#145 How Private Equity Is Reshaping the Energy Sector's Talent Landscape
How private equity is
reshaping energy's talent landscape.
For the first time on the show, Jim sits down with two of his own colleagues — Nenni & Associates recruiters Ryan McGushin and Trevor Morrison — for a mid-year state of the energy industry: how private-equity ownership is rewiring who gets hired, what an A-player actually sounds like, and where deals (and interviews) go to die.
#145How Private Equity Is Reshaping the Energy Sector's Talent Landscape
Private-equity capital now sits behind roughly three-quarters of Nenni & Associates' clients — the single biggest force on hiring.
Ryan (~14) and Trevor (~13) have spent their whole careers building books of business inside the same firm.
The performance-contracting legislation is ~35 years old — and its founders are now exiting, opening the door for PE.
Say you'll follow up by Friday, then do it. A say-to-do ratio of one is the quiet tell of top talent.
Two recruiters, one firm — and a Northern Illinois start.
Ryan and Trevor came up the same way: NIU, then straight into the recruiting grind at Nenni & Associates. Click any stop to see how two interns making cold calls became the people clients call when the market shifts.
NIU Where it started: Northern Illinois University +
2012 Ryan joins Nenni & Associates — as a "lowly intern" +
~2012 Trevor joins, starting on energy-engineering searches +
The Core Energy services & the built environment +
Books Diverge Ryan into specialty & solar; Trevor into ESPC & design-build +
Today Leading teams in a private-equity-reshaped market +
We're building the planeJim Schafer · on life inside a private-equity-backed company
as we're flying it.
Why ~75% of the client list is now private-equity backed
Ryan and Trevor break down the single biggest shift in the energy-services market: private capital buying up profitable regional players, professionalizing historically blue-collar businesses, and scaling them from two or three states onto national platforms — with a fast hiring wave right behind it.
Four forces reshaping the hire.
The conversation kept circling the same four pressures on the energy-talent market. Tap each one to see what's driving it — and where it makes hiring harder.
Private equity now sits behind ~75% of the client base.
As the founders who built the performance-contracting industry retire, private-equity firms are buying profitable regional operators and scaling them. Roughly three-quarters of Nenni's client list now has investment capital behind it — growth capital that funds bolt-on acquisitions and new geographies.
PE brings a level of professionalism and sophistication to historically blue-collar businesses — and it spawns hiring fast: sales, operational support, and sales leaders in markets that didn't exist for the company a year earlier.
What PE accelerates
- Professional systems, process & reporting
- Capital to enter new geographies fast
- Regional operators scaled to national platforms
- Quick, repeatable hiring across functions
Where it gets hard
- Strategy can change within a week
- Founders demoted after they sell
- Office culture shifts under new ownership
- Overlapping roles — and bruised egos
ESPC turned 35 — and spun off a dozen offspring.
Energy savings performance contracting is now a mature, ~35-year-old model. In states with less favorable legislation, it's morphing into design-build, DBOOM, and CPACE structures — so much so that Nenni now uses "energy savings projects" as the umbrella term.
The newest frontier: DBOOM central plants for hyperscale data centers. A data center that can't generate its own power hires an ESCO to build, own, operate, and maintain it — because that's not Amazon's job, and an ESCO does it more efficiently.
Where the model is heading
- Design-build & DBOOM structures
- CPACE for commercial & industrial end users
- Mission-critical & hyperscale data centers
- Energy-as-a-service experiments
Why it's harder to sell
- K-12 buyers already pitched traditional ESPC
- Creative vehicles demand senior reps
- No longer an entry-level sale
- The talent gap widens with every new model
The bar moved: reps have to be better, not just available.
As contracting vehicles multiply, selling got harder. Buyers have already heard the lighting-and-HVAC pitch; new markets demand reps who are equipped, professional, and able to adjust to a strategy that may change within the week.
Across roles — sales, operations, engineering — clients screen for the same intangibles: coachability, adaptability, and the willingness to embrace a "build the plane while flying it" environment instead of waiting for it to be figured out.
