you: the video ask

Here's a practical piece you can put in place now. Instead of a cover letter, which nobody reads and everybody fakes, ask for a short video. Candidates send a CV or up-to-date LinkedIn profile plus a brief, unscripted video, no production needed, answering three questions:

1. Tell us about yourself.
2. What do you know about our company?
3. Why should we choose you for this role?

You see how someone communicates before spending an hour on them, and the person who can't be bothered to send 90 seconds has told you something. Question two quietly does the most work, because it shows you who actually looked you up (also serves as a feedback on how your company positions itself). One caution: judge communication and effort, not polish. A great tradesperson can be camera-shy, and nerves aren't a red flag. Don't lose good crew to a smooth talker.

Last but not least: how you ask for the video is your first impression too. A version that sounds like you actually wrote it, plain, direct, warm, makes it feel like a conversation starter, not an audition, and signals a workplace that communicates clearly and treats people like adults. The strongest candidates are grading you on it.

Where this leaves you

The talent shortage is real, but a good chunk of it is a communication problem. You're competing on whether a capable young person can look at what you put out there, and picture a good life inside your company. The fix requires some honesty and a willingness to stop hiding behind a template.

This is post one of four. Next up: the interview that doesn't waste anyone's time, the onboarding that makes people stay, and building a crew that runs without you standing over it. For now, take a hard look at your last ad and read it like a 22-year-old with options would. If you didn't already know your company, would it make you want to work there?

Mud & Microchips helps construction and trades businesses implement AI that actually works — starting with an operations audit that measures where your hours go.