Week of July 29th, 2024
Your weekly source for RecOps articles, news, and more.
Our community newsletter is packed with valuable, neutral content, including insightful articles, engaging images, informative graphics, and exciting job openings/searchers in the RecOps space.
If you enjoy this newsletter, consider subscribing and sharing.
Ambiguity versus ambiguity by Jeremy Lyons
I can’t wait for Tom Ford and Mark Tortora’s talk at the RecOps Conference about managing and delivering through ambiguity. With Q3 kicking off, I thought it would be a good idea to pen a few words on the topic real quick.
What is ambiguity?
It is a noun and means “the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness.”
When do you hear about ambiguity?
In RecOps, classic ambiguity arises when there are big internal shifts within an organization. Maybe a new department head is joining, so you need to think through communications to candidates or a reorganization just happened, and new people need to be trained and brought up to speed. Could be a project where everyone knows the outcome (e.g. hiring 500+ people) but isn’t sure how they want to get there and who is in charge. Many RecOps folks first hear about ambiguity as part of the phrase “managing ambiguity” as a top skill needed to move up the RecOps ladder.
What is Big “A” ambiguity?
To me, Big “A” Ambiguity is essentially the Rumsfeld Matrix in practice. There are known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns but a Why can be provided so people don’t have to completely stop what they are doing. Everyone involved is aware that new information will cause pivots so some strong opinions should be loosely held. Remember that RecOps Starts with Why and Ambiguity is our middle name.
How about the small “A” ambiguity?
For me, small “A” ambiguity is the human element of ambiguity. Like with most things, everyone is different, and some folks don’t like dealing with high levels of uncertainty or confusion. Some people need all the information in front of them in order to work most efficiently and maintain work/life balance. In RecOps, we usually see this level of ambiguity as part of the candidate experience.
So how about managing A/ambiguity?
Cue Taylor Swift because human emotion is the most combustible element on the planet. The next time someone says, “You have to manage A/ambiguity” or berates you for the perceived lack of it, ask them what they mean. If their answer leans towards a situation (e.g., “We’re all not sure about this project so we’ll share information as soon as we get it so we’re not at the solutioning stage yet.”) that is feedback and that helps you read the room and learn for the next time the situation comes up. It allows you to self-regulate. If their answer, however, turns into a character assault (e.g., “You ask too many questions! I don’t have time for them!”), then you know that “managing ambiguity” is really just coded language for managing how you deal with this specific individual.
RecOps - Conference and GPT Updates
RecOps Conference—Tickets to the conference are on presale until August 18th (use this link for an additional 15% discount). We know that convincing budget holders can be tough so to help, we’ve built this out to help you get started on your proposal. We only have a few speaker slots left so if you are thinking you want to present or be on a panel, complete the speaker application form.
RecOps - No new updates but major addition to training materials is planned. It is available in the OpenAI store and free to use.
Articles / Industry News
Articles/Graphics/Podcasts/Posts On Our Radar
Monzo’s The ultimate guide on using AI to ace an interview at Monzo (guide - this is also a great read for others who are trying to figure out what to do about AI in the interview process)
Headcount365’s 6 Ways Recruiting Can Make FP&A Look Good (graph)
Brainner’s The Fairest Approach to Resume Screening with AI (article)
Jobsync’s Urgency Bias is Wrecking Your Ability to Hire Quality Talent and Keep The Talent You Hire (article)
Screenloop’s From Spreadsheets to Smooth Hiring: The Urgent Case for an ATS (article)
SmartRecruiters’ How to Save Time and Money with Data-Driven Recruitment (article)
Industry News (sorted alphabetically with space in the RecOps community in parenthesis)
Brighthire (Interview Intelligence) - The Next Era of Interview Intelligence
candidate.fyi (Candidate Experience/Scheduling) - Automated Slack Channel Creation
Dover (ATS/Screening) - Recruiter Marketplace
Poetry (Recruiter Enablement) - Personas & Insights Solution
Permanent Articles
Job Search
Here is the list of previously listed jobs, which may or may not be available.
Additional Resource
ATS Specific Job Boards
iCIMS's HR professionals job board aggregates all the HR jobs across their customers
Workable’s job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use Workable
SmartRecruiters’ job board aggregates all jobs for companies that use SR
Denys Dinkevych's remote job board, which aggregates jobs from all the major ATS
Drew Callin’s list of VC and PE job boards for their portfolios (pay attention to the comments too here since there are more)
TrueUp - Has a fantastic job board filled with information others don’t like the last time the company did a layoff, application experience based on the ATS, and more.
Boolean Strings for Specific ATS Job Search
We’ve consolidated our list of boolean search strings for RecOps professionals to make them more accessible for everyone. Check out the list here. Kaitlyn Elting also built a generator for you if you are worried about your attention to detail.
Thank you to Steve Levy for contributing so many beautiful strings and Gabi Preston-Phypers for QA help. Follow both of them for excellent boolean and sourcing content.
#YourNextHire / People Looking In the RecOps Community
Short Bio
After taking a break from my Talent Acquisition career to move countries, settle down, and explore a whole new industry (putting together a rooftop bar has been a ton of fun—if you're in San Diego, reach out; I'd love to have you up!). I’m excited to dive back into the professional world. At my most recent corporate role, I led Global Talent Operations at ThoughtSpot. While there, I fine-tuned recruitment processes and enhanced candidate experiences through strategic overhauls and tech solutions. My role also included guiding the Talent Sourcing team, developing targeted sourcing plans, and leading initiatives like migrating hiring data to our ThoughtSpot platform. These efforts, along with my commitment to diversity advocacy and creativity in problem-solving, have shaped my approach to Talent Acquisition, resulting in streamlined operations and high-caliber, diverse talent acquisition.
List of roles you are looking for:
I'm open to TA roles (operations & programs, sourcing, analytics, or management), sales roles in the software/SaaS industry (especially companies in Talent Acquisition or People Ops), and HR operational roles.
Are you a RecOps professional looking for work? If you have 5 minutes, take the opportunity to complete this quick questionnaire. Not only will you be featured in an upcoming Roundup, it will also help us mention your name when people ask for referrals.
Here is a Google Sheet View for a list of people who were previously featured and are still looking.
Events
Week of August 5th
CandorIQ - From Planning to Payroll: How Headcount Planning and Compensation Intersect
Pave - How to use Offer Insights to stay ahead of the talent curve
Week of August 12th
Week of September 9th
Eploy - Harnessing the power of video to enhance your candidate experience
Pinpoint - Breakfast Event: From Buzzwords to Boardroom: Mastering HR Messaging for C-Suite Impact
October 2024
🎉 Reminders and Disclaimers 🎉
If you’d like to contribute a job, an article (one you found or wrote), or you are a company and have a product update you want featured, contact Jeremy Lyons.
Please use this form if you or someone you know would like to be featured in our #YourNextHire section. The only condition is you are a RecOps professional.
Disclaimer #1: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis do not reflect the position of any entity other than the author. As critically thinking professionals, these views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time. They are not to be held in perpetuity.
Disclaimer #2: We are sponsor-free. No company below has paid us to advertise their products or share their open jobs. If that changes, we will deliberately call out where we stand to benefit. Additionally, sharing these opportunities and information should not be read as support for these companies or their practices. Regarding jobs, we share these opportunities with the community and only post roles from the company's website. We encourage possible candidates to research each one, as their inclusion does not mean we support the companies or their values.
Until next week, Regulators 😊