Nonstop Talent Ltd

Recruitment isn’t just about filling jobs. It’s about understanding people - what drives them, what excites them, and what matches their goals.

I love to help. But what I love even more is changing how people see recruitment. For businesses, it’s not a cost. It’s an investment in their future. For candidates, it’s about uncovering opportunities they didn’t know existed.

What makes my approach different?
	•	I focus on people: The best hires aren’t just skilled. They’re a great fit for the team and culture.
	•	I rethink problems: Can’t find the right person? Let’s look somewhere new. Need to hire faster? Let’s change how you approach it.
	•	I create wins for everyone: The right hire isn’t just about filling a gap. It’s about helping businesses and people grow together.


I launched my recruitment business before the global pandemic. One of the toughest times for many industries. Thriving through that experience taught me how to adapt, solve big problems, and support clients and candidates when it mattered most.

What I’ve helped others achieve:
	•	Found top talent for $100k+ roles that seemed impossible to fill.
	•	Simplified hiring processes, saving businesses time and money.
	•	Helped people land jobs that weren’t just roles. They were life-changing.

Let’s make hiring better.
If you think recruitment is broken, let’s fix it together. Whether you’re building a team or looking for your next role, I’ll help you find the right fit.

Founder

Native Recruit

The best part of being a recruiter is changing people's lives, getting them the opportunity that they wouldn't find it on their own. We are creating real experience for the real people. It feels fantastic when we call candidates to tell them they've got a job. Cause we realise that what we do does matter.
​
​At Native Recruit, everyone supports each other, we offer a one-of-a-kind competitive yet collaborative work environment where you'll work harder and have more fun than you've had at any other job. We are each others' inspiration and we bring the best version of each other.

General Manager

920 Recruitment Specialists

Auckland IT & Digital, recruiting of permanent employees and contractors across infrastructure, product management and development, telecommunications, programme and project management, security, web development and production, business and systems analysts, architects and IT sales.

Senior Consultant

RWA Technology People

Business Development Manager/Senior Recruitment Specialist

Beyond Recruitment

I specialise in both permanent and contract recruitment across IT throughout the North Island of New Zealand. Working with exceptional customers within the IT sector, my primary focus is to partner with candidates and clients, using the depth and breadth of my expertise and market knowledge to ensure we make the unique match that makes individuals, companies and industries flourish.

Client Manager - IT & Transformation

Hays

I specialised in contract recruitment across IT Infrastructure Service throughout the North Island of New Zealand.

Recruitment Consultant

Enterprise Recruitment New Zealand

I specialised in providing temporary staff solutions in Manufacture/logistic and Transportation Service in Auckland region.

MedCall

I specialised in providing temporary staff solutions in Medical and Healthcare sectors within Waikato region.

Most tech recruiters send resumes.
We send results.

At Nonstop Talent, we headhunt BAs, Engineers, PMs & Cyber Pros who don’t just tick boxes.
They ship fast, solve problems, and scale teams from day one.

No job ads.
No CV spam.
No “maybe” candidates.
Just high-impact hires that drive ROI from day one.

I helped teams at fast-growing NZ companies:

→ Hire engineers who deploy production-ready code in Week 1
→ Place BAs promoted to lead within 90 days
→ Reduce project delays by 40% without adding more headcount

Our approach is simple:
We don’t ask “what does the candidate need?”
We ask, “What ROI does this hire need to drive?”
Then we headhunt for that outcome.

So if your team is:

→ Wasting time screening average CVs
→ Slowing delivery with misaligned hires
→ Missing deadlines due to poor technical fit

Let’s fix it.

Take the free Hiring ROI Scorecard
Find out what your current hiring process is really costing you.
And how to hire for impact, not interviews.

Scorecard Link: https://scorecard.nonstoptalent.co.nz

✅ Built for NZ tech teams.
✅ Exclusive roles only.
✅ Outcomes over resumes, every time.

Most people hide their boss from the reference list.
This candidate didn’t.
He insisted on putting him first.

“Leaving shouldn’t be a surprise,” he told me.
“I want my team to be ready.”

That line stopped me.

Because most people plan their exits like breakups.
Quiet. Secret. Full of fear.

He did the opposite.

From intro to offer to reference checks, the whole thing took two weeks.
He moved fast,
but never in the shadows.

Before the interviews even started, he called his manager.

Not to beg.
Not to explain.
But to show respect.

When I spoke to that manager, I asked:

“When’s the last time you saw him drop the ball?”

He laughed.

“Never.
But you know what I’ll miss the most?
The smile he wore every day,
even when things were falling apart.
That smile lifted the whole team.”

People love to talk about culture fit.
Safe. Predictable. Neutral.

