Hooked on Intentional Recruiting - Issue 1
Always Be Recruiting the Best Talent (not just the best available talent)
What is going on:
150k people have been culled from the rosters of tech companies. This means your competitors helped you screen a bunch of candidates that won’t necessarily meet your hiring bar. At least this is what we are hearing from founders and startup leaders who are actively ignoring incoming resumes from laid off tech workers, especially from FAANGs. They say their interview to offer ratio from the layoff pool is about 50:1. That’s pretty lousy ROI.
Why this matters:
While everyone else burns time on layoffs.fyi and trolling LinkedIn for folks “on the market”, scrappy leaders are surgically sourcing people still in their seats. People that survived RIFs are not only great performers by default (yay!), but they are also probably a flight risk (double yay!!) because no one really wants to keep working for a company whose growth has stalled and valuations have dropped 80%.
If you are recently laid off and startup curious, it’s important you hear this. We’ve just told you that founders might look at your resume as noise. Rise above the noise by describing how you’ve solved complex problems on v1 products instead of just leaning on your big company logo. Check below for bonus materials that the Madrona talent team created just for you.
What do others think?
“The point about the best people who are passed over in a layoff being at elevated risk is spot on! I think the point that everyone involved in one of these layoffs won’t meet your high standards by default isn’t the full story. I see more and more companies, such as Amazon, laying off whole ML teams, without regards to individual performance. However, this doesn’t invalidate your point about crummy ROI. It means that you’ll need to mine those layoffs even harder to find the gold nuggets. Quality signal: It might be worth seeing if a potential candidate was an individual target in the RIF or if they were caught up in the elimination of a business unit or team.” - Jonathan Wiggs, CTO at Outbound
Great advice.
What we think:
This is all kinda harsh. While we agree founders need to be laser focused on speed and quality, we hope that everyone impacted by layoffs be met with kindness and compassion.
Take action:
If you are a founder or startup leader, making your talent wish list has never been easier. While all those still employed aren’t an automatic A+ fit for your startup, there’s certainly some evidence of resiliency and adaptability. Two attributes perfect for a startup. Reach out now, even if you don’t have headcount. Start the conversation. Google did this masterfully during the housing crisis and filled their buildings with phenomenal talent while the rest of the world was distracted. Now it’s your turn.
What do YOU think?
Events, Tools, Insights:
Future Founders Event → Launchable (Jan 23-29) Create innovative, venture-scalable startups.
Early Stage CTOs → AWS 2023 CTO Fellowship Program (Jan 25-Feb 15)
Founders → Hiring Early Leadership Roles
Founders → Guide to Recruiting Laid off Tech Workers
Intelligence Applications → What do previous platform innovations tell us about where AI is headed?
Start up Curious and On the Market → Flip The Script - Take Control, LinkedIn Tips, and Action Plan
VC Curious → Madrona Insights