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Offer Accepted

Ashby

Welcome to Offer Accepted, the podcast that elevates your recruiting game. Your host, Shannon Ogborn, interviews top Talent Acquisition Leaders, uncovering their secrets to building and leading successful recruiting teams. Gain valuable insights and actionable advice, from analyzing cutting-edge metrics to claiming your seat at the table. 

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  • 26 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 27 min
  • English

Episodes 26

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  • Tuesday · 29 min

    Hiring for AI Skills Beyond Prompting with Maksym Dziarmaga, Loop Earplugs

    AI fluency is becoming part of the hiring bar, but assessing it is still a work in progress. Maksym Dziarmaga of Loop Earplugs joins Shannon to share how Loop evaluates AI capability throughout its hiring process. He explains why the company established "capable" as its baseline, how hiring teams assess candidates across different levels, and where subjectivity can make consistent evaluation difficult. Maksym shares how Loop encourages candidates to use AI in business cases while looking closely at the thinking behind their work. He also explains why curiosity can be a valuable signal and how Loop is working toward a more consistent approach to evaluating AI skills across hiring teams. Key Takeaways: Critical thinking matters: Look beyond whether candidates use AI and probe how they evaluate, edit, and challenge its output. Set a realistic baseline: Match AI expectations to the role instead of requiring advanced fluency when the work does not call for it. Calibrate your interviewers: Give hiring teams shared examples of different AI capability levels so individual experience does not set the bar. Treat assessment as data: Use interview results to identify gaps in your hiring process and understand where teams may need stronger AI skills. Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:07) Meet Maksym Dziarmaga (01:24) Why Loop assesses AI capability during hiring (03:14) Deciding how much AI fluency each role needs (05:25) Creating a practical scale for AI capability (07:34) Why critical thinking matters more than AI output (08:06)  Applying AI case studies during hiring (13:31) How curiosity and critical thinking shows in a candidate (16:34) How AI stewards support teams at Loop (20:02) How Loop help employees upskill (22:46) What Loop learned from its AI interview data (25:28) Standardizing AI assessment as expectations evolve (27:23) Where to connect with Maksym

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  • October 20 · 28 min

    Halving Attrition With a Connected Career Framework with Nic Weatherhead, The Stepstone Group

    A great hire can still become an attrition problem when success is unclear. Nic Weatherhead, Global Vice President of People at The Stepstone Group, joins Shannon to share why recruiting teams should think beyond the point of hire. After joining a company that had grown through acquisitions across 32 countries, Nic saw an opportunity to connect recruiting more closely with performance, progression, and long-term talent needs. Nic explains how The Stepstone Group created clearer career frameworks. They tested the approach within recruiting and worked with business leaders to anticipate changing skill needs. She also shares how the work helped cut attrition by more than half and why AI is prompting her team to rethink how scope, autonomy, and complexity are defined. Key Takeaways: Define roles before people: Establish what each role and level requires before mapping current employees into the framework. Use recruiting as a signal: What recruiters see in the market can help leaders identify emerging skills and changes to roles earlier. Reconsider how scope works: Direct reports may no longer be the best measure of responsibility as more individual contributors work with AI agents. Connect the talent system: Hiring, onboarding, performance, and progression work better when teams share a clear definition of success. Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:42) Meet Nic Weatherhead (01:43) Why hiring success extends beyond the offer (04:26) Connecting recruiting to the wider talent system (05:28) 3 focus areas of a career framework (09:54) Diagnosing attrition and hiring challenges (10:59)  Goal of a focused career framework (14:56) Partnering with leaders on future skill needs (15:42) Testing the career framework within recruiting (19:55) How AI is changing scope, autonomy, and complexity (22:58) Cutting attrition by more than half (24:10) Applying progress that keeps the whole team's connection intact (26:53) Where to connect with Nic

