The Modern Recruiter Robin Choy

We recorded this episode live in person, right after Sandra Feldmann rocked the stage at the Sourcing Summit. The energy of doing it in person was - as usual - incredible, and Sandra was totally in her element – you’ll feel like you’re in the room in Amsterdam with us!
Sandra is big about blending Marketing + Recruiting (a common thread on the podcast). During our conversation, she shared some super cool strategies on making connections with candidates that are way more than just about hiring. It's all about getting to know them as people and what they really want.
Here’s what we discussed:
* Start with Why
Sandra brought up Simon Sinek's book "Start with Why," applying its principles to recruiting. It's all about flipping the script and focusing on why the role matters to the candidate, not just what the job is. As Sandra put it, “You first have to cut through the noise... People want to feel the relevance of what does this person want from me? Why is this relevant to me?”
* The company is not the hero - the candidate is!
Sandra shared her insights on the importance of making each candidate feel like the hero of their own story - a big topic of her SOSU talk. I liked this idea and the whole “hero journey” comparison. Most (all?) recruiters frame the company as the “Hero” whose journey the candidates can join ("let's join us to disrupt X and become the first unicorn to do Y!", but nobody's excited about being the side kick to another hero. People want to be the heroes of their own stories, and have their own journeys!
* Personalize based on the person AND their culture
Different people like different things. It’s super important to tailor your approach, especially when it comes to different cultures. That requires effort, work, investigation. Last but not least “You should follow up, follow up, make sure to stay top of mind”.
* The Impact of Recruiting
We also got into how what we do as recruiters can really make a difference in someone's life. Pretty inspiring stuff, and I hope both our passion showed :)

So, what do you think? I’d love to hear your take on the episode. Just hit reply and let’s chat!
P.S. Want to dive deeper into Sandra’s insights? Check out her amazing collaborative book "Talent Titans" on Amazon. Plus, she agreed to share her ENTIRE slide deck from the Sourcing Summit – check it out here!
P.P.S. Loving our podcast? A five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcast would be amazing! Let’s keep the recruiting conversation going strong!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernrecruiter.substack.com

Great news! Substack now has a “Transcription” feature - which means you can read the transcript of our conversation with Aaron. If you are as impatient as I am, you will love it!
A lot of you noticed (and complained!) that I haven't released an episode for almost 2 months now. That's awesome, and it shows that you truly care (and wait for the next episode) - I'm grateful for this! I'm back on track now, I should get back to the bi-weekly cadence :)
Back to today's episode: a Masterclass on how to coach interviewers.
1/ This is “advanced” recruiting
Early on in our discussion, Aaron warned me (and us): this is not Recruiting 101. Not even 102. It's not a low-hanging fruit, it's something you do once you already master the basics: you know how to run a proper discovery meeting, you know how to source quality candidates fast, you know how to run an interview process and how to run candidates.
You have enough credibility that you can move to address more critically important issues: fight against the lazy feedback (“bad culture fit”), the biases, the lack of involvement
2/ Try and get a pre-agreed commitment
Aaron asked me to include a few documents in the notes, namely the templates he uses to run a great interview process. It boils down to one thing: agreeing beforehand with the interviewers on the decision-making process.
It seems simple, but it's much harder to do in practice: Agree on what you’re assessing for, down to the question. Agree on what success looks like, and what's required to send an offer. Do this before the interview so as to avoid the “culture fit” or “when there's a doubt, there's no doubt”.
Overall, a great Masterclass on how to challenge & train the interviewers to improve the final outcome, and in the process gain a lot of credibility and recognition!
What did you think of this episode? Just hit reply and let me know your thoughts, ideas, remarks - it's always a pleasure to chat!
Robin
CEO @ HireSweetPS: If you read this - it means you enjoy my content. Remember to leave a five-star review in Spotify or Apple Podcast!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernrecruiter.substack.com

To access the episode notes, please go to https://themodernrecruiter.substack.com/.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernrecruiter.substack.com

To access the notes of the episode, go to http://themodernrecruiter.substack.com.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernrecruiter.substack.com

Hello everyone! I'm Robin Choy, CEO of HireSweet (a recruiting CRM that helps Talent Acquisition automate their outreach and nurture past candidates). Each week, I address various recruiting issues, such as recruiting outreach, interviewing, employer branding, and career management. My goal is to provide helpful insights to anyone interested in recruitment, whether you're an in-house recruiter, agency recruiter, freelance recruiter.
Productivity hacks for recruiters, Jonathan Kidder.
👉 Listen to this episode on Apple podcast👉 Listen to this episode on Spotify
If you enjoy the podcast, remember to leave us a 5-star review on the app you use!