What clients screen for
- Humble, hungry, and smart
- Coachable and adaptable to change
- Self-aware — reads a room, listens more than talks
- A strong, consistent track record
What no longer clears the bar
- Rigid corporate-America playbooks
- Entry-level reps for senior sales motions
- "30-year veteran, one motion" with no flex
- Discomfort with an ever-changing environment
In-office, hybrid, or remote — and what it really costs.
Almost every client wants some in-office presence; most candidates expect flexibility. Ryan's LinkedIn poll landed on hybrid first, fully remote second, and fully in-office last. The consensus: flexibility wins, but full-remote shortchanges early-career talent.
Compensation hides inside the model. A $100k in-office base can be worth less than a $100k remote base once tolls, gas, and vehicle depreciation come out — so in-office roles may need a premium just to stay competitive against a rival down the road.
What tends to work
- Hybrid for most mid-career roles
- In-office frequency for early-career talent
- Flexibility that grows with tenure
- Pay that reflects the true cost of a commute
Where employers lose talent
- Full-remote for brand-new hires who need to learn
- Ignoring what direct competitors offer
- No premium for a required in-office seat
- A smaller, lower-quality pool by self-selection
It boils down to that leader's ego —Trevor Morrison · on integration after the sale
checking it at the door, and knowing when to step aside.
Integration, demotions, and checking the ego at the door
What happens after a founder sells? Trevor and Ryan on the hardest part of any deal — integration — where a 25-year owner-CEO may become a local sales lead, where egos and culture collide, and where the leaders who thrive are the ones who understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and when to step aside.
Six questions worth expanding.
The threads Jim, Ryan, and Trevor went deepest on — pulled from across the conversation. Click any question to expand.
01Why is private equity so drawn to energy & infrastructure? +
Two reasons stack up. First, the work: PE likes consistent, residual revenue and robust pipelines, and energy-services companies that professionalize well are attractive targets in a sea of "Bob's electrical contractor" operators that have done the same thing for decades.
Second, the timing. The performance-contracting model is ~35 years old, so its founders are reaching succession — selling businesses, transitioning out. PE buys a profitable regional player, keeps the core team, adds process, and scales it coast to coast.
We're seeing two- and three-state regional design-build contractors now going national.
02What does "building the plane while flying it" demand of a hire? +
Comfort with chaos. In a PE-backed shop, strategy can shift in a week, and people need to be on their toes — not grumpy because sales leadership changed the plan. The 30-year veteran who has done one motion for decades can find that overwhelming.
It cuts both ways for employers, too. One of the worst things a hiring manager can do is present the company as if it's all figured out, then drop a new hire into the real, slightly chaotic version. Far better to say it plainly — "tell me about a time you embraced chaos."
03What does an A-caliber candidate actually sound like? +
Clarity, first. They know exactly why they're taking the call, and they articulate what they're running toward rather than what they're running away from. They ask better questions than they answer, and they're good storytellers people like being around.
Underneath that: humble, hungry, and smart, plus a consistent track record and "motivational congruency" — the reason they're on the phone holds up. Trevor's favorite tell is a say-to-do ratio of one: they say they'll follow up by Friday, and they do.
You don't have to be sick to get better.
04In-office, hybrid, or remote — what actually works? +
Hybrid leads the vote, but the nuance matters. Both guys lean the same way: if you're early in your career, be in an office frequently — four or five days — to learn, absorb, and build relationships. Full-remote at that stage sells yourself short.
Then there's the money. Two $100k bases aren't equal once you factor an internet stipend on one side versus tolls, gas, and vehicle depreciation on the other. Engineers, especially, will run the spreadsheet — so an in-office seat may need a premium.
05What red flags make a recruiter walk away? +
Discrepancies are the big one — sales figures, clientele, or non-compete details that don't line up across multiple conversations. And a candidate whose first and only question is "what does it pay?" reads as transactional. Pay matters, but for an A-player it's necessary, not sufficient.
On the search side: being the third recruiting firm brought to the same dance is usually a "no, thank you." It confuses the candidate pool and muddies the brand. So is a lack of congruency between hiring authorities — if a CEO and a CRO can't agree on five non-negotiables, the messaging breaks.
A career transition shouldn't be a transaction.
06Why do interviews really go sideways? +
Number one: talking too much. It's usually bred from insecurity, which is bred from a lack of preparation — a domino effect that ends with a candidate telling stories that don't answer the question. The fix is sincere research and genuine questions, which gets an interview to "neutral at worst."