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  • October 6 · 39 min

    Cutting a 5-Round Sales Interview Process Down to 3 with Mike Clapson, Ashby

    Just as revenue pipelines demand weekly tracking from sales leaders, hiring pipelines require that same level of focus. Mike Clapson, VP of Sales at Ashby, sits down with Shannon to share how his team successfully streamlined their account executive interview process from five stages to three, all while maintaining high standards. He reveals which interview stage was eliminated first, the clear data driving that decision, and the crucial question he evaluates before removing any step. Mike breaks down the mechanics of their challenge round, detailing why candidates perform two iterations of the demo role-play. Additionally, he highlights the necessary operational shifts made as their leadership expanded from 3 to 14 hiring managers. Key takeaways: Cut with evidence: An interview step that keeps returning the same score is a signal you already have. Shadow before you solo: New hiring managers run three shadows and three reverse shadows, debriefing after each one. Keep the field level: Every candidate gets the same prep materials, including referrals who know someone inside. Track return on tenure: Longer-tenured reps performed better on average, which turns retention into a hiring result. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:31) Meet Mike Clapson (01:57) Why hiring gets the same attention as the sales pipeline (02:47) Collapsing a 5-round AE process down to 3 (04:39) The problem statement that shortened the hiring process (06:26) Evaluating which part of the hiring process to remove (09:22) Scenario questions that show how candidates think (14:04) What candidates want most from a hiring process (15:40) Challenge rounds: demo role plays (18:29) Leveling candidates' playing field (19:32) Expanding from 3 to 14 hiring managers (20:37) Shadows and reverse shadows for new hiring managers (23:32) Lower attrition and the return on tenure analysis (26:20) How Ashby's clients grow up and through the company (29:37) Next evolution of continuous improvements (32:03) Where to connect with Mike

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  • September 22 · 34 min

    What Recruiting Teams Can Learn From Customer Support with Natalie Mercuri, Plaid

    Recruiting operations does not scale on good intentions alone. Natalie Mercuri, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Plaid, joins Shannon to share how her two-person team supported thousands of interviews a year while migrating the company to a new ATS. Natalie explains why she brought her customer support background into talent, why centralizing every question into one channel changed how recruiters and hiring managers get help, and how she layered ticketing and AI tools on top of that channel to speed up response times. Natalie also shares how her team pushed first reply resolution to 85%, cut down on one-off DMs, and taught the wider company how to troubleshoot before asking for help. She closes with her honest take on why cover letters waste everyone's time. Key Takeaways Centralize every question: One intake channel makes it easier to track, prioritize, and delegate incoming requests. Automate the first response: Tools like Glean can handle routine questions so your team can focus on the harder ones. Teach people to troubleshoot: Coaching employees to try one more step before asking builds a stronger self-serve culture. Protect quality during ramp: Moving fast only pays off when your team still has time to get the answer right. Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:47) Meet Natalie Mercuri (02:31) Why strong recruiting operations start with trust (04:46) Migrating to a new ATS while keeping hiring on pace (07:48) Centralizing every recruiting question in one channel (09:32) Choosing the right tools for ticket intake (11:47) Balancing AI automation with human follow up (15:35) Teaching recruiters and hiring managers to self-serve (21:12) Borrowing lessons from customer support and engineering (28:34) The results behind an 85% first reply rate (33:53) Where to connect with Natalie

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  • September 7 · 28 min

    Building an Ideal Candidate Profile from Zero to Scale with Maggie Fish, Grafana Labs

    Scaling fast and scaling with intention are not the same thing. Maggie Fish, Director of Recruiting at Grafana Labs, joins Shannon to explain how her team built an ideal candidate profile for every role, starting with sales and expanding it across the business. She walks through the deep dive into attrition data and interview feedback that separated what actually predicted a great Grafanista from what just looked good on paper, and why removing bias from the hiring bar mattered more once her team scaled across the US, Europe, and Australia. Maggie shares how that work led to a guiding principles engine that generates role-specific interview questions, how her team cut the interview process from six stages to five, and how the first hired cohort came through with zero non-regretted attrition. Key takeaways: Data first, opinions second: Bring interview and performance data into the room before asking hiring managers what they think, or the conversation stalls on gut feel. Test what you value: If a guiding principle actually matters, build it into an interview question, then check with AI note takers that interviewers are getting there. Async beats scripted calls: Letting hiring managers think through what they need before a recruiter call gets everyone further before the conversation even starts. Confidence earns a seat: Speaking up and challenging the status quo, done thoughtfully, builds the kind of trust that gets you pulled into decisions you were not even in the room for. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:44) Meet Maggie Fish (02:21) Scaling with intention versus scaling fast (04:49) Getting every team aligned to one north star (08:53) Digging into attrition data to define the ideal account executive (11:43) Rebuilding the interview process around critical attributes (15:36) Rolling the ideal candidate profile out beyond sales (16:24) Building the guiding principles engine (20:32) Roadblocks to watch for when you start this work (21:48) Zero non-regretted attrition and other early results (24:02) The vision for an ICP copilot (28:02) Where to connect with Maggie

