Recruiting Trailblazers

Send a text

Episode 100! Marcus Edwardes speaks with Simon Mullins, Chief Facilitator at Executive Search Information Exchange (ESIX), the world’s leading independent information source for corporate executive recruiting leaders.

Simon has managed executive search from the outside at Korn/Ferry, and from the inside at Microsoft, where he led one of the most advanced internal executive recruiting functions as well as its largest experienced Staffing Group.

He recently published a book on strategy, tactics, and tools for hiring organizations called Leadership Recruiting with co-author David Lord.

Listen in as David shares his best practices for establishing a foolproof internal recruiting function and streamlining your process in order to get your team on the same page.

He gives his take on minimizing subjectivity during the interview process and how best to go about painting the most vivid picture of your candidate by going beyond the actual interview—focusing the conversation on reference checks in particular.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:12] The case for managing search activity

●      [09:21] How the internal recruiting landscape looks today

●      [12:32] What to expect as a member of ESIX

●      [19:16] Culture differences between internal and external recruiting

●      [24:05] What to avoid when building an internal function

●      [27:40] Standardizing your internal recruiting function

●      [30:24] Reducing subjectivity during the interview process

●      [35:14] Beyond the interview

●      [37:14] Considerations regarding reference checks

●      [47:25] About the recruiter’s bizarre love triangle

●      [50:09] How a recruiter can position themselves as a trusted advisor

Key quotes:

●      “Across the board, recruiting functions are now being built everywhere in the world.”

●      “A lot of senior leaders are now looking at talent as a key, critical business challenge. [...] Without the lifeblood, the organization cannot move forward.”

●      “It’s not just about recruiting quickly. It’s about thinking about the bigger and broader picture. It’s about having all sorts of different leadership perspectives when we’re having these conversations.”



opzg8UWcZ4XrtSja4M7k

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Nate Guggia, Co-Founder of Before You Apply, a content platform and creative studio that specializes in helping companies give candidates an insider’s look into their teams and culture.

Recruiters who utilize the platform are experiencing up to 3X in responses from outreach to prospective candidates.

Before You Apply has special expertise in creating content for highly technical audiences in extremely competitive markets that helps companies and talent teams hire fast.

Listen in as Nate discusses why he dislikes the idea behind Employer Value Propositions and why he feels marketing your culture externally is largely a waste of time. He then explains why it pays in the long term to focus on consumer marketing instead.

Nate shares how Before You Apply distances itself from the traditional corporate approach to branding. He reveals his favorite tough questions to ask company leaders he consults with in order to unearth their unique story, and why it’s essential for recruiters to produce and distribute content.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:20] The traditional approach to employer branding

●      [06:32] The inherent problems with this traditional approach

●      [09:28] How culture attracts people to companies

●      [13:50] Consumer marketing best practices

●      [19:45] Why employer branding does not work for recruiters

●      [22:18] What Before You Apply does differently

●      [27:53] Why it’s not Nate’s job to make companies look good (and what he does instead)

●      [31:47] The ROI of the content produced by Before You Apply

●      [37:29] Why recruiters need to produce and distribute content

●      [45:22] How to create content that resonates and invites conversation

Key quotes:

●      “I don’t think culture attracts. I think culture closes.”

●      “Content and the distribution of information is everything. It’s just a matter of what that information is and where you put it, because you want to create as close to a consumer buying experience as you possibly can.”

●      “When it comes to employer branding, companies like to share the information that they think is important. They’re not separating themselves and going, ‘What is important to the audience that I’m trying to market to?’”

●      “Our job is to help companies tell the right story, and by telling the right story, they will inevitably look better than other companies who don’t do so.”

Connect with Nate Guggia: 

o   Website: https://www.nateislearning.com/

o   Twitter: https://twitter.com/nateguggia

o   LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/nateguggia 

Connect with Marcus Edwardes

o   LinkedIn

o   https://recruitingtrailblazers.com/

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adrienne Dinkelacker, Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Atlas Group, a boutique tech recruitment firm that she runs with her sister Loreen.

Adrienne has over 15 years of recruitment experience, working in agency and in-house. When she’s not at her desk, she’s dancing the night away—preferably salsa or kizomba!

Listen in as Adrienne discusses what it means to “sell without selling”. That is, she stresses the importance of nurturing strong relationships with clients and candidates, thinking long-term as opposed to keeping a transactional, short-term mindset.

Adrienne also invites recruiters to focus on ensuring that the candidate is a “culture add” over simply being a “culture fit”. She says that the greats in the industry make it a point to turn the interview into a conversation, and are masters at tapping into the power of storytelling and other behavioral interviewing techniques when communicating with candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:21] About The Atlas Group

●      [05:43] The importance of building relationships with clients/candidates

●      [07:22] The Atlas Group as a niche player in the market

●      [10:40] Adrienne’s early business mistakes

●      [14:25] How leaders can build resilience in their team

●      [18:51] The Atlas Group’s go-to tech stack

●      [20:22] Adrienne’s candidate philosophy

●      [24:20] Common mistakes recruiters make when conducting interviews

●      [30:34] Powerful behavioral interviewing techniques

●      [35:11] How to answer: “What’s your biggest weakness?”

