Easy yes vs likely no

Get in the weeds with candidates

“Everyone’s worst nightmare right now is you leave a job and you get laid off. You become a casualty in 2, 3, 4 months. The best way to overcome that is to be able to talk about your business. Its objectives. Soup to nuts, so that they feel comfortable that you, at a minimum, understand how safe that seat is.”

–Jeff Smith

I know exactly how easy or hard it will be to get a candidate to accept an offer based on the first conversation I have with the hiring team.

“Easy yeses” explain their business and key initiatives so a child could understand them. Plain language, no jargon. They’re genuinely excited. And they’re happy to get as granular as you’re willing to hear.

Because they want you to understand it. And get excited about it, too.

“Hard yeses (and likely nos)” are the opposite. Vague. Guarded. Jargon. Maybe even nonsensical.

Gives you that “we’re just looking for a body to fill a seat” vibe.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record lately: it’s harder to get people to make a switch in a down market.

If people have made it through several rounds of layoffs, they feel safer staying put than going somewhere new. And they’ll open up their search when the market improves.

👉If you want to convince people to make a job change, you have to show them you know what you’re talking about.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.