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  • August 25 · 36 min

    The 4 Skills Behind a 10% Retention Lift with Veronica Salcido, GrowthAssistant

    Quality of hire does not end at the offer. Veronica Salcido, who leads the recruiting, HR, and coaching and L&D org at GrowthAssistant, joins Shannon to unpack how her team turned 50% churn into a 10% retention lift in 6 months. She explains why speed and volume stopped being useful signals once quality became the real cost, and how tracing 80% of failed hires back to durable skills, not hard skills, changed how her team hires, coaches, and measures success. Veronica walks through the four durable skills her team built into every stage of the journey, why half of a recruiter's KPI is now tied to 90-day quality of hire, and how that accountability turned recruiting from an execution function into a strategic partner to the business. Key takeaways: Durable skills outlast tools: Character, communication, and critical thinking hold their value for seven to nine years, while tool skills like ChatGPT or Klaviyo fade out in under two. CEO buy in matters: The fastest way to get a hiring framework adopted across an org is making the CEO or founder its first champion. AI can prep coaching: Aggregating performance data ahead of a coaching call helps leaders focus on the one durable skill that actually needs work. Curiosity beats sounding smart: The people who ask questions freely tend to go further than the people busy managing how they appear in the room. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:48) Meet Veronica Salcido (02:01) Why operational rigor matters more than ever (04:22) Inside the GrowthAssistant model (08:07) Inheriting speed and volume without quality (09:55) Tracing 50 percent churn back to durable skills (13:37) Naming the four durable skills framework (17:52) Connecting the through line from hire to retention (19:34) Tying 90 day quality of hire to recruiter KPIs (24:12) Why shared accountability changes the recruiter's role (30:09) The results after 6 months and 18 months (36:40) Where to connect with Veronica

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  • August 11 · 25 min

    The North Star Metric Every Hiring Team Needs with Liz Woodfield, SentiLink

    A hiring goal only works when the team believes it is possible. Liz Woodfield, Head of Talent Acquisition at SentiLink, joins Shannon to share how she built a single north star metric for her recruiting team and used it to drive a 60% increase in hires without adding headcount. She breaks down the framework she leans on for every role, volume, velocity, and calibration, and how weekly dashboards brought a skeptical team and leadership along. Once the team started hitting their weekly numbers, the results followed. SentiLink hit its first half of the year goal, and Liz has kept the same system in place as the team scales into the second half, adding more layers around competency based hiring along the way. Key takeaways: Sprint hiring unlocks roles: Breaking a role into a tight weekly plan turned a year old opening into a one week hire. Debriefs surface bias: Talking live catches details that written feedback and Slack threads tend to miss. Hiring is everyone's job: SentiLink's leadership repeats the hiring goal at every all hands so recruiting is not carrying it alone. Interviews should inform onboarding: The insight gathered from candidates can shape a stronger first few months on the job. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:00) Meet Liz Woodfield (02:30) Why every recruiting team needs a north star metric (03:10) Turning a CEO's gold metric into a team wide goal (04:04) Setting a bigger hiring goal with the same size team (06:51) The volume velocity calibration equation behind recruiting success (08:06) Winning leadership buy in during the uncomfortable early weeks (09:51) Building weekly dashboards recruiters actually trust (12:01) Using sprint hiring to close a role open for over a year (13:40) Application data gathering for results (15:55) Recruitment goals inspired by revenue goals (17:51) Running towards the collective but improve individually (18:50) 7 months in, measuring what the new system delivered (22:21) What comes next for SentiLink's hiring goals (24:42) Where to connect with Liz