But this guy?
He was a culture lift.

Some candidates impress you with what they’ve done.
Others impress you with how they leave.

And that part?
It never shows up on a CV.

What’s one thing you still remember about a teammate who moved on?

Jessica Xin Dong

li_at

JSESSIONID

Building tech teams that deliver outcomes, not excuses. For NZ leaders who treat recruitment as strategy, not admin.

Last week, a hiring manager told me something that stuck with me:


“I knew someone wasn’t working out… but I waited too long to say anything.”

By the time they finally acted,
the damage was already done.
Morale dropped.
Their best people were thinking of leaving.

This happens in more teams than anyone admits.

So I broke down one thing Netflix does differently,
a simple question they ask that keeps performance clean
before anyone burns out.

It’s uncomfortable.
It’s confronting.
But it’s the reason they operate like a $500B powerhouse.

If you lead a team, this might change how you think about performance forever.

Swipe through the carousel
and judge for yourself.

Keeper Test: The One Question Every Leader Should Ask

Four weeks before Christmas , and something hit me.
The closer I get to the end of the year, the more I realise something most leaders miss:


Hiring didn’t work this year because of process.
It worked because of people.

Last week, a hiring manager said to me,
“Jess, thanks for checking in even when we weren’t hiring. That’s rare.”

That one line told me everything.

Most people think hiring is a logical system:
JDs, pipelines, interviews, scorecards.

But the truth is way more human:

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩.
𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧.

And here’s the ROI angle most leaders never measure:

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐬.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬.
𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭. 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭.

Some would call this “psychological efficiency”:
the invisible force that makes work feel lighter or heavier
before any process change even happens.

Others would call it “leverage”:
the thing that makes the return bigger than the input.

And I’ve seen it all year.

So over the next 4 weeks, I’m running around meeting the people
who made the tough moments feel workable.

Not because it’s Christmas.
But because it’s obvious:

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫’𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰:
𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫.

If you lead a team, here’s one question worth asking:

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐲𝐞𝐭?

Because those are the people who make hard years smoother…
and big goals possible.

A friend asked me how to negotiate her salary.
What she said next explains why most people never move past their pay band.

She said:
“Jess, my annual review is coming… how do I negotiate?”

I asked:
“What’s the size of your project?
How much money sits under your scope?”

She blinked.
“I don’t know… but I’m swamped.
Always chasing people. Always pushing things forward. You have no idea”

And I told her:
“Busy isn’t the metric.
Impact is.”

She went quiet for a bit.

Because for the first time, she realised she didn’t know if she had covered her own cost.

Here’s the part no one teaches:

You don’t negotiate with effort.
You negotiate with outcomes.

Money saved.
Time gained.
Risk avoided.
Delivery sped up.

Everything else is noise.

Most people think “being busy” is valuable.
It’s not.
It’s camouflage.

If you can’t prove your impact,
you’re negotiating from weakness.

Here’s the flip every leader should care about:

If an employee can’t show their impact at review time,
they also can’t show it in their role.

That’s how mis-hires happen:

• Full calendars
• Empty outcomes

Impact is a skill.
And you can hire someone for it.

If your review is coming up, try this:
Write down 1- 2 ways your work made the business faster, safer, or cheaper.

That’s your leverage.
Not the hours.
Not the chaos.
Not the busyness.

What’s one impact you made this year that no one really sees?

Technical debt doesn’t kill products first.
It kills hiring.
And no one talks about it.

A senior engineer told me last week, before the interview even finished:
“It wasn’t the salary.
It was seeing how much time your team spends fixing old problems instead of building.”

And the data backs it:

42% of engineering time is lost to technical debt.
51% of engineers think about leaving because of it.
Morale tanks when people spend more time firefighting than creating.

So when candidates ask:
“How long does a PR take?”
“How often does the build break?”
“What’s your release cycle like?”

They’re not being picky.
They’re checking how much pain they’re walking into.

Engineers don’t need access to your codebase.
Your process answers tell them everything.

If hiring feels tougher this year, it’s not the talent market.
It’s your technical debt speaking for you.
And the best engineers hear it long before you ever see their CV.

This is the side of hiring most leaders never see.

If you’re losing engineers at the interview stage, it’s never random. I can help you decode why.

Most leaders think slow hiring keeps them safe.

But this week, I wrote about a moment that proved the opposite.

A technical hire who looked “perfect on paper”…
fell apart when it mattered most.

One mistake turned into a chain reaction
that dragged directors into midnight calls
and cost a client’s trust in a single night.

I break down the real story
(and the hidden cost most leaders never see)
in Episode 2 of Talent War Notes.

