Over the last 6 years, I've really enjoyed partnering with UX, Security, Internal IT, Product, Engineering & Data teams as a Recruiter. By sharing these resources with the world, I hope to empower other Recruiters to be true talent PARTNERS to the businesses they support and ultimately help build life changing products. If you're looking to stay connected, feel free to reach out to me.
Now that I've spent my first chapter of my talent career honing my recruiting stack, I've been spending my energy expanding my "T" and investing in the areas of Diversity & Inclusion, People Analytics, and Total Rewards & Compensation.
- The Role Of Generative AI And Large Language Models in HR: Josh highlights some of the interesting use cases of AI in HR. Super interesting to see how these technologies impact all parts of HR from recruiting, learning & development, HR shared services, and more.
- 21+ ChatGPT Prompts for HR To Accelerate Your Productivity: provides training on how to format your prompts to get better responses in addition to providing chatGPT prompt templates for different parts of HR.
- Tips for job seekers, recruiters and leaders on building a diverse & inclusive workforce (Ceridian): shameless plug, I wrote the article when I was a Pride ERG Co-Chair at my last company
- Diversity Terminology: On D,E,I terminology.
- What does privilege look like?: On what privilege can look like in day-to-day actions.
- On Equality vs. Equity: https://publichealthonline.gwu.edu/blog/equity-vs-equality/
- On Intersectionality: https://time.com/5560575/intersectionality-theory/
- 50 Cognitive Biases in the Modern world: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/50-cognitive-biases-in-the-modern-world/
- Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks (GBIB framework on assessing organization's DEI practices):https://centreforglobalinclusion.org/The-Centre/gdib-model/
- Deloitte: Six signature traits of inclusive leaders: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/six-signature-traits-of-inclusive-leadership.html
- DMIS Model (a model assessing intercultural competencies): https://www.idrinstitute.org/dmis/
- On the challenges of women in technology
- How to talk about pronouns at work: https://hbr.org/2021/09/how-to-talk-about-pronouns-at-work-a-visual-guide
- Designing for Ramadan 2023: Really great read on Ramadan, the pre and post activities and how organizations can build services & products that are inclusive to this community.
- Rivers to Success: Great 30 minute course for non-indigenous employees to better understand history around our indigenous communities. I find that our media fails to really provide adequate coverage of Indigenous history so I strongly recommend for individuals to be proactive with their own education.
- Netflix Culture: Very interesting perspectives from Patty McCord on what it took to build Netflix's unique culture (sports team, talent density, no performance bonuses, top of market pay, etc). She was the CHRO of Netflix. Netflix produced the Netflix culture deck that has circulated the tech space for a number of years.
- Drive by Daniel Pink: Daniel Pink shares a 10 minute video on what factors lead to high performance for creative work. Spoiler alert: it's not pay. It's Mastery, Autonomy & Purpose.
- The Culture Map: If you work in any global team with different cultures or ways of life, this is a MUST read. It dives deeper into the differences between cultures on a number of different dimensions with great examples of no-nos when interacting with multicultural teams.
- Managers of One: prior to reading this article, I've never heard of the concept of "Manager of One". I really love how Gitlab highlights the 20 things you need to see a Manager of One. As a Talent Professional, those 20 things really summarize the types of behaviour I would expect from a high performing individual contributor role.
- How I talk to Leaders About Firing People: Really honest article about PIPs, what needs to be done to be fair to the employee and also acknowledges the importance of the manager in owning responsibility for this failed relationship.
- 12 Quotes from High Output Management by Andy Grove: For people managers that haven't had a chance to read his book, this article summarizes 12 practices that managers need to execute on to build a high-performing organization. Must read.
- a16z's blog archives: really interesting points about "summertime soldiers", "vesting in peace" and "mediocre performers". He provides advice on turning around a company through really strategic HR choices.
- Tableau on Tableau - HR Analytics: Kylie from Tableau walks us through an example of how HR is data-oriented. She walks us through data visualizations related to recruiting funnel, performance management, DEI metrics, compensation & market data, attrition reporting. Really great video that covers basic data categories to dive into when assessing the health of an organization.
- Why T-shaped people?: As someone that has spent the early part of his career believing specialization is the key to success, I've reflected on this article and realized I was probably wrong. I think truly successful people are "T-shaped" and not "I-shaped". I've used this reflection to help drive my 2023 learning goals -> I'll be leaning out on recruiting and doubling down on the rest of my Talent Stack.
- The Fullstack HR professional: As a follow-up to the above resource, Josh Bersin has written a wonderful thoughtpiece on what it takes to be a Full-Stack HR professional.
- Hyper Island Toolbox: Fantastic hub of different faciliation techniques and team buildings.