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  • July 28 · 29 min

    Removing the Resume Gate for Better Hires with Jen Ayala, Clay

    What if your hiring process was designed to screen people in instead of screen them out? Jen Ayala, Head of Recruiting at Clay, joins Shannon to discuss why traditional hiring often filters out great talent too early. She shares how Clay replaced resume reviews with project-based evaluations for high volume hiring, giving career transitioners and new graduates a better opportunity to demonstrate their strengths while helping the team hire faster. Jen also explains how AI supports recruiters without replacing human judgment, why hiring for potential creates stronger teams, and how designing a fair process can improve both candidate experience and hiring outcomes. Key takeaways: Screen people in, not out: Replace early resume filtering with practical assessments that help candidates demonstrate their strengths. Keep humans involved: Use AI to organize information and speed up evaluations while leaving hiring decisions to recruiters. Hire for potential: Focus on learning ability and unique strengths instead of matching every requirement on a job description. Build together: Partner with hiring managers, recruiters, and cross functional teams to continuously improve hiring processes. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:55) Meet Jen Ayala (02:12) Why traditional hiring screens out great talent (04:18) Giving candidates projects before resume reviews (08:35) Eliminating resume screening for high volume hiring (12:05) Building an AI assisted project evaluation system (19:12) How recruiters became stronger decision makers (20:40) Candidate reactions to project based hiring (24:10) Results from Clay's hiring pilot (27:46) Where to connect with Jen

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  • July 14 · 31 min

    The Leadership Reset Behind a High-Performing Talent Team with Mike Bettley, StackAdapt

    Recruiting teams earn influence when they understand what the business is trying to build. Mike Bettley, VP of Talent Acquisition at StackAdapt, joins Shannon to share how he rebuilt a TA function that was stretched, fragmented, and operating without a clear hiring plan. Before changing systems or metrics, Mike focused on the team’s confidence. He created space for honest feedback, reset expectations, and helped recruiters move from asking for permission to making informed recommendations. Mike also explains how his team became more involved in workforce planning, compensation conversations, and FP&A partnership as StackAdapt scaled from 170 to 1,800 people. He shares why every intake should start with the business problem, how recruiters can challenge unrealistic profiles, and where AI can support better planning before a role ever reaches TA. Key takeaways: Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:35) Meet Mike Bettley (01:30) Why recruiter confidence drives business impact (03:33) Rebuilding a fragmented talent acquisition team (06:11) Creating trust through vulnerability and transparency (11:00) Earning hiring manager trust across the organization (12:00) Shifting from job descriptions to business problems (15:30) Teaching stakeholders what great TA partnership looks like (18:30) Fixing operational bottlenecks through TA Ops investment (21:00) Lessons learned from launching recruiting KPIs (24:00) Measuring success through consistency and hiring quality (28:00) Using AI to improve hiring planning and intake processes (30:05) Where to connect with Mike

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  • June 30 · 20 min

    The Executive Interview Format That Reduces Mis-hire Risk with Cristina Navarro, Tubi

    Hiring senior leaders on gut feel is a risk most companies cannot afford. Cristina Navarro, Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Tubi, joins Shannon to discuss why traditional interview formats fail at the executive level and how her team built a structured leadership assessment to close that gap. She explains how the process was co-created with senior leadership, why prompt design matters, and how thorough prep on both sides of the table leads to better decisions. Cristina also walks through how debrief structure protects against groupthink, how candidate feedback from the process informs onboarding strategy, and why the goal was never to add friction but to give everyone involved more confidence in one of the most consequential hiring decisions a company can make. Key takeaways: Co-creation drives adoption: When senior leaders help build the assessment, buy-in follows naturally once results come in. Prompt design is the foundation: A role-specific, well-scoped prompt is what separates a meaningful assessment from a generic exercise. Debrief order changes outcomes: Hearing from the most senior voices last protects the room from influence bias before a final decision is made. Recruiting data shapes onboarding: Themes that surface during the assessment can directly inform how a new executive is set up from day one. Timestamps: (00:43) Meet Cristina Navarro (02:08) Why executive hiring carries more risk than any other level (03:49) What Tubi does differently in senior leader hiring (05:20) How the leadership assessment was built and who was involved (07:14) Preparing both candidates and interviewers for the assessment (10:25) Why no new faces in the room is an intentional design choice (11:42) How debriefs are structured to reach a confident hiring decision (12:55) What candidates say after going through the process (15:37) Plans to expand the assessment beyond VP-level roles (17:07) Using recruiting findings to inform executive onboarding (19:25) Where to connect with Cristina

