Hire In Reverse

Hire in Reverse delivers value by: 
-defining jobs that attract the right people, not piles of resumes.
-sourcing using small batch, outbound passive search methods that deliver consistent results.
-employing interview methods that create camaraderie and convey respect.
-deploying assessment techniques that result in confident hiring decisions.
-we provide all these resource to the interview team to tune their process for performance.

All that results in hiring productive teams that are easy to lead and fun to work with.

How you can hire us:
- Dedicated Search Plus - Search engagement plus team training and coaching.  25% fee/ 12 month guarantee.  
- Dedicated Search - Search engagement w/ coaching.  20% fee/ 6 month guarantee.  Available for proficient hiring teams who’ve successfully completed 3 or more search engagements.
- Contingency Search 30% - standard contingency - 60 day guarantee.

Founder | Hiring Strategist | Technical Leadership Recruiter - Software Industry

Analyst | Thinker | Problem Solver | Company Designer

After years of watching the tech recruiting industry’s ability to create real value slip away and be replaced with frustration, it became clear that anything less than a complete “RESET” would fall short. 

Feeling the need for perspective, I decided to create some distance. I shut everything down and began to redesign from the ground up with intention of building a new recruiting company that would thrive by creating the “real value” that hiring managers and their companies desire, but struggle to find. Hire In Reverse is the result.

Sabbatical – A Brief Break

Confidential (In stealth mode)

Co-Founder

Staff at Will - Search Consultancy

- Provided onsite and off site contract and retained recruiting services.
- Served in a variety of capacities within high-growth VC funded start-ups; staffing manager, outbound sourcing recruiter, high-volume recruiter
- Worked closely with hiring managers to define open roles, advertise, screen, interview and manage cycle through onboarding
- Saved hiring managers untold hours by providing key resources for time-sensitive hires
-Staffing experience at all levels from entry to c-staff, all departments; spanning industries, languages and international locals; Asia, Europe

Contract Technical Recruiter | Staffing Manager

Today’s workforce doesn’t want a job, they want much more!

Having grown weary of jobs that lack meaningful and satisfying work.  The new workforce seeks companies that will offer impact, an admirable mission, and greater purpose.

Companies that don’t lean-in to this change, and meet employee needs with the same enthusiasm employed to address customer needs will find this new world unforgiving.

Dismissing tectonic shifts like quiet quitting, and failing to see these signs as a vote of no confidence in leadership, is to court disaster.

Antiquated recruiting & hiring strategies have left today’s workforce ready to opt-out

We’ve been mislead to believe that generic online job ads and bulk-blasts will deliver the candidates that we need.

But spammy jobs just increase the white noise and fail to address candidate interests and real job needs 

Add to this, interviewing techniques that repel the best qualified candidates, and you have a failure trifecta. 

Companies unburdened by hiring problems are free to innovate and lead their market. 

Having ample qualified candidates to fill every job, high performance teams that deliver consistent results and a growing subscription client base is an unbeatable competitive advantage.

Hire In Reverse Service an end-to-end system. We supply fully vetted candidates and every tool necessary for a leader to fill his team with meaning, satisfaction and impact.  So, in turn, his team can build products that delight clients, and help sales deliver on value-driven-growth.

Unpopular opinion: When hiring, most people's intuition sucks!


 
Hiring by gut-feel, or intuition is at the core of most hiring related problems.  

No wonder so many job seekers walk away from your interview process feeling unheard, and poorly assessed.
 
Contending that this is a good hiring practice, or that you get good results this way is a myth. It’s an excuse for not dedicating the time to developing a reasonably good hiring method and then tracking results and iterating to improve. 
 
It results in poor results, and no incentive to improve, because you’ve already convinced yourself that you’re doing fine.   
 
Truth is, this isn’t opinion, it’s statistics. Pick a topic: Mis-hire rate, early opt-out, quiet quitting, employee engagement, early turnover, retention issues. Look up the national reports. The metrics are horrific.
 
Oh, of course. That’s other people that are getting bad results, not me. Really?
 
It’s easy to fool ourselves into "thinking" we’re good because half the time the result is ok. But I can get the same results with a kindergartener and a quarter.
 
When we espouse gut-feel, or intuition, we’re saying we don’t have a proven, tested approach, and we’re not tracking results. 
 
