Welcome back to the Hirewell Hot Corner where sports and recruitment meet. I am your host, Dan Spittel, joined as always by my Ironman co-host Louie Morici. Louie, great to see you again. Let’s jump right in. What’s going on in your world and the world of sports today? Like you, I think we both think we’re having deja vu after seeing the Chiefs win back to back Super Bowls.
We’re not going to get away from that anytime soon. This one obviously had a little bit more flair with the whole Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce saga, but exciting game. I will say that from just the football fan perspective. I think the fourth quarter and overtime were made up for the earlier part of the game.
It was a little dull to start, but I think I said in the last episode that Patrick Mahomes is inevitable, and we saw that on display once again, so congratulations to Bill Gates once again. We didn’t need to bring him on the show twice. I think he’s covered that one, but congrats to all the Chiefs fans out there.
All the Swifties, I guess is a one for you as well. But, that’ll wrap up the NFL season. Now we’re moving on to baseball, spring training coming up. If you don’t like baseball, there’s still basketball and hockey. And, spring football kicks off soon. The UFL, the new combined league should be starting up soon.
That’ll always be a little boost. Yeah. Yeah. Football’s over. We’re not completely in the dark period where it’s just baseball, but like you mentioned, pitchers and catchers reporting today, to spring training. NHL, NBA, still a lot of runway with their seasons. And next month we’ll be into March madness.
So football’s over boohoo, but we still got some stuff to look forward to. Absolutely. Before we go on the six month hiatus of not being able to talk about the NFL. Let’s talk about it one more time for the,
for our Hirewell Hot Corner fans. One thing that I noted a lot of in the Super Bowl this year was versatility.
I don’t know if you picked up on that as well. I think to start the versatility of Patrick Mahomes is the reason he’s Patrick Mahomes. At any given point he could do anything. I really think anything. Just his ability with his sidearm passes. No look passes. And that last drive and overtime the way he ran the ball, which, you know, gave him that extra dynamic.
He’s mobile, but he’s not a really a running quarterback. He doesn’t always beat you with his legs. He could probably throw a block, catch some passes, you know, play defense if he wanted to. And on the other side, you have the Niners whose entire offense is versatility. That’s just, that’s what they do.
It’s like backyard football with Deebo Samuel, CMC, Jauan Jennings threw a touchdown pass. Versatility was the name of the game. Yeah, it’s impressive to watch. I mean, with those matchups, there was so much versatility on both sides, on the offenses, even on some of the defenses, just some great athletes, but you know, being as versatile as Patrick Mahomes is, as you know, the whole 49ers offense, you know, it’s something that, it’s hard to plan for, if you’re the opposing team’s defense.
Because they really can cover such a widespread of capabilities. So, I mean, kudos to both sides. I think they kept people in check for the most part, but ultimately Patty Mahomes, he always prevails. That he does. So Louis, let’s stay on the topic of versatility.
I think it’s an interesting one and one that’s applicable in just about every scenario, I guess, but obviously this wouldn’t be what it is if we don’t talk about it from the recruiting perspective. So, let’s talk versatility in our world and in candidates world. Jump right in. So, as Hirewell recruiters, we’ve had to go through it.
I mean, we used to have dedicated
dedicated teams to each individual type of roles. Like, I worked on sales, you worked on an on demand type engagement, and that was just kind of our avenue. We went through a restructure towards the end of last year, early this year, and now me personally, I’m working on what we call the go to market team, which now is a combination of sales and marketing.
And I’ve had to adapt and be able to start wrapping my head around a whole different line of roles and occupations. So, you know, it’s about how you can become more valuable in your skill set. Showing that you’re able to adapt, which is never a bad thing. You know, in this regard, it’s only making me have more opportunity to work in another avenue.
So that’s kind of my personal experience with it. I’m sure you can speak to yours. Yeah. So the position I came into Hirewell with, we’re coming up on 2 years ago, essentially doesn’t exist these days. The program that we were running, the team that we were on has not so much- it’s not gone. But it’s a little bit of gone to the wayside.
