ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION
Taking the next step when you’ve reached a plateau — an interview with Endre Rigstad, Principal Consultant
Many experienced professionals in Engineering & Construction know the feeling. A headhunter calls with a “new and exciting role” and wants an answer before you’ve had time to understand what it really is. The work doesn’t quite align, the context is thin, the salary discussion comes later — and you’re left squinting at the outline, questioning whether it truly fits where you are today.
“It’s like being pushed toward a hole,” says Endre Rigstad. “You slowly start to see the shape of it, and then you’re trying to figure out: am I really that shape? I wasn’t just kicked after a business transaction like with regular headhunters. Worko’s low-key approach made a huge difference.”
Because we don’t push jobs. We plan careers — on your terms.
When experience peaks — and motivation fades
For Endre — a RAMS advisor and manager, with more than 20 years of experience — that recruiter pattern had become exhausting. Considering new opportunities was no longer just about competence and fit, but about timing, clarity, and motivation.
In November 2024, Worko reached out. Within a month, Endre had made a decision. By March 2025, he had started a new role, and now, nearly a year later, he is close to completing his first project.
At the time of that first conversation, Endre didn’t have a neatly defined career plan ready to share.
“My career plan was basically: what else can I do?”
He had spent years sharpening his specialist competence within RAMS — and then, because of his own needs, moved around internally. Over time, that created distance from the colleagues he used to mentor. He also felt he had reached a ceiling.
“I ended up sitting alone, which I caused myself. I’d peaked, in a way, and I wasn’t sure how to get through that glass ceiling.”
Internal mobility for variety
To change the situation, he moved into a leadership role in a different division. He did that for two years, and then the organisation changed again — so he found himself stuck between two chairs. On top of that, he was returning to a niche area he hadn’t worked in for two years.
“I thought: maybe I should go back to RAMS. But then I’d still be alone in Bergen, while all my colleagues are in Oslo. Then my references weren’t as relevant, and my sellability felt lower. But I also wanted more, I wanted to be a mentor, more responsibility. To get there, you have to find the right company.”
It added up to a quiet demotivation — and a question he couldn’t answer alone.
The pain points: rare fits, vague outreach, and too much guessing
Endre’s experience will sound familiar to many specialists:
1. The opportunities weren’t consistently relevant.
“When you work in something that isn’t mainstream, it’s niche,” he says. “So the requests come rarely — and then suddenly there are many at once, because there’s a market need. So I’ve been contacted like that when I was already happy at my current job and not really interested.”
2. Traditional headhunter outreach often felt one-directional.
“It was often very focused on one specific job,” he says. “Do you fit into it or not? And if you don’t fit, you’re dropped.”
3. The process could demand effort without going anywhere.
A role can sound interesting, but without transparency early on — including the financial reality — it can quickly become draining. “I reached a point where I had to say: I’m not interested in talking if you can’t tell me right away you can pay at least this much,” Endre says. “And if they can’t meet that, it’s over. That’s demotivating.”
This headhunter approach is not uncommon — but fails to truly find the best fit for both the candidate and the company.
Being understood, even when the role is hard to explain
Endre’s current work pace is intense in a different way, moving between analysis, reporting, coordination and continuous decision-making, describing himself as a project lead in practice.
“There isn’t really a typical day,” he laughs. “I roll out of bed and I’m instantly at work, because I have a home office. I make sure everyone in the project is aligned, steering the projects, and then it’s constant coordination, double-checking, questions coming in. You react and act, here and there.”
His official title is one of those senior labels that says more about trust than tasks.
“My official title is Principal Consultant, a title that basically means: you know what you’re doing — but no one really knows what you do.”
Endre is realistic about how difficult it is to translate his niche competence into something universally understood.
“If you don’t do this type of work yourself, you don’t really get it,” he says. “I’ve tried explaining it to many people. Still, you understood that my experience matched what the new company were looking for, and that we would be a good match.”
What mattered most when choosing a new job
For Endre, it wasn’t only about tasks. It was about environment and trust. He describes the kind of culture he looks for: one where you don’t have to perform a version of yourself to belong.
“The work environment is extremely important,” he says. “Not just the people — but whether you feel empowered to make decisions, to come with suggestions, and that people trust each other. An open workplace where you don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not.”
In that kind of culture, growth becomes realistic.
“You push yourself to get better.”
Why he landed right — the importance of timing
Endre is clear about one factor that can’t be engineered: timing.
“A year earlier, this opportunity probably wouldn’t have been interesting. Timing is the most important thing.”
But timing alone isn’t enough. Realizing that career planning can be messy — especially when you can’t fully articulate what you want yet — Endre felt the way the process was handled mattered too.
“You were good at being open and clear, and the way the conversations were held had a big impact. Your job is to understand what I want — and that’s not easy when I myself didn’t know what I wanted.”
He smiles and continues:
“It was good work. Probably difficult. But in the end, I landed where I should. And I’m totally okay with it.”
The biggest value of Worko careers
For Endre, the value of career planning together with us wasn’t only the job itself.
“It’s the feeling, and the follow-up,” he says. “The small details. ‘How is it going? Do you like it at the new job?’ Being taken care of, not just ‘great, we placed you, bye’. That’s probably the best part, that it doesn’t feel like: done, sold, next. It was personal, not just a business transaction. You feel taken care of, and it was so chill to talk.”
When asked if he would recommend Worko to others, the answer is clear yes — finding us valuable for people across the board, but especially for specialists in Engineering & Construction. Endre describes Worko as a filter, protecting both sides.
“If you are particularly specialised,” he explains, “it’s useful to have Worko as the middle link, to make sure there’s real symbiosis between the person looking and the person who needs the resource.”
“Worko was like a dating expert,” he says with a laugh. “It’s not just about getting dates on the calendar, but finding an actual match. I shouldn’t just get a job, and the employer shouldn’t just get someone who fills a pair of shoes. The best is when both want the same thing.”
Curious about your next step — even if you can’t describe it perfectly yet?
You don’t need a polished career plan to start. Like in the case with Endre, we can help you find your path through personal discussions at a time that works for you. Sometimes you only need an honest conversation — and someone who helps you find the shape that actually fits.
Join our network and become part of our platform here.
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