What makes this EVEN MORE TRICKY, is that I can prove the exact opposite to be true. I’ve worked with leaders that have an unworldly hiring record. When you ask them how they select, they just say something like, “I just know”. 
 
Elon Musk said something similar in an interview, but then described his process, which is anything but “intuition”. It’s just that his systematic approach has been internalized.
 
This is exactly what I find in many highly successful leaders. In this case, rather than continuing to propagate the gut-feel myth, we extract/document the leaders hiring technique so they can then mentor it throughout their organization. 
 
In most cases, the easiest solution is to borrow a proven, data-driven hiring system and adapt it to your company’s specific needs though iteration and testing. 
 
If you’re struggling with the hiring problems mentioned, and you don’t have a lifetime to hypothesize, test and iterate your way to an accurate solution. Reach out and we can discuss how to get you there. 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 


PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Jonathan Schultz

Guiding leaders to accelerate career growth and hire with confidence through data driven methods | Founder | Hiring Strategist |Software Industry Leadership Search Recruiter

It's amazing what you overhear standing in line..



I met someone yesterday standing in line.
 
You know, typical chit chat, weather, stuff. 
 
Long line, eventually, I asked with she did. Then, naturally, she asked what I did.
 
I replied, I’m a hiring strategist. Noticeably bewildered, she said, “what’s that?” 
 
I replied, You know how everyone complains about interviewing for job? That’s because the process is broken. 

I help people fix it, so everyone loves it.
 
She replied, “Everyone I know needs you.”
 
I smiled.  

Why Less Is More: The Surprising Truth About Efficient Hiring!


The “tight talent market” in tech has loosened; and yet companies are not spending less per hire?
 
I read this amazing job ad, it was perfect. It had all the right elements. It was compelling, it drew me in. I just had to know more about the opportunity…
 
Here’s the post: 
 
I’m #hiring, Know anyone who might be interested?
 
Perhaps this should remain unsaid, but, “talent acquisition leaders, this is not a place where ‘less is more’”.
 
For a moment, I thought, this is just someone silly, who goes on LinkedIn once a month after the recruiting status meeting and posts something. It was the company’s head of people.
 
Then it hit me. Hard.
 
This is actually a one-line summary of their entire recruiting strategy.
 
Post a generic job description, create a massive pile of “not-a-fit applicants” and present massive (but useless) recruiting metrics in in the monthly exec meeting. 
 
Reported Metrics: 
Open roles: 16
Average Time to Fill: 54 days
Hires in the last 30 days: 3
Applications on current open roles: 5400
 
 
Wow! That’s a lot of applicants, you’ve been really busy!
Maybe we should get a new ATS with more automation and AI. Then we could go faster?
 
Does doing the wrong things “faster” somehow improve results?
 
What about these metrics?
Ave Applicants per hire:
Ave Interview Hours Per Hire: 
Ave Time Cost of Hire:
Ave Offers Per Hire:
Quality of Hire: 
 
Relevant metrics inform great strategy decisions.   Timely strategy decisions?
 
The goal is great hires, minimal cost in time and money.
 
What if your recruiter added 5 resumes to the ATS, your team interviewed 3, and extended an offer that was accepted?
 
Perhaps there’s a better strategy to optimize the 2.3m annual recruiting budget?
 
What would you do differently?
 
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Promoted too fast, made a mess? Admitted it, and fixed it!
 
 

A few years back I worked with a software startup shortly after they received their B Series (2nd round of VC financing) and the engineering team was getting pressure to hire fast and push development even faster.
 
After my first conversation with the software development manager it was clear that he was in over his head. 
 
Every niche has industry-specific words or acronyms that other industries don’t fully understand. The military uses the term “field promotion” which simply means being promoted because the leader you were following only moments ago was killed or wounded. 
 
Though less tragic, a manager hired away necessitating early promotion of a Senior Engineer or Tech Lead can create a stressful learning curve.
 
This young manager was similarly thrust into a role for which he was unprepared. He’d been in this role for less than 6 months, and the fallout from his inexperience was ready to crush him. 
 
His recruiting team was overwhelmed, he needed to hire great engineers but was frustrated with the lack of qualified candidates, and the agencies weren’t helping.

We quickly stabilized his team by filling the long-standing open roles.
 
Then we spend some time to assess we’d learned. He’s now a Director of Software for a well-known company and contacts me now and again for advice on coaching his up and coming leaders, and to execute a difficult search. 
 