Then the unforced errors: camera off, joining late, "winging it" because they're a 20-year pro. And the fatal one — no clear answer to "why are you looking?" Failing to test the real non-negotiables (travel, in-office) up front wastes everyone's time when the truth comes out.
Why the 30-year veteran isn't always the safe hire
In a private-equity-backed world where strategy can change within a week, coachability and adaptability beat a static résumé. Ryan and Trevor explain why selling these new contracting vehicles is no longer an entry-level job — and what "humble, hungry, smart" really screens for.
Four questions, two recruiters.
Jim closed with a rapid-fire round — same four questions to both guests. Tap any card to see how Ryan and Trevor each answered.
Concepts worth knowing before you listen.
The episode moves fast through some industry shorthand. If any of these terms are new, tap for a 90-second primer — no prior knowledge assumed.
Ryan McGushin
Ryan is a recruiter and team lead at Nenni & Associates. Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, he graduated from Northern Illinois University — where he also met his wife — before Jim hired him at the firm in 2012.
He came up the hard way: a "lowly intern" making cold calls who transitioned upward over close to 14 years into leading a small team and developing his own book of business. That book runs through the common ground of energy services and into specialty contractors — with a lot of work in the lighting and solar world.
Energy services & specialty contractors · lighting and solar · team lead · Nenni & Associates.
Trevor Morrison
Trevor is a recruiter at Nenni & Associates, going on 13–14 years with the firm. Raised in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, he went to Northern Illinois University — where he met Jim and two other managing partners still at the firm today.
He started early on energy-engineering searches and built his book around energy savings performance contracting providers, design-build contractors, and specialists in alternative procurement methods. Off the clock: married, four kids, a couple of pups — one of which is the team office dog twice a week.
ESPC providers, design-build contractors & alternative procurement · energy engineering, PM & sales searches · Nenni & Associates.
Private equity in the built environment.
Private-equity firms raise capital and buy controlling stakes in profitable companies, aiming to grow earnings (EBITDA) and sell at a higher multiple a few years later. In energy services, they target regional ESCOs and specialty or infrastructure contractors with steady, recurring work.
The playbook: buy a profitable regional operator, keep its core team, add professional systems and process, then bolt on acquisitions and expand into new geographies — turning a two- or three-state contractor into a national platform.
Roughly 75% of Nenni & Associates' client list is now private-equity owned — the single biggest force reshaping who they hire, and how fast.
ESPC — energy savings performance contracting.
An ESPC lets a building owner pay for upgrades out of the energy savings those upgrades generate. An ESCO (energy-services company) audits the facility, designs and installs the retrofit, and guarantees a measurable level of savings that funds the project over 15–20 years.
Born from state legislation about 35 years ago, the model is now mature — and branching into design-build, DBOOM, and CPACE variants. Nenni uses "energy savings projects" as the umbrella term for the whole growing family.
A 35-year-old model means its founders are retiring and selling — exactly the succession moment private equity is built to capitalize on.
DBOOM — design-build-own-operate-maintain.
In a DBOOM deal, a single provider designs, builds, owns, operates, and maintains a piece of infrastructure — and the end user simply pays for the output. It shifts the asset and the operating burden off the customer's books.
Trevor's example: hyperscale data centers that can't provide their own power. Rather than run a central plant themselves, they hire an ESCO to build, own, operate, and maintain it — because that's not Amazon's job, and an ESCO does it far more efficiently.
DBOOM in the mission-critical and data-center space is one of the newest frontiers pulling ESCOs well beyond their traditional core business.
The ideal team player: humble, hungry, smart.
From Patrick Lencioni's book The Ideal Team Player, the framework says the best hires share three virtues: humble (low ego, shares credit), hungry (self-motivated, does more), and smart — not IQ, but people-smart: self-aware, reads a room, and listens more than they talk.
Ryan and Trevor hear it everywhere now. It's the through-line under "A-player," under coachability, and under why a polished resume with the wrong temperament still misses in a fast-moving, private-equity-backed shop.
"Smart" isn't ACT scores or an engineering degree — it's self-awareness and the ability to have an intelligent, two-way conversation.