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  • June 16 · 34 min

    Scaling Hiring Expertise Company Wide Through AI Agents with Kyle Gatlin, Arrive

    Hiring managers need better support, not more documents. Kyle Gatlin, Head of Talent at Arrive, joins Shannon to discuss how his team built an AI hiring agent to guide managers through the recruiting process across 70 countries. Drawing from his background in education and talent operations, Kyle explains why accessibility, structured interviewing, and candidate experience became the foundation of the project. Kyle shares how his team turned a 15-page hiring philosophy into a scalable internal tool, partnered with engineering and AI leaders to launch it globally, and improved hiring consistency without removing the human side of recruiting. This episode also covered why strong recruiting teams should challenge inefficient processes and help hiring managers make more confident decisions. Key takeaways: Structured hiring creates confidence: Clear interview goals help teams make faster and more accurate decisions. AI improves accessibility: Hiring managers are more likely to ask questions when support feels immediate and judgment-free. Small launches scale faster: Starting with one focused AI use case made adoption easier across the business. Candidate experience reflects operations: Organized internal processes create stronger candidate trust and engagement. Timestamps: (00:00) Meet Kyle Gatlin (02:00) Why AI agents matter in recruiting (05:00) Turning recruiting philosophy into an AI tool (09:20) Building structured interviews and intentional hiring steps (14:11) Partnering with engineering and AI teams internally (18:10) How AI supports recruiters instead of replacing them (21:13) Testing tone, accessibility, and hiring manager adoption (25:44) Are recruiters spending more time with other activities? (27:00) Better candidate experiences through process design (32:34) Where to connect with Kyle

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  • June 2 · 34 min

    Early-Stage Hiring Foundations That Prevent Mishires with Cassie Chao Leemans, Craft Ventures

    Early hiring gets expensive fast when founders skip alignment. Cassie Chao Leemans, VP of Talent at Craft Ventures, joins Shannon to share how early-stage teams can make stronger hiring decisions before scale adds complexity. She explains why pedigree can distract founders from what the business actually needs, how unclear expectations create mis-hires, and why every new role should connect back to company goals. Cassie also shares how to define competencies, build trust in the interview process, and help recruiters move from order-takers to strategic partners. Key takeaways: Start with business needs: Define what the role must accomplish before writing the job description. Context beats pedigree: A great background does not always match the company’s current stage. Alignment prevents drift: Shared definitions help interviewers evaluate candidates against the same bar. Process builds confidence: Strong hiring systems reduce overreliance on back channels and outside validation. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:43) Meet Cassie Chao Leemans (02:06) Why founder alignment matters early (06:09) Connecting hiring plans to business goals (11:09) Preparing recruiting teams before scale hits (13:29) Why great hiring takes longer than founders expect (16:41) How hiring needs change as companies grow (20:38) Defining what success looks like in a role (25:10) Aligning interviewers on values and competencies (27:58) What happens when hiring alignment breaks (33:20) Where to connect with Cassie

