Recruiting In 3D

Hire Quality Podcast Appearance (Devyn Mikell of Qualfi

To kick off 2024, I had a chance to sit down with Devyn Mikell, Co-Founder of Qualifi, on his fantastic podcast, Hire Quality. Devyn’s show dives into the most central topics in Talent Acquisition, while also shining a personal spotlight on his guests.

We were able to cover a wide range of topics from a human-centered approach to recruiting and sourcing, progressing beyond linear career paths, embracing career development and effective recruiting tool utilization.

I’d highly recommend checking out the Hire Quality podcast when you have time!

The Psychology of Recruiting (Shalley’s Alley)

I had the opportunity back in September 2023 to speak with the legendary, and all-around good guy, Shally Steckerl on his “Shally’s Alley” show. Catch the video below, to listen. We had the chance to discuss what’s happening in the world of Talent Acquisition as 2023 came to a close. I also had a chance to socialize my thoughts on the psychological angle of sourcing and recruiting, which is often overlooked. We dove into topics such as imposter syndrome, the pivotal role of empathy in the recruitment process, and the dangers of generalization bias.

Thanks as always to Shally for being a great host and for the opportunity.

I Get By With a Little Help From My…Hiring Manager

A great many sourcing discussions start with or involve some talk of candidate engagement. There are countless viewpoints on the best methods of outreach (how’s that Tik-Tok thing going?) and the best ways to get the talent we want to respond to our craftily worded messages.

The truth is, sometimes, despite the best research, the funniest meme, or the bullet point choices to get them to give you any response, it just won’t get it done. People who are talented have options. Lots of them. The sheer volume of messages they are getting is staggering and exhausting for them. And it’s time-consuming to parse through all the noise to get to the good ones.

Sometimes we just need some additional help. Someone with a different perspective, who can add an extra option to get the person to respond. Enter your hiring manager. (For the purposes of this post, we’ll assume you’ve got a hiring manager who is willing to play ball and help you out with some messages. If they aren’t, I’m sorry. And that’s a whole other post.) Read More

5 Simple Ways to Enhance Your Sourcing Engagement

In the day to day world of sourcing (or any line of work, really), we’re often inundated with a “to-do” list that is overwhelming and stressful. Seeing as we’re all human and prone to mistakes when we’re overloaded, we can often make mistakes in our messaging that can derail any candidate engagement before it even has a chance to blossom.

Attention to detail matters in our world, and small mistakes can have not-so-small consequences downstream. So here are some things you can start immediately implementing in your processes to ensure you stand out.

What’s in a Name?

This is the easiest one to control. We’ve found the person we want to reach out to, and have identified a plethora of platforms where they have a profile for us to gather information from. Yet, too often, names get misspelled or the wrong name is put in the message altogether. Those messages are often discarded before they are even read, and that effort is wasted. Take the extra second to make sure you’ve spelled the name right. Additionally, if someone uses a nickname on all their profiles, you should have a reasonable level of comfort using that name. For example, if a candidate uses “Steve” on all their profiles, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for one to approach that person with “Hi Steven”.

People misspell my name all the time, even when it is part of my ...

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WTF is THAT? Staying Curious While Sourcing

I’m a curious person by nature. I’m not generally satisfied with what’s on the back flap of the book – I want to know what’s inside. I’ve also lost more than one laptop to this curiosity. I, like many sourcers, was one of those kids who broke their toys as a kid to see if they could figure out how to put them back together. About half the time, the answer was “yes”, I could put them back together. The other half resulted in my mother asking things like “why is there a half melted G.I. Joe figure on the light bulb?” As you’d assume, I gave a plethora of answers to these questions, but no answer I’d give would ever suffice. This carried into my professional life, and as a sourcer, this innate curiosity has served me well.

As sourcers, we’re researchers at heart when you think about it. We can come up with a thousand ways to dissect profiles, absorb trends, siphon copious amounts of data off of public (and some not-so-public) websites and apps. But many of us seem to falter in an area that, while a little left of center of our core duties, is essential to our success. We can’t speak to technology as adeptly as we should be able to. We fail frequently to glean ample insight into the technology being used by those candidates we so covet.

The argument here for some may be that they don’t interact with candidates often, or at all. And while a firm grasp of specific technology talking points may be slightly more beneficial to those who are talking with candidates each day, those of us doing pure research can also benefit as well. By understanding the landscape of the technology we’re searching for, we are able to find similar, translatable skill sets that can meet the needs of the teams you are supporting. Read More