Hi everyone, Robin Choy here! In this new podcast episode, I had the pleasure of hosting Jonathan Kidder, a seasoned recruiter with over twelve years of experience in tech recruitment. But Jonathan is not just a recruiter; he's also the brain behind the insightful "Wizard Sourcer" blog and the author of "Productivity Hacks for Recruiters." Our conversation dove deep into how recruiters can level up their productivity game, focusing on concrete strategies, tools, and techniques.
Here are my two main takeaways from this episode:1/ Time management is everything Time management truly is everything. One of the most effective and simple methods discussed was time blocking. The concept is basic yet very powerful: just block specific periods in your calendar to focus solely on a single task, ensuring distractions are kept at bay. It’s basically like taking a meeting but with yourself. Ideally, you do time blocking Sunday evening for the whole week or in the evening for the following day. When time is blocked, your phone is away, Slack is closed, and you tackle the task. We often feel overwhelmed, yet I think we tend to underestimate what can be done in 4 hours of deep work per week that have been blocked in advance in the calendar.
2/ Measure what matters I’m also a huge fan of this technique because “activity” or “work hours” doesn't always indicate progress. By focusing on specific metrics, we can better understand why the outcomes are what they are. For instance, many recruiters say: “Candidates no longer respond on LinkedIn”. But when we deep dive into it, the response rate is exactly the same as before. What has dropped is the number of messages sent per week. Data provides an objective lens, highlighting what needs adjustment. Sales have weekly (or daily) emails and cold calls target to tackle. Recruiters should do the same by measuring, for instance, the number of LinkedIn emails sent to candidates. Listen to the episode to find out more!
Jonathan and I discussed a lot of other productivity principles during the episode. Listen to the full episode to find out more!Have a nice week, and see you soon,
Robin
CEO of HireSweetPS: If you enjoy the episodes, don’t hesitate to leave the podcast a five-star review in your favorite app of choice. It helps me a lot!
Feel free to check out the 3 most downloaded episodes:
* 37. Build a thriving & strategic sourcing team, with Garrett Lewis, tech sourcing lead at Grammarly.
* 50. Introduction to Recruitment Operations, Luke Eaton.
* 48. Making the business case for recruiting at the executive level, Greg Troxell, Recruiting Leader at Wheel
If you find this podcast helpful, you'll be interested in what we do at HireSweet.
👉 HireSweet CRM helps Talent Acquisition teams get more efficient at sourcing candidates. Automate your sourcing tasks and search for former candidates to contact again directly in your ATS.Try it for free here!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernrecruiter.substack.com

Hello everyone, and welcome to this podcast episode! I'm Robin Choy, CEO of HireSweet (a Recruiting CRM that helps Talent Acquisition automate their outreach and nurture past candidates). Each week, I address various recruiting issues, such as recruiting outreach, interviewing, employer branding, and career management. My goal is to provide helpful insights to anyone interested in recruitment, whether you're an in-house recruiter, agency recruiter, freelancer, or hiring manager!
How to become a fractional recruiter, Natalie Stones.
👉 Listen to this episode on Apple podcast👉 Listen to this episode on Spotify
If you enjoy the podcast, remember to leave us a 5-star review on the app you use!

I'm talking to more and more recruiters who are going freelance (in different ways), because the full-time internal/agency recruiter job no longer suits them. So I thought I would dedicate an episode on how to become a freelance recruiter (60 episodes, and still never talked about this topic!). I decided to make this episode with Natalie Stones. After 20 years as an agency recruiter and then as an internal recruiter (including Head Of Talent Acquisition position), she was tired of the 40 hours work week for the same employer. So Natalie became freelance. More precisely, she became a part-time recruiter (aka “fractional” recruiter) for several brands. It means she works for 4 different companies, 10 hours a week for each.
Here’s Natalie’s process to go fractional :
1/ Understanding what “fractional” means
Fractional recruitment is opposed to RPO and project-driven freelancing, where the mission is: '“I need you to hire those 3 tech roles, and then we’re done”. Conversely, a fractional recruiter seeks long-term collaboration with the company (6+ months). The good news is that it suits many companies that would like to have a Head of TA to change their ATS, set up better hiring processes within the teams, and help on 3-5 critical hires a year. But they don’t need to hire a full-time TA for that missions. So they hire a “fractional Head of TA”, who will work 10 hours a week for them. Natalie advises working all day for one client rather than doing per-hours contracts because that’s easier to manage.
2/ Finding clients
There are 2 straightforward ways to find clients at the beginning: 1/ Digging into your network 2/ Doing cold outreach Hopefully, you’ll find your first clients within your network. Then, if you’re good at your job, referrals will bring you new clients. Eventually, you’ll need to do cold outreach. Cold email and cold DM on LinkedIn are still efficient in 2023. Natalie also posts on LinkedIn, but she doesn’t do it to generate leads, but rather to build authority. Natalie and I don’t advise you to create content at first to generate leads because it’s very hard and time-consuming, and it won’t generate inbound leads for several months. Start with your network and cold outreach, and eventually post on LinkedIn, not the other way around. It’s the biggest downside of becoming a part-time recruiter: you've to do sales and business development. You have to be comfortable getting out there. If you don't like Sales, forget it.
3/ Having a clear offer
According to Natalie, this is the number 1 mistake fractional recruiters make: not having a clear offer. It’s often :
* Too broad: “I help companies hire”. Which companies? Hire what type of candidates?
* Too fluffy: “I help companies look at recruitment from a different angle and become magnets for candidates.” We don’t get it. It’s too fluffy.
When prospects don't understand your offer or have doubts about it, they churn every time. If you're having trouble formulating your offer, I recommend this book : $100M Offers.
4/ Price yourself smartly
Fractional Recruiters underprice themselves, according to Natalie. Natalie usually charges between 5000$ and 8000$ per month for 10 hours a week. The best way to estimate you