- HR Business Partners and Centers of Expertise: a quick summary about the roles of HRBPs compared to HR CoEs such as recruiting, learning, total rewards.
- Talking Heads: HR as a Source of Value: great conversation between Dave and Loren (who is the CHRO of Lego, but prev CRO) about business acumen and HR adding value to the business. Great point on HR being stuck in traditional annual cycles and processes where as the north star needs to be value creation for the business group they support. How can we build better Talent professionals?
- Peer Group: a weekly newsletter/community of Total Reward Leaders who discuss upcoming trends in the Total Rewards Space. The founder of this group is a former TR leader from Mercer, Juniper and Workday.
- What is Equity by Carta: great resource on understanding equity, cap tables, vesting and more.
- The Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation -> Equity is a huge consideration when joining a company, but equity is a black box for most individuals. Check out this thorough guide on how equity works. I learned lots about concepts like 409A valuations, taxation, public vs. private equity, vesting schedules, stock options vs. RSUs, and much more.
- Opening Up About Comp Isn’t Easy — Here’s How to Get More Transparent: the world is moving to more transparency around salaries, but the reality is that many organizations may not be ready for this change. HOWEVER, this doesn't mean you can't work towards transparency internally and externally. Check out this article for insights on how an organization can shift into transparency.
- TheWorldatWork: Handbook of Total Rewards: picked up this textbook recently and found it was a fantastic resource for a Talent professional to learn more about compensation surveys, job analysis, merit cycles & budgeting, sales & executive comp, labor laws and more. Still part-way through the book! TheWorldAtWork is an organization that focuses on the practice of Total Rewards, definitely recommend taking a look at their site for other resources!
- Immigration 101: Immigration/Mobility programs are sometimes offered as a condition of employment. This document from Homebrew gives some context for HR professionals on the process of sponsorship in the United States and an overview of the various types of VISAs (H1B, O-1, F1, TN, etc).
- Department of Labor - US - Minimum Wage Laws by State: This federal website breaks down the minimum wage laws across every US state. Can serve as a source of truth.
- Economic Research Institute: ERIERI provides many free compensation courses for US Talent practioniners. Sharing this course as it covers the major federal legislation related to Total Rewards in the United States: Fair Labor Standards Act, Equal Pay Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Civil Rights Act, National Labor Relations Act, and more.
- Sales Commission Glossary: The world of Sales Compensation is more nuanced than comp for non-incentived corporate roles. I thought this glossary was a good explanation of common terms found in the space of incentivized compensation programs.
- The Differences Between Median vs. Mean: very clear explanation of the implications of using "mean" vs. "median" in HR data analysis.
- Paychex - basic benefits a Company must provide (US): great summary of mandatary US benefits for FTE based employees: Workers Comp, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, Medicare, FLMA, etc. Note: companies can choose to go above and beyond to attract talent - 401k + PTO programs are prime examples of benefits that are "standard" to remain competitive.
A curated collection of resources to better understand the craft of recruiting & sourcing in technology:
- WomenWhoCode: Great videos and content to understand the various aspects of information technology!
- Geekruiter Academy: -> Geekruiter is a fascinating resource, Michal is a former CTO of a start-up that now trains technical recruiters. He delivers various trainings through boot camps, mind maps, booklets, etc. I used alot of his content to understand the various relationships across technologies/languages/frameworks/tools.
- Holistica IT Training: Ayub is fantastic, I know he's based in the UK and primarily focuses on training technical recruiters. His content covers tech recruiting in development, IT support/infrastructure, data/machine learning + AI!
- LinkedIn Learning: I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn Learning - I find it's a great resource for all of the soft skills required for successful recruiting (communication skills, problem solving, data analysis, negotiation, project management, diversity, inclusion & belonging, and more). Some public libraries provide LinkedIn Learning subscriptions so you may be able to get the above resource for free.
- AIRS Powered by ADP: When I started in recruiting, I ended up taking both the CIR and PRC certifications through AIRS. Gave great insights on sourcing via Boolean strings and the foundational knowledge of being a Talent Acquisition Partner.
- "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" - Klaus Schwab -> Great insights into where the world may head due to various changes happening in technology
- "Carry That Quota" - Jesse Rothstein -> This really resonated, recruiting is definitely a hybrid between sales and human resources. Gives great suggestions on how a sales focused individual can manage output.
- "UltraLearning" - Scott Young -> A core skill of ANY career path is the ability to learn. This is a great book for the tools needed to stay ahead of the industry and become a life-long learner.
- Never Split The Difference - Chris Voss If you're looking to up your negotiation game, definitely recommend this one. Chris is a former hostage negotiator turned negotiation teacher.