●      [38:28] How to answer: “Why do you want to work here?”

Key quotes:

●      “The relationships that we build, whether they’re clients or candidates, are so important. You never know what opportunities will come from them.”

●      “I’m not selling anything as a recruiter. I’m just facilitating.”

●      “If you have an arsenal of stories during the interview process, it helps so much.”

●      “The interview is a process of people connecting with each other. It’s not one above the other because, at the end of the day, we’re seeing if this is a good fit for both parties.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ginnette Harvey, Founder and CEO of Harper & Gray, a talent solutions company that focuses on Executive Search with a focus on leadership and specialist roles within the STEM space.

In 2020, Ginnette was named by Staffing Industry Analysts as one of the Top 100 influential leaders in staffing. She led one of the largest Life Science recruitment companies in North America, Real Staffing, and sat on the board at Sthree.

Listen in as Ginnette discusses how the demands of recruitment companies and recruiters themselves have changed over the past two years and the mindset that executive recruiters should adopt in order to thrive in today’s market.

She explains why she is adamantly against metrics-driven, ROI-focused strategies, instead swearing by the long-term value of building a strong friendship with candidates, characterized by value-focused conversations.

Ginnette also shares how to empower your team to power through disappointment and setbacks, particularly by “depersonalizing rejection” and setting expectations right at the beginning with new recruiters.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [03:14] The mindset that executive recruiters need to succeed in today’s industry
• [05:50] How to build a productive relationship with a candidate
• [09:21] Why it is important to become a friend to candidates
• [12:21] Why activity metrics are dangerous
• [19:40] Finding the right balance between structure and spontaneity
• [23:01] Creating psychological safety for your staff
• [26:43] Dealing with disappointment and rejection
• [30:36] Building resilience in your new staff
• [36:18] Setting expectations as a recruiter
• [39:47] Ginnete’s best advice on personal branding

Key quotes:

• “Build relationships and authentically care”
• “It is really important, considering our jobs as leaders, to set people up for success and then allow them to flourish—to empower them and grow as they gain tenure, seniority, and their own relationships in the industry.”
• “People are not rejecting you. They’re rejecting the service that you’re offering.”
• “Building communities is about providing value. [...] You don’t build a personal or professional brand with the intention of walking away with something at the end of each day.”
• “If you don’t embrace the ideas of community building and social selling, you’ll be left behind.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Scott MacGregor, Founder and CEO of SomethingNew LLC and Talent Champions Council. He is the four-time author of the Standing O! series of books, and a record seven-time winner of the American Business Award for Innovation.

Listen in as Scott explains why the best recruiters seek to find alignment between client and candidate and why he sees those in talent acquisition as consultants rather than as salespeople. He also shares why he tends to shun metrics and quotas and focuses instead on allowing recruiters to set their own goals.

Scott then discusses why talent strategy is the number one thing that any leader needs to focus on. He lays out the common misconceptions around creating a great company culture, cautioning businesses to avoid relying solely on what he calls “cultural Febreze”.

He reiterates that putting metrics front and center of any strategy is not going to lead to optimal results in the long run. Instead, the quality of the people—employees, clients, and candidates—needs the most attention if any company wants to thrive.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] Why Scott named his agency “SomethingNew”

●      [03:47] The mindset that recruiters need to succeed in today’s industry

●      [09:42] Helping recruiters achieve their goals

●      [13:03] How the pandemic has forced companies to change their approach to evaluating employees

●      [17:27] Why culture is often misunderstood and how to create a great one

●      [22:34] Creating advocates instead of adversaries

●      [29:12] Three questions to ask if profitability is an issue

●      [31:40] Having a strong brand as an insurance policy

●      [34:59] Focusing on the end result rather than KPIs

●      [38:26] Why SomethingNew does everything differently

●      [44:47] About the Talent Champions Council

Key quotes:

●      “We seek one thing and one thing alone: alignment. It’s not rocket science: We’re looking for alignment between what our client wants and what our candidate wants.”

●      “I don’t care how many emails they send out. I don’t care how many phone calls they make. I don’t care how many candidates they interview. I care about the candidate experience and the client experience being exceptional.”

●      “The number one predictor of success or failure for any company is the teams they build. Talent strategy always was and always will be the number one thing that any leader should be focused on.”

●      “Every day, you have an opportunity to either create advocates or adversaries.”

●      “The end result is twofold: Are candidates having a phenomenal candidate experience, and is our customer having a phenomenal customer experience? If the answer is ‘yes’, we’ve won.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with David “Daredevil” AuClair, a Senior Acquisition Specialist at CohnReznick. He started his career at Robert Half.

Listen in as David discusses the value of “upstream thinking” for any recruiter looking for an effective way to solve recurring issues that come with the role. Additionally, he speaks on rejection and failure, saying that it pays to own your mistakes in order to extract the lessons you need to move forward.

