Proven Recruiting

21 questions to determine your candidate's past track record, present mindset, and future aspirations - all while uncovering whether they have what it takes to join your team.

Funny how we're all expected to regularly post to LinkedIn, despite the fact that most of us are neither social media experts nor especially interested in posting professional-nonsense to an audience that is unlikely to engage. The more likely scenario is one or two colleagues like your post before it fades into obscurity. Still, "they" say the best way to level-up your career is to grow your network. And "they" are not wrong; personal references/networking remains a leading resource when job hunting. Next time you're struggling to post, try these 7 popular LinkedIn topics that'll hopefully strike the perfect balance between personal and practical, informative and delightful. 1. Industry Insights and Trends: Share ideas, analyses, and predictions about your industry. 2. Career Advice and Personal Development: Tips on advancing careers, improving skills, and personal growth stories are universally appealing. 3. Success Stories and Case Studies: Posts that highlight how you (or your company/team) have overcome professional challenges and learned meaningful lessons draw readers in with relatable and inspiring content. 4. Innovations and Tech Advancements: Updates on cutting-edge technologies, innovations, and their implications for your industry. 5. Networking and Community Building: Content that encourages collaboration or participation in professional communities fosters a sense of belonging and engagement. 6. Job Market Insights: Information on hiring trends and in-demand skills attracts professionals looking to navigate the job market effectively. 7. Event Announcements / Recaps: Sharing announcements about upcoming professional events, webinars, or recaps of recent events can generate buzz and foster goodwill. Tag us in your post and we'll turn your sad-single-like into two!

Two reasons to never share salaries among colleagues: - What if you learn they make significantly LESS than you? - What if you learn they make significantly MORE than you? And this information is extremely dangerous because… Don't ask us. In our book, that's really valuable data - if used responsibly. Not surprisingly, companies fear that people will draw comparisons where none should be made. Maybe the person making more works longer hours or brings some special experience to the table. If you use their salary to benchmark your own without knowing the full story, you’ll end up looking like an uninformed, demanding complainer. However, if you use the information to better understand your team’s budget – i.e. what they are willing to pay for a top player – then you can strategically position yourself to earn that coveted raise. We'd avoid creating arguments based on “so and so makes more”; instead, build a thoughtful case for what you bring to the table and why you believe the market rate for a performer such as yourself is X salary. Ask what you’d have to change to merit that raise and hold strong to your compensation goals. Moral of the story? If we all act like adults and use the information responsibly, then sharing salary data is really quite useful. It can help you understand your value in an organization and position yourself for future success. Is it a touchy topic? Absolutely. But transparency comes with its benefits - namely, knowledge. Have you shared your salary with a coworker before? Was it useful or disheartening?

Most people dread hiring. It's high stakes, extremely time consuming, and everyone on the team thinks they have the right to weigh in. Pressed for time and already spread thin, leaders go in without a plan. They know what kind of candidate they want but they lack the strategy to make it happen. This leads to unnecessary interviews, internal disagreements, and in the worst cases prolonged vacancies or bad hires. We're team "make hiring easier on yourself" - whether or not you choose to work with a recruiting agency. Simply having a plan and learning some basic sales techniques can really reduce stress and improve outcomes. Flip through our Hiring Guide & Best Practices for inspiration and reach out if you could use a helping hand!

A new study found that company-wide pay transparency - thought to help workers negotiate fair wages and eliminate bias - often results in lower average salaries for all. Funny how the best laid plans can sometimes backfire, eh? We've heard both sides - those who claim salary sharing is the only way to ensure equality, and those who believe it sparks inaccurate comparisons and baseless office drama. Do you share your salary and are you picky about who you tell? Do you worry the info will be used against you if/when a coworker references your pay during negotiations? P.S. If you're interested in that pay transparency study, you can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ekMkjPBD

Remember our poll about the most hated jobs? We have a new "job" for the list... Scammers. Which brings us to our main point; if you’ve received a text from someone claiming to be a Proven Recruiting employee offering a job out of the blue – bonus if it’s littered with spelling errors – ignore it. Especially if they ask about your social security number, how you want to be paid, etc. It is certainly not us and we would hate for anyone to find themselves in a bad spot. P.S. We’re working to get this person stopped but the internet is a wild place. If you've been through something similar and have suggestions, we're all ears.