- "Work Rules! Insights from Google" - Laszlo Bock -> Super interesting if you're looking to understand some of the human resources methodologies of one of the biggest global technology companies in the world (Google)
- "Top Talent Sourcing Tools for Recruiters" - Jonathan Kidder -> Takes your Recruiting/Sourcing tools knowledge to the next level, I learned all about contact finding tools, recruiting automation, boolean string builders, data scraping and more!
- "Full Stack Recruiter" - Jan Tegze -> Teaches you about sourcing across various channels like Github/Facebook/Meet-up/etc.
- "How to Speak Tech" - Vinay Trivedi-> Great resource for recruiters that are just starting off in technical recruiting and need to learn about how software development works. Imagine a technical terms 101 guide.
- "Stop Asking Questions" -Andrew Warner -> Wonderful tips on how a recruiter can guide deeper conversations through the art of interviewing.
- PLURALSIGHT: All Hands on Tech
- MATT ALDER: Recruiting Future
- HIRED: Talk Talent To Me
- Tech Recruitment- Michael Juhas
- BetaKit
- TechCrunch
- IT World Canada
- CNET
- InfoQ-> Great for heavy duty deep dives into all sorts of technical topics and follow software development trends
- Pragmatic Engineer-> Great for big tech intel and opinion pieces on engineering related topics.
- Major League Hacking - great way to find out about hackathons happening across the world!
- Collision - one of North America's largest tech conferences!
- Elevate Tech Fest - awesome tech conference hosted in Toronto!
- TechTO - For anyone passionate about learning the tech space in Toronto, check out some of the virtual events they are hosting each month. You can also find some of their past events recorded on Youtube!
- Meetup.com - There are many different community groups being run by the community! Passionate about a specific space in tech like Data Analytics or Information Security? There's a group for everyone!
- Company Insights: https://craft.co/
- Acquisitions: https://www.crunchbase.com/
- Layoffs: https://layoffs.fyi/tracker/
- StackOverflow Dev Survey: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021 -> Every year, I take the time to look through Stack's report to better understand what's happening in the world of Software Development
- CBRE - Scoring Top Tech Markets : https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/scoring-tech-talent-in-north-america-2021#top-talent-markets -> Great if you're thinking of trying to identify more niche talent pools outside of the big North American cities
- Indeed Hiring Lab: https://www.hiringlab.org/ -> great for research on individual countries and getting a pulse on hiring appetite by industry & skillset.
- TechRecruit: Stacey has built a really great technical recruiting community, I especially love her Dueling Sourcers web series where Sourcers compete and share their tools used for their various hunts!
- Recruiting Brainfood: Love Hung Lee's community, his website contains a great number of global job boards and he has a facebook community + weekly distribution list of thought-provoking talent acquisition articles. I believe he is more tapped into the European hiring markets.
- ThePeoplePeopleGroup: For my Toronto HR folks, PPG is an awesome slack community for networking and resource sharing among Toronto-based Human Resources Professionals.
- The Sourcing Method: Great for next level sourcing tips!
- Wizard Sourcer: Fantastic website/resource for Boolean strings, recruiter templates and deep dives into different technologies used by Recruiters. I tinker around with new tools and this has been a great resource!
- One Req: Great community for recruiting professionals to share tips and tricks! Big focus on Early Talent/Campus Recruiting!
- SOSUV- Great community of passionate talent sourcing professionals! SOSUV runs conferences & meet-ups throughout the year, great community to be involved in. Heavy European Talent Sourcing representation.
In addition to the above Talent/Talent Acquisition Resources, wanted to highlight resources to better understand R&D (Engineering, UX, Trust, Data, Product, and more):
- Major League Hacking - great way to find out about hackathons happening across the world! Hackathons are great ways to engage in the community and pipeline Product, UX, Design and Engineering Talent. Talent can partner with their Social Impact/Corporate Social Responsbility teams on joint engagement in hackathons.
- One Req: This recruiting community focuses alot on UR (University Recruiting)- check out the wonderful templates & strategies provided by this organization: campus referral program guidelines, internship extension documents, headcount planning, and more.
- HandShake: Great job postings tool to disseminate your postings across American colleges & universities! I used this alot when I supported US campus roles across New York, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.
- "Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations": Great resource for understanding the challenges/opportunities of building a strong engineering organization - it tells the story of a fictional company attempting to modernize the way they build applications to support business needs
- Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson: I just started this book, but I loved the insights of developers on the technical track. It goes through the role expectations of Staff+ Engineers at multiple companies through storytelling by multiple Staff Engineers.
- Technically: Great 101 on software engineering topics like Kakfa, noSQL, APIs, etc.