To some degree, he was suffering from all four of the following recruiting problems. 
 
Here's problems 5-8 in the 3 part series. If you missed 1-4, check them out under the title: “identify the root cause..”
 
5. Symptom: Losing too many candidates to competitive offers
Problem/root-cause: Using active sourcing strategy; using spam-n-slam contingency search agencies
Solution: source with small batch outbound techniques; hire help from small boutique search firms that provide specialty search services
 
6. Symptom: Unconsciously lowering standards due to long hiring cycles
Problem/root-cause: Wrong sourcing strategy; wrong timeline expectations
Solution:  get rid of “weed-out-the-weak” hiring posture, and reset to “search-out-the-strong”; fix via cumulative effect (proven system) or reset expectations
 
7. Symptom: Internal recruiting teams are fatigued, (in risk of burnout)
Problem/root-cause: Depending too heavily on job ads – post-wait-&-spam; massive busy-work and admin overhead
Solution: Re-Balance strategy adding specialty outbound sourcing 
 
8. Symptom: Employee engagement problems are increasing
Problem/root-cause: Standard skills/experience JDs targeting lateral transfers
Solution: Switch to objective/deliverable based job descriptions; might require training. Write jobs from candidate perspective, include non-tangibles, and human factors, create job-gap
 
Watch for 9-12 tomorrow.


#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 

Founder, Hiring Strategist & Technical Leadership Recruiter - Software Industry

Code tests: The holy grail of interviewing accuracy!


 
Daily I hear more about the complex coding tests and take home project companies are using to screen software engineering candidates. 
 
I’ve got to ask. If coding tests are so helpful, why do national hiring statistics point to a different conclusion?
 
-early opt-outs increasing
-mis-hire rates remain excessive
-low % of offers accepted
-engagement issues and quiet quitting at an all-time high
-excessive early turnover
-retention problems persist
 
If efficiency and accuracy in hiring is important, why don’t more companies use a data-driven interview process that considers 8-10 proven success factors instead of putting all of their focus on skills and personality?
 
Not to mention, if the majority of engineers think code tests and take-home projects are ineffective, and somewhat offensive, then doesn’t it make sense to seek out more effective screening methods that attract instead of repel great candidates. 
 
There is a better method, and it’s both faster and easier, and puts less overhead on the job candidate. And you can train a “recruiter” to do it, so it saves countless engineering hours wasted on go-no-where interviews. 
 
Using a simple to learn conversational interview approach lead by a focus on projects, deliverables and results, I can deliver an over 90% accuracy rate based on over 1000 interviews. It’s just a simple formula.
 
If a recruiter with no formal training in coding or software development can hit this level of accuracy, please tell me why code tests, with all their drawbacks are the better choice?
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Advice from a toddler. My two year old turns 27 in a few months.. 



 
I occasionally pull a journal from the shelf, and just open to see what I was thinking. I found this.
 
I’ve worked from my home office most of my career, but while on an onsite project, I received this phone call.
 
Quote from my 2 year old daughter: Daddy? Are you coming home for dinner? You need to come home for dinner, otherwise we won’t be a family. 
 
It was always my intent to put family first. At times things got out of balance. 
 
Commit to excellence in your career. But give those in your life permission to help you prevent your career from dominating your life.

Rick Cobb, challenging thoughts, I’m fully on board with most of your contentions.. particularly.. 

Don’t run away.. run toward. 
 
If you’re “running away”, ignore everything I’m about to say, because it won’t help you. 
 
Here’s where my take on this diverges.
 
I watch people casting a wide net, and it’s a confusing mess, and typically extends their search by months. Yes, it’s critical to understand “why”, but it’s equally critical to settle on a “what”. 
 
The what can change during the process.. and being “open” to something that drops into your path that diverges from your “what” is ok too. 
 
However, I’d content that the goal of the first date is ‘data gathering’.. “do I want a second date, why or why not?” 
 
When candidates approach a job search thinking the goal is an offer, they have a high percentage chance of interviewing in “sales mode”, instead of “analyst mode”.
 
This isn’t authentic, it’s not transparent, and it frequently leads us into accepting jobs that aren’t a good fit. I’m speaking from experience, mine!
 
Job candidates need to refrain from trying to sell what they think the interviewer wants to buy, and instead focus on discovering the problem your interviewer wants to solve, and what they really want you to do if you accept. 
 
