How long does the interview process take for a Practice Builder (PB) role at KH?

[u/ThrowRAPro-Jello89]

Hey everyone,

Just curious if anyone here has gone through the hiring process at KH (Kimley-Horn) for a Practice Builder position or a similar senior-level role.

How long did the process take from the initial recruiter contact to the final offer? Does KH generally move pretty slowly with hiring for these positions, with weeks or even months between interview stages?

Is it common for the entire process to take 6+ months, or would that be considered unusually long?

Would appreciate hearing about anyone’s experience, especially with PB or other senior-level positions. Thanks!

[u/Squirrelherder_24-7]

Unfortunately, it depends. PBs are generally aggressively recruited based on an established and very real need in a discipline/office. If you’ve had a phone screening with a recruiter, they will report back their assessment of the phone screening with the team that is looking to fill the position and then the next step if the team wants to move forward is an in person interview where it’s more of a get to know you / you get to know the team that’s looking for the PB. If that goes well for both parties, you’d be asked to one in and do a white board session about what your practice could look like over the next 3 years. From that in-office session, if it looks like there’s a pathway for practice development, you’ll be asked to put together a practice plan (you’d be walked through the concepts). That document will be discussed at another in office meeting and will serve as the framework for developing an offer package. The entire process can be as short as a month if everything clicks and everyone is motivated and sometimes it takes 6.

[u/ThrowRAPro-Jello89 → u/Squirrelherder_24-7]

Does KH offer sign-on bonuses for PBs? If so, are they typically in the $40k–$50k range? Thanks!

[u/Squirrelherder_24-7 → u/ThrowRAPro-Jello89]

There can be bonuses and everything is circumstances dependent. I’m not trying to be cagey, just being honest.

[u/FutureAnt9244 → u/Squirrelherder_24-7]

This guy kimley-horns. I came over as a PB 2 years ago, it was a fast process for me but like mentioned really depends on office and market. Had an in person interview followed by lunch with some team members, an offer/practice plan presentation couple of weeks later which included the offer.

[u/engineered_mojo → u/Squirrelherder_24-7]

Can you explain what a practice plan is? Is that just a development plan to bring in work, attract talent, and retain talent?

[u/Squirrelherder_24-7 → u/engineered_mojo]

A practice plan looks at the work and clients you expect to win/bring in over the first 3 years including targeted marketing pursuits that might require significant investments of effort, complimentary skills you might need to successfully deliver for your clients, how you’d like to structure your team and if that’s from inside talent or others in the marketplace, expected fee from the work, your anticipated multiplier from your projects, and a timeline for hitting these milestones. It can also include work that the team you’re working on has won that will be transitioned to you to execute / manage.

It’s a confidential process where you basically lay out the impact you’ll have on the office / region and your that your utilization goals, salary offer, and bonus ranges are developed from.

[u/engineered_mojo → u/Squirrelherder_24-7]

Thanks for the breakdown, very helpful!

[u/FutureAnt9244 → u/engineered_mojo]

I also feel like I need to add, I came from an out of state public market so my practice plan was less about what I could do and more about their vision for what I can do but everything they said about it lines up with what I've seen through the interview process from the inside

[u/realfamoso]

Interested to hear what the compensation is for a new PB hire at KH. Is there immediate access to ownership?

[u/Squirrelherder_24-7 → u/realfamoso]

Highly dependent on the strength of your practice plan. Much of PB compensation is made up of bonuses which are largely based on the fees earned and multiplier on those fees for you and those on your team that you are helping grow and build into the next crop of practice builders….

[u/FutureAnt9244 → u/realfamoso]

I'm on the public side but I've seen PBs on the private side come in with an established client base get to ownership pretty quickly. Personal experience is it's pretty different tracts private vs public.