Sharon L.

How is it already May tomorrow?? "[Recruiters] are struggling [with new tech] because how it’s applied matters just as much as the tech itself." That’s why I loved this recent episode of Talking TA where Denise Chaffin sat down with Lisa Fiondella, SVP of Platform & AI at ICIMS and Trent Cotton, our head of talent insights. They dig into what’s actually making a difference in recruiting today, including: 💡 Automation that delivers real results (not noise) 💡 How agentic AI is changing hiring workflows 💡 Why AI governance is now a leadership conversation—not just an IT one 💡 ICIMS’ long‑standing, responsible approach to AI, including ICIMS Coalesce AI and what’s coming next Get a sneak peek below 👇 Watch the full episode on the ICIMS YouTube channel: https://okt.to/fFq6TS

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I asked an AI to find candidates for a Series A role. It quickly sent 47 “perfect” resumes. 🤖✨ None fit the day-one chaos though 🤔 AI can spot terms and patterns, but it still often misses the story in-between, no matter how long the prompt. It sees buzzwords and big logos, but not multi-hat builders with potential, it can’t tell what someone cares about, how much drive they have, or if they’re okay with unclear work; and it doesn’t know the timing, runway, or why they want to move. Example: it pushed a VP from Google 🤦 Use AI for reach. Use humans for judgment. What was your biggest AI hiring miss this year? #Hiring #Startups #Recruiting #AI #SeriesA #SaaS

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One of the biggest reasons candidates get screened out has nothing to do with whether they are smart, capable, or motivated. It’s because they didn’t understand the role they applied for. I was recently recruiting for a Technical Writer position focused on complex system documentation, engineering artifacts, and supporting highly regulated technical environments. An applicant emailed asking for a chance to “write for the company blog” and offered to submit a sample article. The problem? This wasn’t a content or marketing role. It was mission-critical technical documentation supporting engineers and operational teams. That disconnect matters. When candidates apply based only on the job title, it shows. When outreach doesn’t reflect the actual responsibilities, it raises concerns. When experience is framed in a way that misses the required technical depth, it becomes difficult to move forward. As recruiters, we are not looking for perfection. We are looking for alignment. A few simple things make a major difference: • Read the full job description, not just the title • Understand the environment (engineering, federal, product, startup, etc.) • Tailor your outreach to the actual work being done • If you are pivoting, acknowledge it directly and explain the bridge Effort matters. Enthusiasm matters. But understanding the role before you apply is what gets you into the interview seat.

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Recruiting is demanding work, with often unseen effort behind every successful hire. This effort includes grasping a role and team needs, dedicating hours to sourcing or application review, meticulously scheduling interviews despite conflicting calendars, effectively selling the company and the opportunity, and conducting conversations that assess candidates while also seeking to understand them as individuals. Recruiters build relationships, deliver difficult rejection news, mediate between hiring managers and candidate needs, strive for mutual satisfaction, and engage in extensive negotiation. While this often unrecognized effort can sometimes be frustrating, a reminder of the 'why' quickly re-energizes the work. This recently happened to me when I extended two offers last week. One candidate shared that they had been waiting four weeks for the call, and the other felt the need to apologize for their sheer excitement. That moment was incredibly rewarding. It highlighted that you truly cannot know the profound impact a simple phone call, a job offer, or a new job can have on a person's life. It reaffirmed my core purpose as a Recruiter: to positively impact people's lives. 🫶

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Really excited about this one: Confluent is teaming up with the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team! As someone who gets to see firsthand how powerful real-time data can be, it’ll be amazing to see it fuel faster race-day calls, engineering breakthroughs, and even fan experiences. Read more here: https://cnfl.io/46LDD8Z

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🌈 Great technology is built by diverse teams. Serve Robotics is proud to be sponsoring the LGBTQ+ Diversity Job Fair in Long Beach on March 7. Our team will be onsite and excited to connect with talented professionals interested in robotics, autonomy, engineering, operations, and other technical and business roles. As we continue scaling autonomous delivery, we’re always looking for people who want to help build technology that operates in the real world and serves real communities. If you're attending the fair, stop by the Serve Robotics booth to learn more about our work and explore opportunities to help shape the future of last-mile delivery and real-world robotics. We’re looking forward to meeting incredible talent and continuing to build a team that reflects the diverse communities our robots operate in. #ServeRobotics #Hiring #DiversityInTech #LGBTQInTech #Robotics #AutonomousSystems #TechCareers #LongBeach #InclusionInTech

