Transcript:
Tiffany: Talent Unfiltered is the podcast where candidates and companies finally get the truth about hiring without the jargon, the fluff or the corporate polish. We bring the listeners answers to their curiosities, clarity and the perspective of the everyday listener.
Tiffany: We also bring the recruiting expertise, industry experience, and unfiltered insights that you’re not going to hear anywhere else. Together, we break down the realities of job searching, interviewing, hiring and building teams, always from both sides of the table.
Tiffany: Whether you’re trying to land your next role or hire your next great employee, you’ll get practical advice, real stories and a human look at the world of work. unfiltered conversations for people who hire and people who want to be hired.
Tiffany: Nancy Martinez and I, Tiffany Wallace, CEO Dagen Personnel will be here weekly with insights not only from the market but from people within the market.
Nancy: Welcome to Talent Unfiltered, unfiltered conversations for people who hire and people who want to be hired. I’m Nancy Martinez, and I’m here to ask the questions candidates and companies are actually thinking about.
Tiffany And I’m Tiffany Wallace. I’m the CEO of Dagen Personnel, and I’ve spent twenty-five years inside the staffing in the recruiting world. And so, I’m here today to break down what really happens behind the scenes in a way that’s human, practical, and real.
Nancy: Two perspectives, one unfiltered conversation. Let’s get into it
Nancy: Let’s start with the biggest misconception about recruiting.
Nancy: What do people, candidates and companies consistently get wrong?
Tiffany: Well, let’s start with companies, I think their biggest misconception about using recruiting firms and staffing firms is that they do think that we just post it up on LinkedIn and magically we give the best candidate out there and then we just throw it over to them.
Tiffany: And what they don’t see behind the scenes is the amount of people and the amount of phone time that is spent day in and day out, talking to only the best.
Tiffany: So that when they do reach out to a recruiting or staffing firm for a contractor, you know, we’ve already seen, you know, fifteen or twenty people and only maybe presented you in this typical market, maybe even just one to three people.
Tiffany: And so, I think the biggest misconception is they don’t understand the time and intention it takes for us to find the good people we put in front of them.
Nancy: Okay, so for a candidate listening, what does that mean?
Tiffany: Well, for candidate listening, I think that, you know, whenever a recruiter looks over your resume, they’re looking for three things.
Tiffany: First, they’re looking, first of all, the format of your resume, and is it a good representation of yourself. They’re looking depending on, you know, where you live and where the job is, and then also couple of things if you have a degree or not a degree. And then do you align with the job itself?
Tiffany: And good recruiters that have been doing this a really long time can do that in less than ten seconds. So, what can I tell somebody who’s a candidate?
Tiffany: I, first of all say, get your resume in order so that you can show where you shine the best in less than ten seconds. And then the misconception for candidates is that, you know, they think that the recruiters and the companies that are recruiting is staffing really don’t care about them.
Tiffany: And the sad part is, is that large agencies all have a quota that they have to meet. And so, some of that might be true depending on the agency that you’re, um, involved with.
Tiffany: You know, at Dagen, one of our biggest slogans is “Dagen cares”. We care about every person we talk to. Now can we help every person we talk to? It’d be a lie for me to say that we could. But is it true to say that we care about every person we engage with? Yes. So, the misconception for the candidates is that everybody cares and they don’t.
Nancy: All right, segment two.
Nancy: What really happens behind the scenes? Let’s break this down. What is step one?
Tiffany: Step one is the client. Um, there’s two parts. Your client and your candidate are so important, but you need a job from a client that trusts you in order to go out and find the right person.
Tiffany: So, understanding the real role from your client, not just the job description, but the actual expectations, which means what do they want this person to accomplish in the first ninety days? Where are they coming in and beginning? What project are they walking into the middle of?
Tiffany: And for companies, this is where misalignment shows up. They may not know or they didn’t give us enough information, or you didn’t have a recruiter mature enough to ask the hard questions.
Tiffany: And for candidates, this is why recruiters ask so many questions. We’re trying to understand the real picture and we’re really trying to find out what’s going on with you on why you’re looking. You didn’t just wake up one day and decide, oh, I’m gonna look for a new job.
Tiffany: So, we always ask, you know, what was the last thing that happened that you thought to yourself, you know what It’s time for me to leave here, and it’s because we genuinely want to make sure we put you at the next good place that where you’re gonna be able to thrive.
Nancy: All right, and then once you’ve decoded that role, the next question is where do the candidates actually come from? And then that brings me to strategic sourcing, that’s the invisible part.
Tiffany: goodness. You, you cannot function in a recruiting firm without some really strong strategic sourcing people.
Tiffany: And that comes with understanding the niche that you’re in, or either understanding the types of placements that your agency makes. And so, they have to be given the, uh you know, learn and or have a list of what really shines on someone’s resume.
Tiffany: So, it starts with someone sourcing for the right person if they’re not already in the Dagen database, or if we haven’t already, you know, in our own mind talked to that person, know who they are.
Nancy: all right ,And once you found the people who might be a fit, that step is figuring out who actually is a fit. And so that brings us to the vetting and screening.
Nancy: And once you find the people?
Tiffany: once we find the people, then we’re back engaged fully with the client. Um, I like to, um, take a person and put it in front of the client, have a conversation about them.
Tiffany: But with email and everything that people are responsible for nowadays, including text and, I mean, just the thousands of, uh, messages they get, sometimes that’s difficult, but I like to engage with the client, um, one on one about each resume
Nancy: okay, after you’ve identified the right people, the work definitely doesn’t stop there, right? This goes into candidate management, and this part feels like emotional labor.
Tiffany: It is, candidates need guidance and companies need updates. We’ve managed, we’re managing expectations on both sides.