If you’ve ever made a hire you regretted later,
this one will hit you in the gut.

Talent War Notes: Episode 2
Hiring Fast Isn’t the Risk. Hiring Blind Is.

Airbnb didn’t almost break because of bad strategy.
They almost broke because of bad early hiring.


This is the part most founders ignore… until it hits their own team.

Your first 10-20 hires don’t just fill roles,
they decide your culture, your speed, and your survival.

If this hit a nerve, I made a simple Builder Scorecard that helps you filter out résumé-collectors before they slow you down.

DM me “BUILDER” and I’ll send it to you.

The Hiring Mistake That Nearly Killed Airbnb

As a tech recruiter, I’ve learned one truth:
Everyone says they’re ready for leadership… until I ask this one question.

A senior candidate messaged me this week saying:
“Jess, I’m ready for a leadership role.”

Five minutes later… he wasn’t so sure.

let's call him Jack, Jack has been a senior for 3 years.
Solid performer.
Wants to move up.

“Jess, I’m ready to lead.”

So I asked him,
“How would you like to lead?”

He replied quickly:
“I coach juniors already. I lead by example.”

Most seniors think this is enough.
It sounds good.
It feels good.

So I asked the question that usually cracks the surface:

“What’s your plan when the person you lead… isn’t you?”

What if they’re smart but lazy?
What if they work hard but learn slow?
What if they disagree with you every day?
What if they shut down when things get hard?

Silence.

That’s the moment leadership becomes real.

Rosalind Brewer says the hardest part of leadership
is the emotional labour nobody sees.
Not the tasks.
Not the knowledge.
Not the title.

It’s staying steady when someone else is chaos.
It’s helping people who don’t think like you.
It’s holding the hard conversations.
It’s growing others even when it’s inconvenient.

Leadership is not a reward.
It’s a responsibility.

Jack didn’t need a promotion.
He needed a new identity.

Leadership isn’t “I do great work.”
Leadership is “I make others great, even when it’s hard.”

That’s the shift hiring managers look for.
That’s the shift most seniors never make.
That’s the shift that builds real leaders inside tech teams.

If you’re aiming for your next step, ask yourself:

“Can I lead someone who frustrates me…
without losing the plot?”

If yes, you’re closer than you think.

If no, that’s the work before the title.

What was the moment you realised leadership wasn’t what you first imagined?

DID YOUR SENIOR HIRE MAKE YOU BETTER… OR BUSIER?

Last week a manager told me something that hit harder than he expected:
“I hired a senior so I could step back.
Instead, I’m spending more time cleaning up than leading.”

And I see this way more often than you’d think.

A real senior hire should reduce work, not rearrange it.

They make decisions without hand-holding.
They sharpen your thinking.
They turn chaos into clarity.
They raise the bar without asking you to carry them there.

But here’s the pattern I see every time I’m brought in to fix a “senior hire” that never landed:

Teams hire for experience…
but forget to check for impact.

And this part matters more than leaders think:
this pattern never fixes itself; it compounds.

Twelve years deep in headhunting senior talent, the same truth keeps showing up:

You can’t buy leadership with a CV.
You buy it with the outcomes they’ve created.

Great leaders already know this.
The best hires pay for themselves in speed, clarity, and results, long before they get their first payslip.

Bad hires?
They drain you quietly.
One missed decision at a time.

So ask yourself:

Is your senior hire raising the standard…
or are you lowering yours to carry them?

When did a hire actually make you better?

A lot of leaders I talk to aren’t scared of AI.
They’re scared of making the wrong move for their team.

I heard it again during a coffee chat last week.

The leader looked at me and said:

“AI isn’t the hard part.
Making sure my team comes on the journey with me is.”

For real!

Leaders aren’t confused.
They’re careful.

They want to bring AI in the right way
 → without overwhelming people
 → without breaking trust
 → without losing the human parts that matter.

But when no one talks about it openly,
hiring slows quietly in the background.

We keep treating AI like it’s a technology problem.

It’s not.

It’s a team problem.

Most companies aren’t stuck because they don’t have the tools.
They’re stuck because they don’t know where the human line should be.

Here’s the piece most teams get wrong:

👉 AI helps when it removes the busywork.
 (CV overload. Scheduling. Notes.)

👉 AI hurts when it replaces judgment.
 (Final interviews. Culture fit. Selling the role.)

The companies moving fastest aren’t automating everything.
They’re choosing wisely: letting AI do the heavy lifting,
 and keeping the human parts human.

Poll Question:
How is your team using AI in hiring right now?
A) Not at all, too unclear
B) Just resume screening
C) Screening + interviews
D) Full strategy (and it’s working)

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