David also gives his best outreach practices, which include making use of the 60-second audio message feature offered by LinkedIn. At the core of his various strategies is a firm determination to stay authentic with every message and piece of content you put out there.

He preaches getting to know candidates and helping them figure out what they want to do with their lives. This, says David, is a powerful way to build relationships (and potentially bring in referrals) in the long run.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:19] Why “Daredevil”?: The role of courage in recruitment

●      [08:03] Personalizing 80% of your messages to candidates

●      [10:17] All about the reticular activating system

●      [14:02] How recruiters can deal with rejection and failure

●      [18:49] Life as a recruiter in a startup versus a larger firm

●      [24:05] Winning outreach practices

●      [29:48] Adapting to a tougher market as a recruiter

●      [33:00] Distinguishing yourself with candidates

●      [36:33] The importance of personal branding for recruiters

●      [40:42] Why utilize audio messages on LinkedIn

Key quotes:

●      “I like to think that, at this point in my life, fear is no longer the thing in the seat of the car driving all of my decisions.”

●      “The solution that I found in the last six months has been consistency, staying organized, and reaching out to these candidates in every way possible.”

●      “There’s something to be said for someone seeing your posts on LinkedIn. It gives you credibility.”

●      “When LinkedIn allowed you to send 60-second audio messages, that’s how I’ve been getting some of my greatest successes.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ashley Pereira, Director of Marketing for the two recruitment firms Protis Global and ace Talent Curators.

Listen in as Ashley discusses the importance of establishing yourself as a subject matter expert and why you don’t have to be an extrovert to build a successful personal brand. She explains why authenticity, consistency in messaging across all platforms, and a willingness to be “controversial” are all keys to a strong online presence.

Ashley also preaches “writing like you speak and keeping it simple”, being unafraid to experiment with different categories of content, and keeping your posts value-driven at least 90% of the time before going for the ask.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:01] Why recruiters need to work on developing their personal brand

●      [06:16] Preparing for the market of the future

●      [07:50] Why you should not be afraid of “controversy”

●      [11:42] The first question to ask when defining your personal brand

●      [16:15] Optimizing your LinkedIn profile

●      [18:59] Being intentional about building your personal brand

●      [22:17] Writing like you speak and keeping it simple

●      [26:05] Getting over the hump and finally starting your branding journey

●      [30:27] Categories of content to focus on

●      [33:00] Whether or not to “stay in your lane”

●      [37:34] How to go viral on LinkedIn

●      [39:38] Tools and other tips to support your brand-building efforts

Key quotes:

●      “Regardless of who you’re working for, your personal brand will be there forever.”

●      “Homing in on the why behind any conversation or any movement that someone is trying to do is the first step to setting up any type of strategy.”

●      “Stop talking at people and start having conversations with people. Provide solutions on how they’re going to get the outcomes that they want, instead of telling them how great you are or why they need to change or all the bad things that you might have opinions about. It’s really about helping others.”

●      “The point is to be a solution provider and to help as many people as you can. If you’re asking, how are you helping?”

●      “When you get really personal, you attract people to open up to you and to listen to you.”

●      “Anyone who tells you they have rules and tips and tricks to go viral is a complete fraud.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

Marcus describes how he generated over 200,000 views from a single post - plus the importance of quality content - and the reason why this particular post resonated so loudly in the Recruiter community.
Here's the post - Quality Before KPIs

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

Marcus speaks with Jason Liu - who is currently recruiting at Apple, about a spectrum of topics from "Recruiters as entertainers", content creation, sourcing and outreach.
Show notes to follow.

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Send a text

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Michael Boitnott. A relative newcomer to the recruitment industry, Michael is currently a G&A recruiter at Credit Karma and RPO recruiter at Bali Staffing.

Listen in as Michael talks about the lessons learned after a year into his current role and how he posts content that demonstrates a level of credibility and leadership that demonstrates wisdom and experience beyond his years.

In other words, Michael shares his best tips and tricks for being seen as an authority in the recruitment world regardless of how long one has been in the industry.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [04:26] Connecting with individuals in a noisy digital environment

●      [06:43] Why that first conversation is so vital

●      [10:00] Focusing on the candidate’s needs over your own

●      [15:56] AB testing in recruitment

●      [18:59] The value of slowing down the recruitment process

●      [20:46] Michael’s go-to tools

●      [24:48] Content development best practices

●      [28:12] Michael’s favorite content creators

●      [29:29] Michael’s highest-performing posts

●      [31:32] The importance of commenting on other people’s posts

●      [33:99] Hiring for attitude and training for skills

●      [34:55] Why summarizing an article is better than just sharing it

●      [36:18] Creating content that resonates

Key quotes:

●      “I try to get down to the core of why that person would want to come to this role. It’s more than just the benefits or the salary or whether the company is growing. It’s more about what [the person] would be attracted to.

●      “If you want to be a successful content creator, at least in the beginning, you have to drop the idea of, ‘What am I going to get from this?’ Those lead to less authentic posts.”

Connect with Marcus https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/