Our returning heroes - i.e. incredibly hard working top performers - are back from Proven's Elite Performer Trip and boy do they have some stories to tell (none of which we'll be sharing here because this is a professional platform, ahem). They danced, they laughed, they rode ATVs until they were ~80% dust, they witnessed some of the most beautiful sunsets over Puerto Vallarta and they somehow made it back in one piece. Congrats to everyone for putting in the work and earning your way to the rarified ranks of the elite few. Special shoutout to our Employee of the Year Emily Brown, Rookies of the Year Emma Bruno and Melissa Stramel, Performers of the Year April Ayyoubi and Kelly Zastrow, and Founders Award Winner Mike Chiv. And of course, thank you to the incomparable Vanessa Richards for planning a trip that was one for the books! Until next year!

Does your team like you as a manager? Or are they counting down the days until your next vacation? It's tough to read the signs. People are skilled at hiding their true feelings about their managers - and we can't blame them. Their livelihoods are on the line. What's written on a survey or performance review may not accurately reflect how your workers feel about your management style. That's why reading between the lines and regularly taking stock of your team's health is so vital. How many of these outstanding-manager-indicators do you check off? - You don't feel compelled to check-in on your team to validate they're working - You know, generally, what's going on in your workers' personal lives - No one has ever accused you of taking feedback personally - Your workers rely on you for direction and advice, not lecture-style instruction - You enjoy your life outside of work! You're a role model for work/life balance - You trust your people with critical tasks - Maybe most importantly, your people grow and improve year-over-year Anything we missed?

There are two types of tech professionals: those who spend hours on LeetCode in preparation for coding interviews, and those who wing it. Neither option is perfect. Practice is useful, but with a full-time job and a life outside of work, it's just not feasible to devote hours to sample questions. And winging it only works if the questions happen to be in your wheelhouse. To cut down on preparation time and stress, we send our candidates a recap of whiteboarding best practices before any interview, just to get them in the right mindset. It covers basic strategy tips as well as a simple workflow to narrow down possible problems. Find it here: https://lnkd.in/eiK38ny How do you prepare for tech interviews? Caffeine and LeetCode? Prayers and System Design? Share what works!

$276,723 - that's apparently the annual income needed to comfortably support a family of four in California. Depending on your home state, that number could jump as high as $300K+ (sorry Massachusetts!). Now before you go into your manager's office guns blazing demanding wages commensurate with your state, consider this: "requiring" X amount to support a family doesn't mean your skills and experience will command anything remotely approaching that salary. Unexpected medical bills, exorbitant childcare costs, a car repair - while infinitely stressful, these aren't factors you'd want to bring up in a salary negotiation. As any good sales person will tell you: your value is determined by how you can help others, not how they can help you. A few negotiation strategies we've seen work: - Instead of referencing personal needs, call on market data. Check salary.com and payscale.com to validate your salary expectations - Prepare for objections like “what you're asking for is outside our budget” (sample responses: https://lnkd.in/e5UbmcCK) - Solve problems, don't create them. Clarify how you'll save the company time and/or money. Plus if all else fails, you can always search cities by "highest paying jobs" and "lowest cost of living" and see where that takes you (we hear Dallas is a good bet!). How does your state compare? For a family of four, do these incomes feel attainable? - Massachusetts: $301,184 - New York: $278,970 - California: $276,723 - Illinois: $231,962 - Texas: $201,344 - Mississippi: $177,798 (find the full list here: https://lnkd.in/gQzCUnse)