The Recruiting Brainfood Podcast

How do you assess software engineers? One of the toughest challenges in tech recruiting is how usually non-tech people (tech recruiters) can effectively assess software engineers.  All the signals are bad... Resume / CV ....self reported document, easy to game Brand name previous employers.....'must be good because she worked at Google' Phone screen....irrelevant testing, using a medium that engineers don't often use Face to face interview....rote pitching of questions, looking for bingo buzzword answers.  Tech-to-tech interviews.....many critiques of the whiteboard Coding challenge....how can recruiters interpret the results? It's a conundrum which is annoying to recruiters and candidates alike. So what is the best practice for recruiters who want to credibly assess an engineers suitability for a role they are hiring for? This is the topic of Ep44 of Brainfood Live On Air; I'll be joined by tech sourcing legend Amy Miller formerly of Google and now at Amazon Lab126 , who is going to help me unpack the challenge and together work through some options we might consider.  Episode 44 of Brainfood Live On Air is supported by our buddies at Codility. Improve your tech hiring efforts with online technical skills assessments to identify the strongest developer hires. Check out more information here.

Can't find Software Developers? Or is it that the ones you DO find don't want to talk with you? In a world that is way too noisy, no one gets hit harder with messaging spam that the highly skilled, in-demand. In our world, that's usually someone in tech - a developer, a designer, a data scientist.  And yet, someone has to initiate the conversation. Listen in to a super conversation with Erin Mathew, ace tech sourcer at Space Tech company, Maxar Technologies, who will share her know-how on : - how to make first contact - what channel is best to use - message composition - when to 'ask for the order' - why not to ask for referrals - how to handle the seemingly inevitable 'no' We'll also be joined by ex-techie. now tech recruiter Mark Deubel (Elastic) and UK Country Lead of Stack Overflow, Anton Boner, who will be bringing in some benchmark data on response rates Episode 43 of Brainfood Live On Air is supported by our buddies at Stack Overflow Talent. Talk to developers where they already want to be - on the tech world's most popular Q&A site. Contact a member of the team for more information here

Jerome Ternynck, CEO of SmartRecruiters, joins us for a 1 to 1 interview special. One of the preeminent figures in recruitment and recruitment technology over the past 20 years, Jerome will share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, building recruitment technology businesses whilst launching events and social initiatives.  You will learn about Impact of recruitment technology over the past 20 years Move from SMB to Enterprise Difference between companies who make tech work & those who don't The future of ATS / CRM Data privacy and implications for recruiter behaviour Product roadmap for SmartRecruiters ATS Hiring Success - what to look forward to Recruiters / HR social responsibility for the greater good.  Rare opportunity to learn from one of the key influencers in the recruitment industry Episode 42 of Brainfood Live On Air is supported by our buddies at SmartRecruiters.  SmartRecruiters signature event - Hiring Success20 - is on 11-12th February at the Marriot Marquis. This is a unique conference marrying the twin themes of recruiting operational excellence with the social responsibility recruiters & HR have for wider society.  Register for your tickets here

Recruiters: how do you plan to gain competitive advantage in 2020's? In fast moving industry, we need to be on top of our game for the year ahead. But time is the constant resource and we have to prioritise.  What skills recruiters need to develop, and which ones we might need to let go in 2020? Brainfood Live is back with Season 2, Ep41 to discuss this crucial topic for the years ahead.  Adam Gordon will be back and we'll be joined by Kevin Blair,  Global VP of TA at IBM.  We'll be covering:  Sourcing Engagement Employer branding Analytics Tools usage Audience Episode 41 of Brainfood Live On Air is supported by our buddies at PASS.  PASS make background checking, simple centralising background screening in one location for a faster, fully compliant and more cost-effective process.  Grab a free 1 month trial with PASS here

Have you used Facebook Ads for Recruiting? I know I haven't but I probably should, as Facebook remains by far the largest, engaged and most important social network on the planet. A report from Hootsuite, shared on Recruiting Brainfood last week, showed us that there are THIRTEEN paid social options on Facebook. We're going to use this week's Brainfood Live ON Air to talk about each one - what are they, when to use them and how to get the best results from them.  With Fanny Comba, Jelmer Zuidema, Jelmer Koeppalmans and Andrew Bryce

There was never any chance that we could get to the end of 2019 and not do at least one show covering Brexit.  Whether you voted Leave or Remain or whether you are now Leave or Remain (or something else), all of us might find common ground in accepting that it's likely to be a profound change in the UK economic, regulatory, cultural and political environments.  It's time to forecast the scenarios and get some expert advice on how to prepare for the various futures that will become clear in only a few more weeks.  Adam and I are joined this week by regulatory expert and academic Sarah Lieberman in a 1 hour special.  Don't miss this - follow the channel here (recommended)  Register for the show here

Do you worry about the impact of AI & Automation? The answer should be 'damn right' because these foundational technological trends are sure to have pervasive impact on all the work we do. The question is  - which sectors most affected? - which populations most exposed? - how / when will impact be felt? - and what can we recruiters do to ensure OUR roles are not dis-intermediated by more efficient software and less bias robots.  This topic is way too big for Adam Gordon and I to handle by ourselves, so we've enrolled some experts in the field to help us think through the problem.  - Rob McCargow, Director of AI at PwC  - Yvette Cameron, Principal Analyst at NextGen Insights

This week sees the final end of Tru - one of the seminal event series in the recruiting industry.  We're going to take a look at what Tru has meant over the past 10 years, pay tribute to the man in the hat Bill Boorman, as well discuss the value of recruiter communities.  Adam Gordon and I will be joined by three great community leaders - Jamie Leonard, Founder of The Recruitment Events Co & RL100 - Piret Luts, Head of TA at Nortal and Founder of Recruitment Thursday - Shannon Pritchett, MD at CareerXRoads Follow the channel here (recommended) Register for the show here

How to make your employer brand stick? Turns out - you don't Real Employer Branding is about discovering what is true about the work in your business and exposing that truth the outside world, warts and all. Fascinating conversation with James Ellis and Elena Valentine which segued into ethnography, anthropology, design thinking, film and media, authenticity vs diversity, Fox News and the rest. Must watch / listen for anyone interested in the state of recruitment in 2019

Brainfood Live On Air from Kiev, #truKiev. Fascinating chat with Ukrainian recruitment hero's Denis Dinkevich and Andrei Stetsenko on the conditions on recruiting in Ukraine. We're talking Skype as a CRM, Telegram as a Slack competitor, impact of IT outsourcing on IT recruiter practice and the fragmented nature of IM.