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  • May 19 · 21 min

    Converting People Ops Insights into Talent Strategy with Asha Beirne, Rula

    Talent and people teams have more shared work than most companies realize. Asha Beirne, Senior Manager of People Operations and Systems at Rula, joins Shannon to discuss how recruiting and people ops can work together across the employee lifecycle. Drawing from her move from recruiting operations into people operations, Asha shares what talent teams often miss when they do not have visibility into turnover data, engagement scores, onboarding feedback, and workforce trends. Asha explains how Rula built stronger feedback loops through biweekly meetings, shared data reviews, and clearer guardrails around sensitive information. She also shares how her team improved onboarding communications, raised new hire survey scores, and began using AI to reduce manual work while creating more consistent employee experiences. Key takeaways: Data improves alignment: People ops insights can help recruiting teams forecast capacity, understand attrition patterns, and support stronger hiring decisions. Guardrails build trust: Aggregate data, clear confidentiality norms, and thoughtful sharing help teams learn without overcorrecting. Onboarding needs continuity: A better handoff from offer acceptance to start date can improve the new hire experience quickly. Relationships come first: Regular conversations between talent and people teams create space to solve issues before they become bigger problems. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:43) Meet Asha Beirne (01:44) Why People and Talent teams need stronger partnerships (03:00) The People Ops data recruiters should advocate for (05:29) Using early turnover to improve hiring conversations (06:37) Forecasting attrition with a fuller People Ops picture (08:39) Closing the gap between offer acceptance and onboarding (10:12) Creating a regular operating rhythm between Talent and People Ops (12:34) Using AI to reduce workload and create space for partnership (15:33) Balancing compliance, speed, and candidate experience (17:00) Connecting performance data to quality of hire (20:41) Where to connect with Asha

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  • May 5 · 22 min

    Differentiating Candidate Experience Through Unreasonable Hospitality with Greg Marsh, Sierra

    Candidate experience is one of the few levers you can fully control in hiring. Greg Marsh, Head of Recruiting at Sierra, joins Shannon to share how his team scaled from 25 to 600 employees while building a candidate experience that consistently stands out. He explains how Sierra approaches candidate obsession, why small moments like personalization matter more than big gestures, and how recruiting becomes a true partner to the business during rapid growth. Greg walks through how his team operationalizes these ideas with simple systems, measures impact through candidate feedback, and builds a culture where every interviewer owns the experience. He also shares how AI fits into recruiting today and where human connection still makes the difference. Key takeaways: Candidate experience wins offers: A strong, consistent experience can outperform higher compensation offers. Small details scale impact: Simple personalization creates meaningful candidate connections at scale. Recruiting is a team sport: Interviewers and hiring managers shape the experience as much as recruiters. Invest early in recruiting: Companies that prioritize recruiting early move faster and hire better. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:15) Meet Greg Marsh (02:18) Why candidate experience matters in a competitive market (04:00) Applying hospitality principles to recruiting (05:30) Personalization through small candidate moments (08:00) Balancing intensity and family in company culture (12:30) Scaling candidate experience with simple systems (16:30) Measuring candidate experience and NPS (18:30) Why great candidates become your best referral source (20:45) Adapting candidate experience across global teams (22:43) Where to connect with Greg

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  • April 21 · 23 min

    3 Steps to Make Skills-Based Hiring Predictable with Alessandra Pegnim, Udemy

    Skills-based hiring only works when teams can consistently define, assess, and develop the right skills. Alessandra Pegnim, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Udemy, joins Shannon to share how her team built a more practical approach to skills-based hiring. She explains how Udemy validates skills with managers, identifies patterns of top performers, and uses structured interviews to make hiring decisions more predictive. Alessandra also discusses how this work extends beyond hiring. She walks through training interviewers with AI role-play, widens the talent pool beyond traditional backgrounds, and uses onboarding to close skill gaps early so new hires can ramp faster. Key takeaways: Start with top performers: Analyze what your best employees do differently and build hiring criteria from those patterns. Validate skills with data: Combine internal insights with external benchmarks to confirm what actually predicts success. Train for consistency: Use rubrics and practice sessions, so interviewers know what strong answers sound like. Hire for mobility: Track skills beyond hiring to unlock internal moves and reduce the need for external hiring. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:54) Meet Alessandra Pegnim (02:25) Why skills-based hiring matters right now (04:04) What skills-based hiring actually looks like (04:58) Building job descriptions around validated skills (05:57) Three steps for skills-based hiring (07:57) How to validate skills for hiring (09:48) Turning skills into structured interview rubrics (12:21) Training interviewers with AI role play (16:33) Widening the talent pool through skills-first hiring (18:19) How skills visibility supports internal mobility (19:54) Adding AI proficiency to hiring criteria (21:31) Using onboarding to close skill gaps faster (22:32) Where to connect with Alessandra

