The Curious Recruiter

And here I was, thinking that I was pretty good at productivity, and that my work experience of 10 years had allowed me to establish some stellar ways of working... But then (plot twist!), when I joined the startup life 4 months ago, I realized that there were still plenty of opportunities to take my productivity skills up a notch.

Whether it had to do with making it a habit to challenge status quo, finding more elaborate ways to manage my time and projects, or even learning my way around new tools like Notion and Slack, I went through a great learning period and came out feeling much more comfortable about my ways of working in a fast-moving, hyper-agile startup like Pitch.

I’m sure I still have a huge learning curve ahead of me in my new role, but I’d love to fill you in on some of the hacks I learned so far!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/09/e23-productivity-hacks-for-startup-life/

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As a practical follow-up to my very first episode on how to answer Behavioural Interview Questions (and nail pretty much any interview), I thought I’d bring up some additional “Interview Prep 101” pointers. Because preparing for your interview from a content perspective is extremely important, but understanding interview etiquette and avoiding some blatant faux-pas is just as crucial.

Listen in to find out what top mistakes you’ll definitely want to avoid when going into any kind of interview, and of course I’ll also dish out some tips on what you can do to shine. Zoom-Interview type advice included, of course!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/06/e22-5-top-mistakes-to-avoid-during-an-interview/

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

Feedback - feedback everywhere! Most companies these days are all about the fast feedback culture. There’s many reasons why - mostly because instant, situational and well-delivered feedback is helping individuals to grow, develop and learn from their mistakes.

In order to foster this feedback culture, many organizations make a point to teach employees the art of giving feedback. However, we’re not putting enough emphasis on how to actually receive feedback! So in this episode, I want to help you understand what good (and bad) feedback looks like, and also give you 5 tips on how to receive feedback properly.

And one thing I’d like to emphasize is that even though feedback is a gift (and many these days feel encouraged to “gift away” whenever possible) - you don’t always have to accept it!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/06/e21-5-tips-around-receiving-feedback/

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

Pre-Screens (also known as Screening Calls or Introductory Conversations) are the first touch-point between a candidate and a recruiter, and they are a crucial step to select the best candidates for any given role. The more efficient your pre-screen technique, the more efficient your filtering is. And the better you filter, the better your funnel ratios become - which saves your hiring manager a lot of time on the interviewing front!

In today’s episode, we’ll dive a little bit deeper into the art of pre-screening candidates. Calling it an art is no understatement: recruiters and sourcers have to check many different things within a very limited amount of time, while simultaneously selling the candidate on the opportunity at hand.

I’d therefore like to share some of my personal tips to help you conduct a pre-screen that helps you tick off the most important boxes whilst remaining engaging and personable!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/05/e20-recruiter-pre-screens-101/

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Whenever there’s a talk about professional growth and development, there’s almost always a talk about wanting to get that next-level promotion, the fancy title and/or becoming a manager. And according to where one stands in their career path, those are absolutely fair aspirations.

However, while we’re always hustling to climb that career ladder, we sometimes forget to check ourselves and to evaluate if those targets are actually compatible with who we are, how we’re doing and which environment we’re in.

If promotion, bigger title, and/or people management are on your radar, then let this episode be your reality check. Are you set on those goals for the right reasons, and are you approaching them the right way?

Let’s explore some unfiltered truths around those themes - from the potential trap of acting too entitled, to the reality of being trapped in an environment that doesn’t actually allow you to shine and grow - and of course, we’ll touch on how to best get to whatever goal you set yourself!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/04/e19-promotions-big-titles-and-people-management/

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

This week’s podcast guest, Anna Stimamiglio, is – like many other previous guests – a friend and former colleague I met at Amazon. She is a young recruiting professional who – to date – has worked in no less than 3 countries, and is about to conquer her 4th country, after having recently moved from Canada to Switzerland for a Recruiting role with Deloitte. In less than 5 years, Anna has had a taste of many working environments from start-up to big corporates, and also given many different forms of recruiting a try.