Nancy: And sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t the candidates at all, it’s what’s happening on the company side. And so that brings us to client alignment.
Tiffany: Absolutely.
Tiffany: Slow processes, unclear expectations, too many decision makers. For candidates, this is why hiring can feel chaotic. And for companies, this is where you lose talent.
Nancy: So, with all that happening behind the scenes, it raises important questions.
Nancy: Why does any of this matter to both sides?
Tiffany: Candidates can navigate hiring smarter, and companies can hire faster and better.
Tiffany: And the truth is, transparency benefits both sides.
Nancy: All right, let’s talk about the three biggest, most transformative and often stressful, stressful changes in your life that’s losing a loved one, a divorce or being separated from a relationship, and then career change.
Nancy: How…?
Tiffany: How do I help people through that?
Nancy: Yes, that is the question.
Tiffany: No problem.
Tiffany: Um, this is the favorite part of my job. I think this is why God chose, uh, this career path for me. And it’s because I genuinely do love people.
Tiffany: Changing a job, you’re changing your daily routine. It’s a financial change. Whether if you lose a job and then have to get another job, you’re making less money. Um, it also impacts your, uh, your schedule, you know, your relationships with your family.
Tiffany: And then it also is the people that you’re leaving behind that you have invested so much of your life with and or a company where you have invested so much of your energy into the performance of them.
Tiffany: So, whenever you’re looking for a new job, you’re not just looking at what’s on paper, you’re looking at all the people you’re interviewing with, the culture and then how they’re going to impact you.
Tiffany: So, it is a massive decision that you have to pay attention to. Why do I love it? Because I’m willing to ask hard questions about how this job is, this job change is going to impact you.
Tiffany: We spend a good amount of time talking about that. It’s got to be the reason and the value of why you’re making the move. And those things are quite important.
Nancy: Now to the juicy, oh, it’s not juicy, but I feel like when I started this job, I hadn’t really looked at your website. So, I’m gonna, you know, apologize, right, okay, y’all didn’t see that one, but I covered my eyes!
Nancy: But let’s talk about the Dagen dream, because I honestly did not know about that.
Tiffany: oh, Okay..
Nancy: and it kind of made me emotional. I don’t want to cry, I feel like this is, I may cry,
Tiffany: yeah
Nancy: but let’s talk about that.
Tiffany: Okay, well, for twenty years, I didn’t tell anybody. Um,
Nancy: really?
Tiffany: uh huh, yeah, I only recently put that out into the world in the last year. And I put it on the website, and it is, what does Dagen mean, the name Dagen or how did you come up with the Dagen name?
Tiffany: And so, in Dutch, it actually means a day or what’s the day. And so, you know, we translate that to seize the day.
Tiffany: That’s what I would tell people, but the truth is that, um, twenty years ago, I was, I had another agency and I was going through a divorce, and, and we split professionally and personally.
Tiffany: And I was seeing a psychiatrist at the time, and I was having dreams all the time about being in, um, bad places or something terrible was gonna happen to me.
Tiffany: And a woman would come to me in the dream every single time and save me. And she was unkempt and not beautiful, and, um, but she would come and get me and get me out of that position every time.
Tiffany: And so, at the time we were looking for a new name for the company, and so the last dream I ever had that she came and saved me from, she was leaving, and I yelled and I stopped, and I yelled and I said, don’t leave, what’s your name? And she turned around and said, Dagen.
Nancy: oh my gosh.
Tiffany: And so, I went back to my psychiatrist the next day and told him about the dream and he said, that’s it, that’s your company name. It will be what saves you every time and what carries you through.
Nancy: And did you know that Dagen meant, meant like a day or that’s after the fact?
Tiffany: after the fact I had that conversation with Camille, who’s on our team, and I said, how can I use this word or this name without having meaning, without being able to tell someone? And Camille got online and found out that that’s what, um, the word meant.
Tiffany: And so then we used it and for, you know, for now twenty-five years, Dagen has, um, not only carried me, but it’s carried people that have gotten jobs and it’s brought me you.
Nancy: oh, I’m crying… and it’s literally saved me and it’s brought me to you.
Tiffany: And we’ve known each other a long time, that’s what other people don’t know. We’ve known each other twenty years. I knew your sister who worked for me, and then I met your mother, and I met your brother who we have placed at a client.
Tiffany: And then, you know, I was laying in bed one night, and God said on any. I hate saying God said, because some people might say that’s crazy, but I was praying. And, um, I, you know, my response when I was praying to God was, He said call Nancy. And I called Nancy.
Tiffany: And it’s been one of the best hires I’ve ever had.
Nancy: Aww, thank you! And, you know, for the science people, the universe.
Tiffany: Universe, yes, the universe
Nancy: they believe in that.
Tiffany: They do believe in that.
Nancy: All right, before we wrap up, let’s leave listeners with something they can use right away. So, what’s the quick tip of the week? One for candidates and one for companies.
Tiffany: Okay, easy, easy for candidates is keep your LinkedIn updated when you’re not looking, and even when you’re looking, and make sure your LinkedIn profile matches what’s on your resume. That’s something everybody can do today.
Tiffany: And for companies, shorten your interview process. You know, right now, speed wins talent. You cannot expect to have somebody take off from their job five, six, seven times, even if it’s a thirty-minute interview or an hour. You need to have your decision makers know what they want and then speed it up.
Nancy: Alright? So simple, practical and honestly, game changing for both sides.
Tiffany: Game changing for both sides.
Nancy: Alright. Thanks for joining us today and I hope this gave you a clear, more human look at how hiring really works.
Tiffany: If you’re hiring or job hunting, follow the show. We’ve got more unfiltered conversations coming your way each week. Thank you for joining Nancy Martinez and myself today.