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  • April 7 · 24 min

    The Recruiter's Guide to Selling Pre-IPO Equity with Hannah Spellmeyer, Slingshot Aerospace

    Equity can be the difference between losing your best candidates and closing them. Hannah Spellmeyer, Chief People Officer at Slingshot Aerospace, joins Shannon to break down how recruiters can confidently sell equity and compete with larger companies. She shares what most teams get wrong, the key numbers every recruiter should know, and how to position equity based on what candidates actually care about. Hannah walks through how to make equity tangible, from explaining intrinsic value to using real market signals, such as secondary offers. She also explains how to enable teams with simple tools and stories so recruiters can speak with clarity and build trust in every offer conversation. Key takeaways: Know the core numbers: Understand strike price, preferred price, and intrinsic value before every offer conversation. Lead with candidate motives: Tailor equity positioning based on whether a candidate values upside or stability. Make equity tangible: Use calculators and real examples to turn abstract value into something candidates can grasp. Practice builds confidence: Role play and shared examples help recruiters speak clearly without overpromising. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:52) Meet Hannah Spellmeyer (01:39) Why recruiting teams need to get good at selling equity (04:55) The key inputs recruiters must know to close (06:49) When to share equity details with candidates (08:58) Handling “equity is fake money” objections (11:49) How secondary markets create early liquidity (13:22) Using equity calculators to enable teams (17:52) What great equity selling unlocks for hiring teams (21:09) Advice for recruiters (23:10) Where to connect with Hannah

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  • March 24 · 25 min

    Rebuilding Engineering Hiring for the Rise of AI with Jonathan Durnford-Smith, Synthesia

    Hiring is changing quickly as AI tools reshape how teams build products and how companies evaluate talent. Jonathan Durnford-Smith, Head of Talent at Synthesia, joins Shannon to discuss why recruiting teams must become more agile and strategic. He shares lessons from scaling talent functions at high-growth companies and explains how AI tooling is shifting what great engineers look like today. Instead of focusing only on coding execution, his team now prioritizes product sense, customer empathy, and strong problem definition. Jonathan explains how Synthesia redesigned its engineering interview process, resulting in a hiring approach that adapts more quickly while maintaining a high bar for talent. Key takeaways: Redefine engineering excellence: Evaluate engineers on product thinking and customer empathy, not only coding execution. Encourage AI collaboration: Allow candidates to use AI coding tools during interviews to better reflect real work environments. Define roles before hiring: Spend time clarifying the real problem the role must solve before sourcing candidates. Challenge hiring assumptions: Talent teams should question role definitions and push back when something feels misaligned. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:48) Meet Jonathan Durnford-Smith (01:48) Why agility matters in recruiting during the AI era (05:03) How AI is changing engineering hiring (06:00) Why product sense matters more than coding execution (07:24) Redesigning engineering interviews around real business problems (09:14) Why engineers must be comfortable using AI tools (11:36) The signal great engineers show early in interviews (13:52) The culture principle that enables agility (16:30) Aligning hiring with company strategy and leadership bets (17:29) Why recruiters must push back on hiring decisions (20:25) Why hiring processes should be revisited every six months (24:29) Where to connect with Jonathan

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  • March 10 · 24 min

    Building Interviewer Scorecards to Raise Your Talent Bar with Vanessa Paladini, Nubank

    Great hiring outcomes start with great interviewers. Vanessa Paladini, Global Talent Acquisition Director at Nubank, joins Shannon to share how the world’s largest digital bank outside of Asia raised its hiring bar without slowing down growth. She walks through Nubank’s four workstreams, including structured assessments, technical bar raisers, and a data-backed interviewer scorecard. Vanessa broke down how her team measured interviewer assertiveness, linked decisions to 90-day ramp and 12-month performance, and reduced the interviewer pool to improve their skills. Key takeaways: Data builds credibility: Linking interview feedback to long-term performance helps TA influence the business. Use AI thoughtfully: Evaluate how candidates use AI tools during exercises instead of prohibiting them. Measure assertiveness: Track interviewer decisions against ramp time, retention, and performance data. Hiring is collective: Moving accountability beyond recruiters creates stronger business partnership. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:03) Meet Vanessa Paladini (01:40)   Three pillars of Nubank's Hiring Talent bar (03:15) Four workstreams to raise the talent bar (06:15)  Why companies should invest more on interviewer quality (08:19) Building and measuring interviewer scorecards (11:19) Defining the traits of a good interviewer (14:40)  Who has access to the Scorecards? (17:30)  Additional learnings from the Scorecard program (20:53)  How the Scorecard data is expected to impact conversions (23:44) Where to connect with Vanessa