However, Anna’s story doesn’t only surprise by her curiosity to seek out diverse experiences and finding her sweet spot. It also surprises by Anna’s truly remarkable ability to deal with professional setbacks, such as having to go through the unnerving motions of a layoff in what seemed like a sure-as-rock role. Or having to question the sustainability of working for a company that isn’t doing so well financially. And finally: having to conquer your inner critical voice in order to gain back the courage to tell your professional story with confidence.

So if you can relate to the fact that (work-)life is not just rainbows and butterflies but oftentimes includes challenges and personal growth, have a listen to Anna’s unfiltered and super inspiring recount of her career path to date. One that’s certainly not like the others!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/04/e16-swiss-army-knife-recruiter-anna-stimamiglio/

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

When I joined Facebook, I first found it rather funny that recruiters would refer to candidate rejections as “candidate break-ups”. But come to think of it - it’s very fitting, and acknowledges the fact that every candidate rejection involves feelings. Therefore, “break-ups” need to be handled with care and courtesy, and without ghosting!

So in this podcast episode, we’ll explore both sides of the story. First we’ll talk about what it’s like to be a candidate who is on the receiving end of a rejection. What should you expect from your recruiter in terms of feedback? How should you behave, and what should you avoid? And last but not least, we will cover how you can move on from the disappointment of being from a job opportunity you were really excited about.

And if you are a recruiter who is looking for some additional tips on how to best deal with the unavoidable task of rejecting your candidates in the most courteous fashion, then I’ll have you covered as well. So get your kleenexes ready as we will dive deep into the anatomy of breakup!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/03/e17-candidate-rejections/ 

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

I love nothing more than to exchange with people who are equally as passionate about the world of talent acquisition as I am. So for this episode, I am especially thrilled to welcome guest speaker Roman Zhilyakov, who is a Senior Technical Sourcer at Facebook Israel. His job involves finding and approaching highly passive senior engineering talent across very niche pipelines such as Machine Learning or Android or iOS.

He is literally one of the best sourcers I know and had the pleasure of working with! And given that you guys really took interest in the Sourcing vs. Recruiting Episode, it was only natural for me to invite him as the Sourcer poster-child to talk about his day-to-day!

We’ll talk about Roman’s career and how he got to where he is now, and also about what it’s like to be a niche sourcer in a big tech company. He’ll also talk us through how he usually sets himself up for success at the beginning of a new search, and how he owns and troubleshoots his pipeline. Top of funnel, pass-through rates, candidate approach methods and candidate ownership – you name it, he will cover it!

And beware: Roman is one hecking creative sourcer! So be prepared to hear about a bunch of nifty sourcing tricks and funny sourcing anecdotes!

Link to episode transcript: https://www.thecuriousrecruiter.com/2021/03/e16-day-in-the-life-of-a-technical-sourcer-roman-zhilyakov/ 

More info on www.TheCuriousRecruiter.com

In Episode 13 about Briefing Meetings, I let you in on a little (not so secret) secret of mine: preparation is half the battle. One ultra-essential part of this preparation when kicking off your recruitment process should include driving your own understanding of your target universe. In other words: where are you going to start searching for viable talent?

In order to drive this understanding in an organized fashion, my absolute favorite thing to do is to draft a Company Target List (or Industry Target List). This helps me lay the foundation of my sourcing strategy, and helps me do my market mapping in a methodical way. Target Lists are basically pieces of market intel than can be used and re-used over time, so it’s never wasted to work on one!

If you want to know what the fuss around Target Lists is all about, how to create one, and also how to use it to earn trust with your business stakeholders – have a listen!

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In a society where humility is mostly key, and where most corporate cultures tend to overindex on their employees’ development areas and shortcomings, celebrating successes becomes harder and harder. It’s especially difficult considering that the nature of the brain has a preference for remembering the bad things over the good ones…

When all of this culminates, some of us are prone to experiencing extreme low self-esteem and the feeling of utter incompetence. This phenomenon has been coined as the Impostor Syndrome by researchers in 1978 and has been studied ever since.

What sounds like a bad ailment is fortunately just a counter-productive mindset. In other words: it’s a mindset that can be changed! In today’s episode I’d like to propose 3 easy tips to help you with restoring your self-confidence and overcoming Impostor Syndrome.

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