Then decide “if” this is a good match for your skills and interests. Do I want this job. 
 
In every case I’ve seen, job seekers desperate to “run away” don’t have the staying power to run this kind of search. So, if you need to make a change, figure it out early, before desperation grabs hold, or you’re likely to land in the wrong job.  

A surprisingly strong market for jobs doesn't change the process or dynamics of how people are hired. Just because you can look for a new job, doesn't mean you should. Running away from something is a bad strategy. Running to something is preferred.
Have someone who knows and cares about you, help build your plan. Why are you looking? Do you have to leave where you are to get what you want? Once you know the "why", separate what is needed from what is desirable. Now cast the widest net possible. You are dating not seeking marriage.
The goal of the first date is to get to the second date, etc., until an offer is presented.
Until someone who can hire you, makes you an offer, you cannot negotiate. To do otherwise is the equivalent of approaching strangers and telling them you would never date them. Many opportunities don't exist until the decision maker has met someone who creates the interest. The process creates opportunity from chemistry. #decisionmaking #jobsearch #companyculture #careeradvice #2discern #opportunity

No alternative text description for this image

Are You Missing These Commonly Overlooked Developer Skills in Your Hiring Process?


 
A good friend posted this not long ago.. under the headline, “Common Missing Skills in Developers” and a few more skills joined the list through the comments. (initials -JC designate John Crickett)
 
- how to say NO-JC
 - how to ask for HELP-JC
 - how to be VISIBLE-JC
 - how to PRIORITISE-JC
- distinguish what from how- .Jeremy Pavier
-communicate well- Pratima Asopa
-How to give help graciously-JC
-How to disagree constructively-JC
-and if appropriate disagree and commit-JC
 
My question is this: Will your standard interview automatically “discover” and accurately “assess” these skills?
 
If not, why are you still using interview techniques that don’t gather all the information you need to make an informed decision?
 
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 
 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Stop hammering HR on retention: Managers step up?



 
Seriously, a “stay interview”.. shouldn’t each leader know this information at any point? 

Why is this responsibility getting pushed to HR? Perhaps we should re-think? 

Perhaps the need for a stay interview might be nothing less than a symptom that the manager in question is failing to perform their responsibilities? 
 
Help me here. Am I seeing this wrong?

#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 


PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Job Search advice, that isn’t job search advice!
 


Everyone seems to have an opinion, and advice on job search these days. And that’s not bad, take in a variety of perspectives, see what resonates, and test ideas for results.
 
But, personally, I’m more interested in talking about career growth. 
 
Changing jobs without a clear picture of what the next step in your career looks like almost always ends in a lateral move.
 
To rephrase. Same job, different company.  
 
Why? Despite knowing better, most managers consistently over hire. 
 
In their mind, the “perfect candidate” has all the stuff on their list. They think they’ll hit the ground running, and contribute faster if they are FULLY QUALIFIED. But they’re also at risk of finding themselves lacking motivation in a role there there’s minimal learning, growth and impact.
 
In case it’s not apparent, this is the perfect formula to create a disengaged employee. Let them hang around too long without finding them a bigger job, and you’ve got quiet quitting eating away the substance of your team.
 
e.g.
 
Mgr: We need someone who’s managed a team of 8 software engineers in a fast growth company.
 
Cnd: I was a hired as a Sr. Engr. Then after 5 months was promoted to team lead in a team of 6 which reported to the software development director. I held for 18 months in a startup that went from 23, to 105 during this time and had revenue growth of 6x. 
 
Mgr: Sorry, we really need someone with at least a year as a manager.
 
Go to work for managers that think this way, you’re career growth will be non-existent. Ten years from now, the feedback after the interview will be.. They’ve been working for 10 years, but their skill level seems more like they’ve just repeated year one ten times. 
 
Solution: Know that the next step looks like. What does more responsibility look like? Where is your career going? If you’re a Senior Software Engineer, that doesn’t mean leadership, it might mean architecture. It might mean a role that’s more customer facing that will allow you to grow your skills and expand your value. 
 
Only you know the answer to this question.
 
This makes sense, but you’ve got questions. Don’t hesitate to ask.
 
IF, you got laid off, this might not be the time to “hold out” for more responsibility and pass on laterals.  Negotiating from a position of strength in the interview process is usually double-hard when you add  financial stress.
 
But, “do” take the time to figure out what growth looks like. You might get both.
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Posting job ads isn’t a recruiting strategy, it’s a Hail Mary!