We’ve adjusted how that program looks. We’ve adjusted kind of the way that we offer that solution to our clients. And so I’ve had to adapt a good amount in my career, just with Hirewell, I’ve moved on to more of a tech focus. I’m on the tech team, seated there now. I’m also still handling some additional responsibilities on other areas.
So, you know, I came from a background in the insurance world. I am still taking on clients in that space, while juggling the tech side. While juggling more of the business development and the sales side, specifically here in Cincinnati. I have a couple of clients, I know I’ve touched on them previously.
We had one of them on the show, Nixco. One of my clients is in the plumbing space. One of my clients is in the insurance space. It’s a little bit of just juggling a bunch of different areas of recruitment, which is kind of the name of the game. But adapting has been a large part of, I guess, all of us in the last six months.
So what a great way to jump into, you know, what candidates have to do in the job market to adapt what companies need to look for. All of it. Yeah, it’s definitely I can mimic some of that. Like, right now, I’ve kind of built out a bit of a business line and manufacturing industrial space like started off.
I mean, we were very tech focused on our sales roles, and I challenged myself with one of these types of roles. And now, you know, I feel like I’ve got a really good grasp on this very niche part of the sales atmosphere. You know, whether it’s a packaging company, whether it’s a wire brush company, like these random industries, but I’ve gotten to learn a lot about and have had success in.
So adapting in that way and challenging yourself, it only helps with your growth. And I think, you know, we’ve talked about it from the recruiter side. You know, candidates have to adapt to and again, it’s not a negative, you know, in some cases. Yes. Like asking you to go from a 100,000 base to a 50k base.
Yeah, that might be a bit of an issue, but, you know, adapting to a different line of work within a business or a new target market. You know, these are things that are going to be challenging, but they’re only going to build your skill set. It’s funny because I think it really just depends on the context in which you have to adapt. Because in so many things as a candidate and as someone who’s going through a career journey, you’re looking to progress.
You’re looking to grow. You can add more to your repertoire. And companies oftentimes are looking for those people who have gone through that growth and progression in their career. In that sense, adapting is part of career growth. It’s part of your journey. Sometimes adapting feels a little bit like a negative.
Someone’s throwing this onto your plate. We have to do this now because this, the way we did things before or what we did before is no longer working. So you have to transition to this. And it feels much more of like a pulling teeth, hurting cats, type thing. But how is it really that different? It’s just, it’s all about the connotation that comes with it.
Yeah. And your mindset as well, like you can look at it like, “Oh, they’re asking me to do something I didn’t sign up for,” but ultimately they’re asking you to do this because they would like to retain you. And if you’re not willing to kind of adapt, well, there’s someone that probably will. You know, they’re not doing this to screw you over or, you know, confuse you.
It’s business. Things have to change. They’re not just going to run like a perfectly well oiled machine 100% of the time. You know, and we’ve kind of just touched on it from, I guess, an internal employee. But as a job seeker, you know, we’re unfortunately seeing some big layoffs happening. And, you know, to maybe stop that from happening, you have to adapt and maybe what you’re looking for, what you’re willing to accept, what type of role you’re looking to get into, you know, start to think a little bit outside the box and where you have applicable skills, maybe, you know, adapt to explore some of those avenues.
So, you know, there’s adapting that needs to happen and a lot of different facets from a job seeker, a current employee, a recruiter, everyone in their daily roles. Well, even just touched on it briefly from a Hirewell standpoint, if you had come up to us a couple of years ago at one of our events in Chicago and said your most, impactful teams recently will be in manufacturing, real estate, maybe some insurance, not tech, not sales specifically, we’d be like, you’re crazy.
Have you seen the year we’re having like, no way. As far as the job goes, job market goes, unfortunately, we’ve seen layoffs in a lot of areas, but we are seeing a lot of booming in other industries, other job types. And I think getting laid off and not working for a period of time just has this horrible, sour taste for employers, for a lot of companies, that just because that happened doesn’t mean that they’re not actively doing something about it.
