Provide specific feedback to recruiters and hiring teams

“Culture fit” can make cross-functional hiring nearly impossible. Let’s say you’re hiring a program manager or leader who will work across three departments. Each department has its own culture—and that’s not a bad thing. But it does mean all three leaders may have a completely different picture of the “right fit.” One wants someone direct. Another wants someone diplomatic. The third wants someone who operates like their existing team. Now you’re searching for a candidate who fits three different cultures at once. Good luck with that. Before interviewing anyone, agree on a clear set of soft-skill requirements: • If they demonstrate X and Y, they’re a yes. • If they demonstrate Z, they’re a no. • Everything else is a preference, not a requirement. It sounds basic, but it forces leaders to define what the role actually needs before personal chemistry enters the conversation. Everyone gets a voice—but nobody gets to invent new criteria halfway through the process. How does your company evaluate “culture fit” for cross-functional hires?

A good recruiter will work hard to find you candidates. A great recruiter will do that and have the tough conversations when your expectations don’t match the market. Here’s the truth: • Recruiters don’t create talent, we find it. • We can bring you highly specialized professionals. • We can source candidates open to relocating or adjusting compensation. But we can’t manufacture unicorns. (And honestly, I’m not a fan of that term anyway.) Recruiting is a lot like the stock market: You can’t control it, you navigate it based on what’s real. Hiring managers don’t always see that side of the work. (And that’s totally fair—it’s not their job to.) But it is our job to: • Push back when the budget doesn’t align with the market • Adjust roles that don’t actually exist out there • Flag interview processes that are confusing or turning candidates off If your role has been open for too long and your recruiter isn’t giving you that honest feedback, that’s a red flag. The best hiring partnerships are built on trust, clarity, and reality. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 😎

Hot take: Ageism in hiring isn’t just about people nearing retirement—it shows up way earlier than most people think. I talk to hiring managers every week, and I’d estimate ~20% of them (consciously or not) filter candidates based on where they think someone should be in their career at a certain age. Not just 50+. I’m talking: • A 30–35 year old who isn’t a Senior yet • A Senior who’s been at that level for 8–10 years but hasn’t pushed to Lead or Staff And the assumption becomes: “What’s wrong?” “Why haven’t they progressed?” But here’s the reality—career growth isn’t linear, and not everyone is optimizing for title progression. Some people: •Get really good at a level and enjoy the work • Prioritize stability, life outside of work, or different definitions of success • Haven’t had the right environment or opportunity—not a lack of ability If you’re hiring for a role where upward mobility isn’t required or expected, filtering these candidates out isn’t just biased—it’s a missed opportunity. You’re potentially passing on highly capable, experienced, and LOW-EGO talent who can deliver immediately. Not everyone needs to climb. Some people just want to be great at what they do. And that should be enough.

Have you ever wondered why candidates suddenly stop responding? Most of the time, it isn't because they lost interest. It's because something in the hiring process made them think your company wasn't interested. Here are some of the biggest reasons candidates ghost employers: • Waiting weeks between interviews with no communication. • Requiring five or six interview rounds for a mid-level role. • Changing the compensation or job responsibilities halfway through the process. • Taking so long to make a decision that another company extends an offer first. • Leaving candidates in the dark after promising an update. The reality is that today's top talent usually has options. When communication slows down, they don't assume you're busy. They assume you've moved on. A great candidate experience isn't just about being polite. It's about showing candidates that you value their time and can make decisions. The companies that consistently hire the best people aren't always the ones with the biggest salaries. They're the ones that communicate clearly, move with purpose, and treat candidates like future teammates from the very first conversation. When was the last time you looked at your hiring process through the eyes of a candidate?

I hate to be that guy, but I want to be honest with job seekers for a second. I want candidates to feel comfortable being themselves when we talk about opportunities. I’m pretty relaxed compared to most recruiters. But at the end of the day, this is still a professional conversation, and you need to treat it like one. Yesterday, I was speaking with a candidate and we're getting a little off topic. Then he made a sexual joke. If he was out with friends, maybe it would’ve landed differently, but in an recruiter interview process? Big NO! Just now, I got off a call with someone who spent almost 4 straight minutes complaining about how terrible the job market is. Trust me, I get it, (literally my job). The market has been rough and it’s completely fair to acknowledge that. But when the majority of the conversation becomes negativity, you’re not moving forward. No one wants to work with a negative Nancy. These things usually won’t get called out directly, but they absolutely impact how you’re perceived. Hiring managers are looking for people they can confidently put in front of clients, leadership teams, coworkers, and customers. Professionalism matters just as much as experience sometimes.