 
Founders, C-suite Executives, and Hiring Managers intent on winning the war for talent.. 
 
You can nail this if you fully embrace a few key points of strategy, then execute..
 
Inaction and the status quo will find you paying an exorbitant price to survive the coming battles.
 
2023 Basic Hiring Strategy Points
1. Post and spam, (dependence on job ads for sourcing) isn’t a recruiting strategy, it’s a Hail Mary! Which means, in a talent-scarce market, you will never source enough qualified candidates to consistently build high performance teams. 
 
2. If you’re not seeing enough qualified candidates, you need a different sourcing strategy. My time in the trenches, and my resulting success leads me to  recommend small-batch outbound techniques because they drive quick turnaround, quick iteration, and reduce time lost to engineering interviews by nearly 80%  (outbound spam email *ISN'T* outbound recruiting, it's a job ad, delivered by email).
 
3. If your backup plan is using outside agencies, vet and select a stable of agencies that actually perform search (outbound sourcing). If not, you’re just wasting your money. Why? Because when they source only active candidates, from the same candidate pool, you’re paying agency fees for resumes you could have got on your own with better written job ads. 
 
4. Job descriptions that are little more than lists of skills and experience are at best generic, and create massive piles of resumes; and waste resources. Imagine if you typed in “steakhouse near me” on your phone and it gave you a nationwide list with the top 500 top rated restaurants. Would this be helpful? That’s what happens when your job ads are generic.
 
5. Most companies depending on ad-based sourcing techniques train (by reactionary default) their managers to use “weed out the weak interviewing techniques” that repel the best candidates.
 
6. If you haven’t provided your leaders in data-driven interviewing and assessment techniques, you are fooling yourself if you think the process isn’t riddled with mental shortcuts (bias). And your results will be average at best.
 
Want to move beyond basic strategy and turn hiring into a unstoppable competitive advantage? Not asking for help is like changing your own oil. You don’t have time, and it’s messy. 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 

"Insights from a search recruiter: Hiring right is a headache without easy to use assessment techniques.



In a market where layoffs are plentiful, candidates are applying to open jobs in unheard of numbers.. companies continue to struggle with hiring related problems.
 
What’s your biggest hiring concern right now?
 
I’m a search recruiter, which means I work “outside” companies and help them by running a search beginning to end to save massive time for the hiring manager.
 
My biggest concerns:
 
I see most company’s struggling to hire because their high-level strategy out of sync with reality, which means they are basing hiring investments on bad data. 
 
- they’re depending upon ad-based sourcing methods to deliver results that are statistically impossible. 
 
- managers and interview teams suffering from a lack of interviewing and assessment skills. 
 
- all of this results in a long list of hiring problems that the dump on HR and expect them to fix it. Bah! 
 
As a part of my normal day, I train and coach managers and interview teams, mostly ala-cart, to help them fill in the gaps that are leaving them working way too hard, spending untold wasted hours interviewing and still ending up with regrettably inconsistent results.
 
What are you doing to fix this problems at the “strategy” or “root-cause”?
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 


PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

VP Engineering Lessons: Hiring Secrets to Build Engaged and Self-Motivated Teams


 
You’re a leader trying to build a team that performs well and gets along great, like the sports teams you see in the movies, or you recall from your youth.
 
Yeah, sometimes we butted heads, but we always hammered it out and hugged it out in the end. If we didn’t the coach had us running laps until the busses started pulling out. He literally stood at the door to our bus, and held the driver until we finished our last lap.
 
Kind of like the relationship advice, don’t go to bed angry.. but with a loud annoying whistle barking at you.
 
Building great teams that are easy to lead and fun to work with requires doing more, and doing it differently.
 
Here’s what I learned from the best VP Engineering I was ever blessed to work with.
 
1. Define the job in terms of results, deliverables and expectations (radical transparency). If your new hire knows exactly what it’s going to take to hit the ball over the back fence, DURING interviewing, BEFORE he accepts the job, he’ll practically onboard himself, and be committing code before you even know he’s there.
 
2. Define your inter-team cultural values, share them boldly, and learn how to screen for true culture sync instead of personality preference. If your values undercut meritocracy, better have a heart to heart with yourself and resolve the cognitive dissonance.
 