Adapting isn’t just taking on a different role within your job. Adapting is,
adapting yourself, finding ways to continue to improve personally, find ways to market yourself. Let’s talk on the tech side for a second. Say you have a software developer who was on a contract and their contract is over. And they were fully focused in one specific Language or tech stack, and they’re having trouble finding work in that specific area.
Are they just sitting there waiting for that job to come back? Probably not. What they’re probably doing is taking online courses, getting certified in other areas. Sometimes it’s even developers creating and working on things in their home or on their personal time, app development, working with different tools, playing around with things.
Becoming well versed in these areas so that they can market themselves and work in different skill sets. They’re adapting. They are molding their professional skill set in ways that will allow them to market themselves to companies in a number of different ways. And I’m sure it’s, you know, it’s not just tech.
It happens everywhere. And I’m sure you can speak to it for more of the go to market side. But it’s happening. And the worst thing is seeing companies say, well, you haven’t worked in this specific area in three to six months. No, I haven’t. I haven’t had the opportunity to do so. The job market hasn’t let me, but I haven’t just sat around.
I’ve done this instead. Absolutely. And that’s something I’ve had quite a few candidate screens on people who have been out of work for a bit. And obviously the question is, what have you been up to since you’ve been out six months? And it’s something that we as recruiters and representing these candidates have to get our clients over. But someone who has taken the initiative has a far better shot than someone’s like, yeah, I’m just applying everywhere.
You know, that, that doesn’t necessarily fare well, but if they’re advancing and investing in their career over a span when, you know, they were kind of dealt a bad hand, if you will. It says a lot about the character and the perseverance of someone and their ability to want to adapt and willingness to.
I think, like you said earlier, I think it’s a mindset thing. It’s mentality. You can look at this one of two ways. You can look at it as a negative, or you can look at it as an opportunity. And you can turn around and paint the picture. I know we touch on that topic a lot as far as like the candidates go and job seekers, but you have had to do this.
These are the cards that you were dealt. How are you going to play them? It’s all you can do. You know, you got to roll with the punches, I know that’s another, you know, cliche statement, especially when we’re a sports and recruiting mixed type of show. So, you know, that is the way it has to be.
I mean, look at it with a positive mindset. Welcome the challenge and ultimately it’s going to help your abilities and your growth. Job seekers, let’s talk about what you’ve been up to. Let’s help you cultivate that conversation of, well, this is why it’s benefiting me. And clients, companies, it’s not always a negative.
Let’s find the positive in these things. And let’s connect the dots between those strong candidates who are looking for work and the people who need to hire. Absolutely. Cool. Two minute drill, Louis. Let’s take it home. Let’s stay on the topic of versatility. Who is your favorite versatile sports figure and why?
I know there’s a few out there. Yes. Yes. And I think you and I will really both like this being that we were Notre Dame fans. Jeff Samardzija phenomenal wide receiver for Notre Dame Fighting Irish in college. Also had a great baseball career there and actually chose the, you know, major league baseball as his career.
He got to play for the Chicago Cubs, got to watch him. And he was great at both. I mean, he granted, he never played in the NFL, but he was phenomenal in college, at football. And he made a nice career for himself in the MLB. So Jeff Samardzija, 100%. Got to love the two sport athletes. I’m going to stick with a one sport athlete, but we talk about the epitome of versatility in the offense.
Let’s go back a little bit to the 1990s and let’s go to Kordell Stewart “Slash” for the Pittsburgh Steelers. My man came out of school, he was a quarterback. He was a wide receiver. He was a running back. He was basically just an offense. He kind of just did it all. And when I talk about him in Steelers lore, I got to talk about Antwaan Randle El. Wide receiver played a quarterback in college.
He did what Jauan Jennings did earlier in the Super Bowl and he threw a touchdown pass as a wide receiver. Got to love the versatility that those guys bring to the game. Got to shout out Deion Sanders too, obviously. The, you know, the flashiest of those dual sport athletes. And he did it at the highest level for both of them in MLB and NFL.
Shout out coach Prime. Well, on behalf of Louie and myself, thank you once again for tuning into the Hirewell Hot Corner. Please do join us again in two weeks for our next episode. And as always, stay classy LinkedIn.