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CNBC recently reported that there may be millions of “ghost jobs,” based on the 2.2M gap between job openings and hires. The gap is real (it's based on BLS data), but the interpretation is up for debate. They cite analysis from "My Perfect Resume", and they draw the conclusion that ANY gap represents a "ghost job". Some other considerations: 1. They measure openings and hires at different times. If a company posts a job in September, makes the hire in November, and the new hire starts in December, we have 3 openings but 1 hire. In other words, even if 100% of jobs that were posted were filled, we would see a discrepancy unless every role is filled (with butt in seat) in the same month it was posted. 2. The longer it takes to fill a role, the greater this gap will appear to be. Roles are taking longer to fill - I know that doesn't seem intuitive in this market, but the reality is that those who are looking for work may not align well with the roles companies are trying to hire in terms of skills, location, etc. Layer on top of that, that companies are hiring fewer people and being more selective. They would rather hold out 4 months for the right person than take a risk on a stretch hire in 2 months. This means openings are being counted for many months before a hire is recorded. 3. Openings are self-reported by companies, and most economists say it's the least reliable metric in the JOLTS report. There IS a definition, but it's kind of fuzzy and there's no audit. There's not necessarily a posting that would represent a "fake job" to an applicant. Let's just consider jobs posted on LinkedIn: we see 3.8M jobs posted in the US. Not all employers post here, but about ~75% of recruiters use LinkedIn so this might suggest a total of ~5M job postings. If 30% of all job postings were truly fake, we’d expect to see far fewer than ~5M hires per month happening in the labor market. None of this changes the fact that: - people in certain fields are really struggling in this job market - that there's real misalignment between what jobs openings and the skills, interests, and locations of the workforce - that many people are underemployed - that many companies are unrealistic in the bar they're holding - that many companies have crappy hiring processes. - that many companies But none of that means that employers are intentionally posting fake jobs en masse. I think that nuance is important. I think it impacts how people approach their job search. If you believe every company is out to get you and 30% of jobs are fake, you may engage in an adversarial way or try to "game the system" (with mass appliers, fake resumes, etc.). If you believe companies are hiring in good faith but being extremely picky, you're more likely to be thoughtful about what jobs you apply for, take steps to stand out, and show up as the best possible candidate. And one of those strategies leads to much better results for applicants than the other.

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🚀 We’re building something new at UKG — and it’s not your typical engineering team. I’m supporting Jian Zheng in hiring Senior Staff & Principal Forward Deployed Engineers in the Greater Seattle area to help shape how enterprise customers adopt AI and modern workforce platforms. This is a customer-embedded engineering role at the intersection of: • Enterprise architecture • Hands-on software delivery • AI-driven transformation • Executive-level advisory You won’t just design systems — you’ll build and deploy production-grade integrations, influence product direction, and partner directly with CIO/CTO-level stakeholders to solve complex, real-world problems. 💡 Think: – APIs, event-driven systems, and data pipelines at enterprise scale – Cloud-native architectures (AWS, Azure, GCP) – Designing agentic AI workflows and intelligent automation – Creating reusable patterns that scale across customers This is not consulting. You are shipping real systems, driving outcomes, and influencing the roadmap. 👉 Principal FDEs will lead multi-account strategy, define architecture standards, and drive AI transformation at scale: https://lnkd.in/eg_8DEb8 👉 Senior Staff FDEs will architect and deliver complex solutions while acting as trusted advisors to enterprise customers: https://lnkd.in/eK2JGNXx If you’ve spent 10+ years building distributed systems, love working directly with customers, and want to be at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption, I’d love to connect. Drop a comment or message me directly to learn more. #Hiring #EngineeringLeadership #AI #CloudArchitecture #EnterpriseArchitecture #SeattleJobs #UKG

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A lot of client conversations right now center on the same question: how do you scale AI and technology while keeping people at the center? This month’s Experis newsletter brings together insights from Davos, global future of work trends, the AI skills employers are prioritizing in 2026, U.S. tech hiring signals, and healthcare transformation in action. It’s a strong snapshot of what leaders are navigating — and how organizations are responding. A good read for leaders navigating AI and workforce change. 👉 https://lnkd.in/epymHhxY #FutureOfWork #HumanFirst #AI #TechTalent #Leadership #Experis

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TA Notes | #4 I read this on LinkedIn recently: “Hiring is mutual discovery. Not an audition.” It challenges how we design interviews. Hiring is often positioned as evaluation, yet in reality both sides are making decisions in parallel. Candidates look for clarity, leadership, direction, and culture. Hiring teams assess capability, alignment, impact, and scalability. When the process is structured like an audition, we optimize for performance. When it is structured like discovery, expectations surface early. Most hiring failures are expectation gaps, not skill gaps. #TalentAcquisition #HiringLeadership #TAInsights #Leadership #HRStrategy #TALife

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A great AWS initiative now available across both APJC and EMEA regions #AWSCareers #LifeAtAWS #AmazonCandidChats #AWSAPJC #AWSEMEA #Hiring #CareerGrowth #Amazon #AWS