3. In your mind, give yourself a new title. Scratch the <VP Engr>, and try on “career coach” for size. Focus your time helping each individual member of your team to be his/her best, nudge them at the right time when growth stalls, and push them out the door when you’ve got nothing left to teach them, and you’ll NEVER have disengaged team members hanging in the wings quietly quitting.
 
4. Teach every member of the team how to interview and assess. Don’t make them go through the motions, faking it. Ensure interview time invested is high-impact, and high value. Five people, doing this correctly, as a team, almost never make a mis-hire. 
 
I learned most of this at 6am coffee meetings outside the office, because that’s when I could get uninterrupted time to review hiring status every other morning. 
 
The price I paid for these lessons, though I complained at the 5am alarm every morning, was in retrospect, more of a gift than a cost.
 
What key hiring technique or belief has done the most to help you build great teams?

A confused truth: Why Great Recruiters are Implementers, Not Decision-Makers

 
A good recruiter is not a decision-maker, we implement policy.
 
Rants by recruiters complaining about hiring managers and the companies they work for seem to be in vogue. When did it become popular and accepted to call out others in public, and blame?
 
Yes, hiring managers could use better methods, and corporations could plan better, and work harder to avoid layoffs.
 
But a “righteous call to action”, calling on fellow recruiters to put hiring managers into place by telling them how they should be hiring, and what they should and should be doing? This is a gross overstep. 
 
I’m reminded of a line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, “Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do and die”.  
 
A good recruiter is not a decision-maker, they are implementer of policy. We don’t make decisions for the managers we support, we carry them out.
 
It’s not the perfect analogy, because I do believe that embedded in our mandate, is a responsibility to both Coach the leaders we serve at times, and skillfully coax out of them details, direction and intent that will help them make a great hire.
 
In practices, this usually means that we help them slow down long enough to fully define the job.
 
And we don’t just take their word at face value, instead, we dig deeper, to understand their intent, and then reflect this back to them, so they can confirm that we have it right before we race off in the wrong direction.
 
But in the end, the leader is the decision-maker. The recruiter is the paint brush, through which the leaders hiring vision takes physical form.. 
 
So, if you’re a hiring manager, look to your recruiter for advice. They do this all day, every day, they have insights that you’re not likely to discover on your own. But weigh this advice carefully, test it. 
 
And if you’re a recruiter, feeling a little high handed, step down. Remember, you’re the anvil, not the hammer.
 
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Top 4 recruiting myths that hamstring hiring managers!
 


Bar none, the biggest roadblock to increasing hiring accuracy is believing established myths. 
 
MYTHS!
First, let’s make sure we agree on our definition of myth. It’s something a large group believes because:
-We don’t have a better answer
-It sounds plausible
-And we don’t know how, or have data to refute it.
 
Here’s the top four that eat most managers for lunch:
 
1. TTM - It’s just a tight talent market! This is the #1 excuse recruiters & HR give to managers standing in their door way asking for some qualified candidates for their open jobs. The actual truth is, you’ve chosen the wrong sourcing strategy for your situation. Don’t immediately blame the recruiter. This decision usually comes from above.
 
2. GUT FEEL - My gut tells me to take a chance on this candidate! Why do I categorize this as a myth. Because the second a leader thinks his gut feeling is more accurate than a data-driven approach, he stops looking for techniques that will actually give accurate results.
 
3. Elusive Qualities - There’s no way to screen for “THAT”. Frequently referring to what some generically refer to as “soft skills”, but I call “harder-to-assess success factors”. This could be a character quality like persistence or a team skill like conflict resolution. 
 
4. Passive Candidates – are better than active. This is total bunk, but like most myths it either has a thread of truth, or sounds plausible. This one actually is true at times because passive candidates don’t need a new job, therefore they are more discerning, and will almost never accept a lateral. That means your mis-hire rate and early turnover on passive candidates is almost non-existent. The real issue is lack of assessment skill. 
 
All these are easy fixes once you get the formula. But don’t for a second feel silly that you didn’t figure these out on your own. I do this full time and it took me a decade to debunk them by solving the root-causes of each. 
 
And worse, countless professional recruiters continue to exacerbate the problem by continuing to promote them. 
 
Follow along, and I’ll undoubtedly talk about each of these individually (or already have in some cases) and I’ll share the answers in full details. 
 
If you can’t wait, and you need an answer, just ask! 
 
