Reader, If you’re still manually sourcing talent and building sales call sheets in 2026...you’re behind. Not because you’re bad at your job.But because tech is changing options for better operations. I see this every week with staffing leaders who are trying to grow revenue using workflows built for 2021. Now is the time to assess. Example: Last week I met with a CEO of a consulting firm focused on engineering hiring.Sharp guy. Strong foundation. Great delivery instincts. His goal? 2× his...
6 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, At the bottom of today's email is the rubric I used with the hiring manager during discovery and interview debriefs. It was developed with a senior engineer in the organization who conducted a one-time discovery session with me and the client manager to understand the department’s initiatives and requirements. This approach immediately created a level of trust and shared accountability with the decision-maker and provided a clear framework for me to surface gaps and misalignment...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, A few years back, I partnered with a manager at Ally Financial who had been with the firm for years and was rolling out Cypress across multiple departments. This wasn’t a short-term fix. These were long-term, contract-to-hire initiatives. The manager already had a strong development lead in place. What he needed was QA talent that could truly match that level. Early on, he walked me through upcoming projects and the friction points he expected to hit.That context mattered and we...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, This is a Senior Full Stack Engineer req I pulled from LPL Financial's careers page. REQ: https://career.lpl.com/job/R-047752/Engineer-II-Net-Full-Stack-Engineer screenshot just in case it gets taken down over the weekend lol So how do you vet candidates for this? For an Engineer II (senior), you are looking for the transition from "following instructions" to "owning outcomes." Years of experience are irrelevant if the candidate can prove they’re achieving at the appropriate level....
16 days ago • 3 min read
Reader,You struggle to vet technical requirements and position yourself to manage the decision maker well enough to move the deal forward. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. I’m a boots on the ground full desk rep. I’ve had to think creatively to make matches work. I’ve also worked with hundreds of sales and recruiting leaders and sat in on their client conversations. When capable operators stall on true opportunities, it usually comes down to one thing: insufficient technical depth to spot...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, Let's recap. In Part One, we saw how a vague, canned requisition left a sales rep struggling to do 2 things: align with the hiring manager define a clear candidate profile He'd send resume after resume to the hiring manager as the candidate profile was constantly changing. It became a fool's errand trying to get the right candidate for the role. The breakthrough came when an engineer joined the process. Their perspective didn’t just clarify technical requirements. It gave the rep the...
23 days ago • 5 min read
Reader, What is your strategy for filling AI engineering roles next year while managing clients and properly vetting technical talent? For the past six months, I’ve been partnering with two EU-based leaders on selling AI products and bespoke solutions. My role has been to vet small to mid sized businesses, run technical discovery, and help teams decide what to prioritize. The reality is messy. And misalignment rolls downhill. If that misalignment hasn’t hit your pipeline yet, it will within...
27 days ago • 2 min read
Hey newsletter friends, Social QA is officially shutting down for good. You probably saw this coming. I know I've been mulling it over for months now. The reality is, after I really dove into parkour coaching, I started to doubt that I'd ever return to QA education. I started to want nothing to do with QA outside of my 9-5. My energy and thoughts have been elsewhere since May or June. I haven't planned to seriously resume operations, especially since my parkour classes at the YMCA have been...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hey there, I told you I'd let you know where I decided to document my parkour coaching journey. Here it is: >>> Door County Traceur blog I decided it would be a good excuse to try Beehiiv since they let you have a public blog and I always wondered how it compared to Kit. I'm only using it as a blog. No emails. Not sure how notifications work for it but if you want to know what's happening, check back for updates. Cheers, Steven
11 months ago • 1 min read