Recruiting is changing and candidates need to change with it. Many agency and in-house recruiters are expanding beyond LinkedIn and using AI-powered recruiting tools such as Juicebox, Metaview, and Pin to identify potential candidates. These tools can surface professional information from across the internet, including job platforms, portfolios, public profiles, and other career-related sources. What does that mean if you’re looking for a new role?Your professional presence shouldn’t live in only one place. Depending on your industry, consider maintaining updated profiles on platforms such as: • LinkedIn • Indeed • ZipRecruiter • GitHub • Crunchbase • Kaggle (if you're a Data Scientist, you better be here) • Relevant industry-specific job boards Make sure your job titles, skills, experience, and achievements are accurate and consistent across those platforms. The goal isn’t to be everywhere. It’s to make it easier for the right recruiters and hiring managers to discover you. In today’s job market, visibility is becoming an important part of opportunity. Let me know what I'm missing!

What this year reminded me about recruiting:   Headlines are suppose to be flashy and never say the whole story don’t equal reality. REMEMBER THAT!   Even during mass layoffs, companies were hiring all year long. Recruiting isn’t one market — it’s thousands of industry- and company-specific micro-markets happening at the same time. You have look at different markets!   A few things that stood out to me: • AI is great and dominates everything but with every tech evaluation, there is a learning curve • Ageism is real but some companies want older employees I worked with two organizations this year that specifically asked us to target people at or near retirement for their experience and knowledge.   Change is hard at any age. But the basics still hold true: clear roles, realistic expectations, and work designed around how people actually think and operate.   To my fellow recruiters; the game never gets easier, you just get better!

One AI trend I don't think enough people are talking about: AI isn't just helping people write better resumes. In some cases, it's creating resumes that overstate a candidate's experience. I've seen candidates use AI to tailor a "master resume" to a specific job description. The idea makes sense, but sometimes the AI fills in gaps by adding accomplishments, KPIs, or experience the candidate never actually had. The result? A resume that looks almost perfect on paper but doesn't hold up in an interview or on the job. This is changing how recruiters, hiring managers, and ATS systems evaluate candidates. Resumes alone are becoming less reliable, which makes structured interviews and deeper validation more important than ever. Has anyone else started seeing this trend? If your team is running into this challenge, I'd be happy to share what's been working for the companies I've partnered with.

The future has never had five years of experience. Yet we keep writing job descriptions as if it should. Five years with a tool that’s been relevant for three. A background in a role that barely existed before. Proof that someone has already done exactly what we need them to do next. That works when the job stays the same. Increasingly, it doesn’t. Some of the most important capabilities now are harder to put a year-count beside: How quickly someone learns. How they make decisions when there isn’t a playbook. Whether they can connect dots others miss. How they respond when the work changes underneath them. Experience matters. But when we use years of experience as shorthand for readiness, we can end up hiring for where the work has been instead of where it’s going. Take one open role and replace every “X years of experience” requirement with the capability you’re actually trying to measure. That one change can completely alter who makes it into the conversation. The future won’t arrive pre-qualified. #Hiring #FutureOfWork #WorkforceStrategy #LinkTech

We've helped companies hire across technology, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and professional services over the last year. Different industries. Different challenges. But we've noticed the same themes showing up again and again. Companies that move quickly hire the best talent. The strongest candidates rarely stay on the market for long. Slow interview processes continue to be one of the biggest reasons companies lose great people. Clarity beats perfection. Candidates don't expect leaders to have every answer. They do expect honesty about where the company is today, where it's headed, and what success looks like in the role. Skills matter. But so does how people think. Many of the best hires aren't the people with the most experience. They're the people whose strengths, communication style, and approach to problem-solving align with the work that needs to get done. Great candidates have options. Compensation matters. So do flexibility, growth opportunities, leadership, and workplace culture. The biggest lesson? Hiring is becoming less about finding the "perfect" resume and more about finding the right person for the challenge ahead.