If you found this post looking for the last installment of “12 hiring problems” #9-12, I got delayed in interviews so it will post late afternoon under the title “Last hire didn’t work out, frustration mounting, and time is short..”
 
 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 

What top-performing managers really look for in new team members


 
Please don’t take this wrong, but you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re going to get what you want without fully defining it. I can’t think of any situation in life where this is untrue.
 
A winning hiring strategy requires that you define much more than a list of skills and experience.
 
I’ve worked with hundreds of managers, performed thousands of interviews and eventually, if you’re paying attention, trendlines begin to form.
 
Managers are people. We all know that hiring the right people, with the right stuff, at the right time moves the dial from “life is miserable, why did I choose this career” to “leading this team of high performers is satisfying, and some days it’s even easy”..
 
When it comes right down to it, leaders want to hire new team members who are/have: 
 
-Strong technical skills & abilities (this is a given)
-Consistent and dependable contributor
-Meet or exceed (their own) high standards
-Self-motivated, and self-improving; requires minimum supervision 
-Cooperative, easy to work with, helps others (including leadership)
-Mature, accepts productive conflict, diplomatic, diffuses conflict
-Sees this job as a great career move, motivated to do this job, not to “get a job”
-Past track record of delivering results, in increasingly bigger roles
-Solid character, beliefs and values will fit well in the team
 
 
What did I miss?
 
 
 
 
Why aren’t you hiring these people? 

Guiding leaders to accelerate career growth and hire with confidence through data driven hiring | Founder | Hiring Strategist |Software Industry Leadership Search Recruiter

Product Market Fit: When your clients say, “it was the solution I didn’t know I needed”..

 
There are days I feel like I’m selling a service that no one is looking for..
 
Yet, it seems like complaints about hiring are coming from all sides:
 
Candidates voice concerns with:
-cumbersome applications
-total silence
-confusing process 
-recruiter ghosting
-unfair assessment
 
Companies decry:
-early opt-outs
-climbing mis-hire rates
-low % of offers accepted
-engagement issues
-quiet quitting
-excessive turnover
-retention problems
 
And though many companies question the effectiveness of their hiring process, yet most continue to treat the symptoms and ignore the root causes.
 
This is the painful, costly problem I solve, and yet I often feel invisible?
 
Can you imagine? 3 fully-vetted, can't go wrong candidates, a headache free hiring process, and complete confidence in the right hire?  And candidates singing the praises of interviewing with you even when they didn’t get an offer?
 
I’ve identified a few of the roadblocks keeping leaders who need my help from connecting with me.. 
 
-Unaware of problem; believing myths like.. “it’s just a tight talent market”
-Denial of symptoms
-unsure of root-cause
-exhausted from trying failed solutions
-resigning yourself to suffer through; perhaps this is just how it is
 
What's keeping you from reaching the clients that desperately want your help and can’t find you?
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 

Epic hiring battle: A manager's story of perseverance in the face of hiring challenges
 
 
 
Rob is a dev manager for an early-stage startup with under 100 staff. In our first conversation, I learned that he was extremely frustrated that it took nearly 3 months to fill a position on his team.
 
Hours sifting through resumes. “I don’t feel like I’m being picky” he said, “I’m just trying to find strong technical skills with solid communication, and good teamwork.” 
 
Being a problem solver, Rob explained his analysis of the situation, and his conclusion that the lack of qualified candidates in the job market must be the root-cause. There simply weren't enough skilled developers looking. [I’m not convinced, but I didn’t say so.]
 
Convinced creativity was his only option, Rob started looking for alternative sources of talent; started attending tech meetups and events. Engaged his network for help.
 
His efforts produced a few candidates, and he eventually found a few options through ad response as well. 
 
But just when Rob thought he’d found his new hire, another obstacle set him back. The candidate had three job offers, and was leaning toward a higher offer.
 
Rob acted fast, he negotiated with HR, and camped at their office door to get a higher salary approved, which he quickly presented to the candidate.
 
Impressed, and thankful for Rob's seemingly herculean efforts to get him onboard, the candidate ultimately accepted the job offer. 
 
Relieved to finally have this role filled, Rob seemed thankful that he’d learned how to face the problem head on and succeed. 
 
But.. he’d lost 90 days. For three months the team was distracted with screening and interviews. How much more could they have accomplished had they not been forced to spend so much time on hiring? And would there new hire be up to speed if he was on board 60 days earlier?
 