- What is a Code Review?: Important context if you're unfamiliar with code reviews
- SRE vs. DevOps
- Equity 101 for Software Engineers at Big Tech and Startups: Compensation and the various elements within a package are very diverse. Great article for talent professionals to understand what compensation is composed of in the world of technical recruiting.
- What is Software Architecture?
- The Seniority Roller Coaster - why do Developers get levelled differently across companies?
- How do you make a strong offer to a Developer?
- Birds-eye view on modern day tools/frameworks in Software Development
- What exactly is a Design System?
- Career Progression frameworks in the tech space
- The Art of Interviewing 10x Engineers
- Software Testing: Explanation of the various types of software testing that can be done by Developers or QA.
- W3C - Introduction to Web Accessibility: Brief overview on the importance of web accessibility. WCAG is a well-known compliance standard in the a11y space.
- MDN - Accessibility: Great resource to better understand how to make software more accessible - introduces topics like ARIA labels, semantic HTML, CSS considerations (color contrast, fonts, etc).
- What exactly is a product-minded engineer?: I really enjoyed this article. I think engineers get a bad rep as heads-down builders, but the true value of an engineer is solving business problems, NOT writing lines of code.
- Hiring Programs: A discussion on extra-curricular hiring programs like Bar raisers, hiring committees, and other complex ways to improve hiring quality
- Senior vs. Staff vs. Principal Engineers: A comparison about the differences between Senior, Staff and Principal Engineering roles - great read.
- DevRel Collective: A great summary of blogs, resources and communities related to Dev Rel & Dev Advocacy. Great for recruiters that work in developer facing product companies!
- What is data engineering?
- What is data engineering? Part 2
- Kaggle - Your Machine Learning and Data Science Community: I would equate Kaggle to the Github/StackOverflow of Data Science. It's a great place to check out data sets, ask questions and network with other Data Science/Data Analytics professionals. They have a really cool progression system as well (https://www.kaggle.com/progression/)!
- Career Progression frameworks in the tech space
- Product Management First Principles
- What is software localization?
- What are the different personas of Product Managers?
- Cool Product Management Templates
- What is a product led company/product led growth?
- Career Progression frameworks in the tech space
- A collection of various company's design principles
- Nielsen Norman - UX Careers: Fantastic overview of UX Careers by Nielsen Norman - talks about skills common to designers, nuances between Designers vs. Researchers, and more.
- UX Design vs UI Design: Short 10 minute video on the main differences between the two fields. The reality is that most organizations combine the roles, but UX and UI are different skills technically. UI is about the visual components of an experience (typography, colors, spacing, information architecture) and UX is about the user journey (think emotions, personas).
- What is a Design Sprint: Super common term thrown around in the design world - TLDR: a design sprint is a condensed 5 day cycle where a team of designers will go from ideation to testing with users. I almost see it as a 5 day hackathon.
- What is wireframing/prototyping?
- An example of a Design System:https://polaris.shopify.com/ or https://mui.com/
- UX Research: Great resource breaking down what UX Research entails!
- Fixing product design career paths with the Mirror Model: Some thoughts on the lack of clarity for growth opportunities related to tenured, individual contributor Designers. Proposes a mirroring of the Engineering progression frameworks as a solution. Thought it makes alot of sense given the alignment that occurs between the trifecta (UX/Engineering/Product).
- NIST frameworks: https://www.nist.gov/
- Common Cyberattacks: https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/types-of-cyber-attacks
- Tools used in modern day security: https://brainstation.io/career-guides/what-tools-do-cybersecurity-analysts-use
- Types of careers in Infosecurity: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/5-top-cybersecurity-careers
- Cybersecurity Role Map: Fantastic mind map that tries to differentiate the multitude of career paths in the Trust/Infosec space. Not many people know about the depth and breadth in Security: Security Engineering, Network Security Legal, Fraud Ops, Physical Security, Compliance, and much much more.
- OWASP - nonprofit geared towards application security: https://owasp.org/
- 3 Sales Organization Structures: interesting perspective on the evolvement of GTM org design. Intro article for those newer to this business.
- The Hunter vs. Farmer Sales Model: introduction to the hunter vs. farmer references in sales. TLDR; it's the idea that some roles focus on closing deals and other roles focus on relationship management and extending the life time value of a customer.
- Inbound vs. Outbound Sales
- Sales Commission Glossary: The world of Sales Compensation is more nuanced than comp for non-incentived corporate roles. I thought this glossary was a good explanation of common terms found in the space of incentivized compensation programs.
I firmly believe in the importance of understanding the business areas/groups that you support as a recruiter. I have included online communities & channels that a technical recruiter can engage & partner with. As always, I believe it's important to acknowledge that these communities are not just used for recruitment so please abide community engagement rules in each respective channel.