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I learned one of my most important lessons about culture from Lyft's co-founder, John Zimmer: Culture has to come from the top.   Early in my time there, we talked a lot about why inclusivity mattered. His perspective was simple: if people can be themselves, they're better employees. That creates a better environment.   That's when it clicked for me. Leadership has to be bought in. Without that, cultural efforts stall.   One of the reasons I love startups is that early on, they tend to be relatively flat. Decisions move quickly, people have real ownership, and culture forms more organically.   But as startups grow and scale, hierarchy naturally emerges. Culture becomes something that has to be designed more deliberately.   That doesn't mean creating some idealistic workplace. The workplace will never be perfect, and that's okay. Companies exist to be sustainable and successful, and culture has to work within that reality.   The opportunity is in aligning inclusive practices with real business outcomes. When people feel comfortable being themselves, they do better work, collaborate more effectively, and stay longer.   That's not idealistic. It's practical.   And it starts at the top.

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From concept to creation, faster than ever. 🚀 The new #NVIDIARTXPRO Blackwell series delivers jaw-dropping ray tracing + neural rendering — built for creators, engineers & AI pros everywhere. 💡 Learn more:

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Ever wondered what it’s like to work behind the scenes on the messaging feature for Meta technologies like Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Meta Quest or Ray-Ban Meta glasses? Buping W. and Elaine W. recently joined the Meta Tech podcast to share an inside look at their experience transitioning our mobile messaging library from C to Rust. 🎧 Listen now for the full story: https://bit.ly/4f24p0E #LifeAtMeta #engineering #RustLang #coding #metacareers

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With so many people on my feed looking for work, I wanted to share a quick tip from my perspective as a TA leader hiring recruiting professionals. As I search using LI Recruiter, 2 things consistently stands out: people who are active on LinkedIn and have an updated profile. Great recruiters don’t just source talent, they build relationships and engage with their network. So if you're job searching, don’t just scroll, make sure you engage and comment on posts. Also, make sure your profile reflects your most recent roles. If you’ve been laid off, update your profile to show an end date. If you are actively looking, make sure you have turned on "Open to Work" so Recruiters can see that. Many recruiters are actively looking for talent affected by layoffs, and if your profile still lists you as currently employed, you might get passed over under the assumption that you’re not available. Give yourself the best chance to be seen and contacted by a recruiter. Hopefully these tips help. Good luck in your search.

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🎯 Want to Land That Senior Role at Amazon? Here's What Your Resume is Missing Ever wonder why your resume isn't getting the attention it deserves from Amazon recruiters? After reviewing hundreds of applications and working with successful candidates, I've noticed a critical pattern: It's not just about what you've done—it's about how you showcase your impact. 🔍 The Hard Truth About Project Descriptions Most resumes I see look like this: "Led development of payment processing system" "Managed cloud infrastructure migration" Stop. Right. There. These vague descriptions are killing your chances. Here's what Amazon (and other tech giants) actually want to see: ✅ The Right Way to Present Projects: "Architected and deployed a fault-tolerant payment processing system that: Reduced transaction failures by 47% Scaled to handle 1M+ daily transactions Decreased processing costs by $2.3M annually Improved customer satisfaction scores from 3.2 to 4.7" 💡 The Secret Sauce: STAR + Numbers Structure your projects using: • Situation: What was the challenge? • Task: What was needed? • Action: What did YOU specifically do? • Result: What was the measurable impact? 🎯 Real Example: "Identified critical performance bottleneck in checkout flow (S) Required 40% reduction in load time (T) Implemented Redis caching layer and optimized database queries (A) Resulted in 63% faster page loads and $4.2M additional revenue in Q3 2023 (R)" 🚀 Pro Tips: 1️⃣ Quantify Everything Instead of "improved performance" Write "reduced latency by 78%" 2️⃣ Show Scale Team size you led Budget managed Users impacted 3️⃣ Highlight Amazon Leadership Principles Customer Obsession Ownership Deliver Results ⚠️ Common Pitfalls to Avoid: Generic responsibilities Missing metrics Focusing on tasks instead of impact 📣 Call to Action: Review your resume right now. For each project, ask: Have I included specific numbers? Is the business impact clear? Would this impress me if I were hiring? Need more guidance? Drop a comment with your biggest resume challenge, and I'll help you transform it into an Amazon-worthy achievement. #AmazonJobs #TechCareers #SeniorSDE #ResumeWriting #CareerAdvice #TechHiring #SoftwareEngineering #JobSearch #LinkedInTips #AmazonCareers #TechResume #CareerGrowth #Hiring #ProjectKuiper Remember: Your resume isn't just a document—it's your ticket to the interview room. Make every bullet point count! 💪

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