.. candidly he shared, “I just can’t believe that it has to be this hard”. 
 
In the end, Rob concluded that the key to successful hiring in tech requires creativity and persistence. He realized that finding a great team member is never easy, but with the right approach and a little bit of luck, it's possible to build a strong team that can achieve great things.
 
Rob’s not unlike a great many leaders. Personally, my experience leads me to a different conclusion. What about you?
 

#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 
 


PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.

Top heavy or well balanced, which team develops better software?
 

Once I ended up working with two software managers with nearly polar opposite views on how to build a software team. 
 
To protect the innocent let’s call them Robert and William. They worked for different companies, each of which was small VC funded software startup, under 50 employees and poised for rapid growth. 
 
Each had a strong opinion of what the optimal team looked like. Both advocated for small teams that could adapt and iterate quickly, and considered automation and CI/CD as foundational to a healthy development process. 
 
Bob was convinced that the optimal way to build his team was six senior software engineers, each with good general skills and deep in a specialty like, UI, backend, database, network protocols, etc. 
                           
Will believed that the optimal team would consist of a software architect (or Sr. with solid design/arch exp.), a tech lead, two senior engineers, one mid-level and a junior engineer. good general skills and deep in a specialty like, UI, backend, database, network protocols, etc. 
 
I’ve observed very senior teams often have shorter tenure/more turnover. And it also seems that Will’s approach might lend itself more toward a culture of mentorship that grows better, more rounded engineers, but I don’t have any hard data to support either of these contentions.
 
Want to weigh in? I’d be very interested in hearing more thoughts on the topic?
 
Is there a particular mix or structure that’s worked best for you?

#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 



PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.
 
 


Quit Complaining: It’s not the job, it’s your brain..


 
Doing something that has value, impact and worth is inspiring.
It wakes you up in the morning before your alarm.
 
You leave work tired because you expended effort to create. But not exhausted and despondent because your efforts toward doing something meaningful and valuable were blocked at nearly every turn.
 
Genuine freedom isn’t the moment you arrive at the destination, it’s the realization that the self-imposed shackles that have kept you from pursuing excellence have fallen to the wayside.
 
Most think you must be an entrepreneur, be in charge, call all the shots in order to achieve this.
 
When in fact, it’s just a natural result of changing your mind. Deciding to let loose of mis-held beliefs.
 
For those of us blessed to live in a free market; where you can change jobs, professions, businesses at will, the only obstacles are the thoughts and ideas you choose to embrace or reject.
 
You’re allowed to vote with your feet. If your employer refuses to give you a bigger job, more challenge and opportunity to grow you can walk across the street. Or you can mentally disengage and slowly become useless. Fear is your enemy, not the boss or the corporation.
 
In truth, you’re a free agent. Unless in your mind you choose to become a wage slave.
 
Many would choose better if they had a savings account. If you’d be late on your mortgage payment inside 60 days if your income stopped, you’ve been financially undisciplined, and it’s costing you..
 
.. costing growth, meaning, motivation, impact, satisfaction, and maybe even your health.
 
I’m a recruiter. That’s what I do. I’m the best, because I choose to be. My task is to help leaders with vision find talented people of like mind to join them in making the world a better place; one company, one service, one product at a time.
 
You see what I mean about “changing mis-held beliefs”. I don’t “steal employees” for competitors, I find great people who have topped out, and are already (whether they admit it or not) struggling to stay engaged, or already disengaged and I re-introduce them to life sustaining work, infused with..
 
Meaning, motivation, impact.. 
 
Blaming is for victims, and complaining is for those who’ve lots focus on what has value. 
 
Go be victorious!
 
 
PS - I write about today’s workforce, how meaning, impact, satisfying work, and social conscience became the new hiring currency, hiring problems, the epic battle to unleash brilliant minds and inspire the hearts of your people, and how to build admirable companies.
 
 
#visionaryleader #hiring #interviewing #softwareengineering #hireinreverse 

Taplio

Jonathan Schultz's Linkedin Analytics

Jonathan Schultz

What is Jonathan talking about?

Who is engaging with Jonathan

Jonathan Schultz's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Jonathan Schultz's Linkedin Analytics

Jonathan Schultz

What is Jonathan talking about?

Who is engaging with Jonathan

Jonathan Schultz's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Jonathan Schultz's Linkedin Analytics

Jonathan Schultz's Best Posts (last 30 days)