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  • February 24 · 27 min

    The 4-Pillar System Behind a 93% Offer Acceptance Rate with Jordan Trott

    Offer acceptance rate is the clearest signal of whether your recruiting engine is actually working. Jordan Trott, Talent Lead at Taptap Send, joins Shannon to break down how his team maintains a 93% offer acceptance rate across global hiring. He explains why this metric reflects everything from role clarity to candidate experience, and where most teams lose candidates long before the offer stage. Jordan shares the four practices that changed outcomes for his team, including tighter candidate profiles, culture-first interviewing, rigorous benchmarking, and a partner mindset with candidates. Key takeaways: Clarify both sides of fit: Define not only who you want, but who will genuinely want your job. Interview for values first: Design intentional questions that test cultural alignment. Hunt for bad news early: Actively surface concerns and misalignment before the offer stage. Own the talent bar: Build credibility by pushing back on unrealistic expectations and misaligned budgets. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:44) Meet Jordan Trott (02:12) Why offer acceptance rate is a high-signal recruiting metric (03:44) The four levers behind a 93% offer acceptance rate (04:54) Building a candidate profile that answers “do they want this job” (07:59) Interviewing for culture over content and why it changes the sell (10:49) Benchmarking compensation at three moments in the hiring cycle (12:31) The pre-close conversation that prevents late-stage surprises (15:08) Treating candidate experience like a partnership, not a transaction (20:03) Hunting for bad news early and using an “anti-sell” to build trust (23:23) How this approach improves retention and reduces churn (26:09) Where to connect with Jordan

    • Transcript
  • February 10 · 24 min

    Measuring Recruiter Feedback to Drive Process Improvement with Will Ducey, Ashby

    Recruiting teams often track hiring metrics but forget to ask the team how it feels to do the work. Will Ducey, Head of Recruiting Operations at Ashby, joins Shannon Ogborn to talk about how internal recruiter surveys create a feedback loop that leads to better tools and processes. Throughout the conversation, Will explains the balance between quantitative and qualitative feedback, sharing real-world examples from Ashby on how they’ve implemented surveys to gauge recruiter satisfaction. He also addresses how small wins, like reducing administrative burdens, can have a huge impact on overall efficiency. Whether you’re a recruiting leader looking to implement your first survey or aiming to refine your current process, this episode offers valuable insights into how recruiters can lead to actionable change and, ultimately, create a more effective and happy recruiting team. Key takeaways: Survey consistency builds trust: Quarterly cadence shows that feedback leads to real change Small wins compound: Simple fixes often reduce friction the fastest Sentiment data guides priorities: Low survey scores highlight where RecOps should focus next Collaboration is a solution: Engaging team members in fixing the pain points creates better outcomes Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:43) Meet Will Ducey (02:18) Why traditional metrics don’t reflect recruiter experience (03:13) What makes recruiter surveys so valuable in RecOps (04:14) How Ashby runs quarterly recruiter surveys (06:32) Structuring the survey for actionable feedback (08:44) Understanding time-use with a 1–4 scale (10:37) Why acting on survey data matters more than collecting it (11:59) How Will identifies small process wins (13:22) Organizing teams for long-term improvements (14:15) Building trust and consistency through surveys (16:26) The NPS score that led to a full ATS transformation (19:10) Comparing tools using internal data (20:07) Helping recruiters become more confident with data (21:19) Why alerts are Will’s favorite Ashby feature (23:57) Where to connect with Will

    • Transcript
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