Jeff Hunter

San Francisco, CA

Guest Blogger Jeff Hunter is a member of the Glassdoor.com Clearview Collection and is an award-winning technologist, strategist, author and entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Vice President of HR Solutions at Dolby Laboratories. Prior to joining Dolby, Jeff served as Sr. Director of EA University at Electronic Arts, the world’s largest digital entertainment company. In 2007, Jeff launched the “Talent Unconference” a meeting of the top minds in HR, business and technology to discuss new methods for developing and driving talent-centric businesses.

Other ways to follow Jeff: http://www.talentism.com/ |

Recent Posts by Jeff

Victims Don’t Get Jobs

Posted by Jeff Hunter • February 8th, 2010 • Comments

Colleen McCreary, the head of HR for Zynga, was talking about mistakes that jobseekers make when applying online. Colleen’s warning to jobseekers was direct and dire: “You are going to be remembered – and not in a positive way.”

What does this mean? I think it means that recruiters and HR professionals are starting to point out that in this economy jobseekers should beware thinking that populist rage is a solid strategy for finding a job.

…If you are serious about finding a job you need to drop the victim narrative. For every jobseeker who is angry because of their job hunting experience, there is a recruiter who is just as mad because of jobseeker behavior. The experts are stoking a blame-delegation and finger-pointing exercise that can only lead to fewer real solutions and more bad blood. And in this economy the jobseeker is going to be the ultimate loser.

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Highlight, Connect, Question: Keys To Getting & Keeping The Conversation Going

Posted by Jeff Hunter • February 1st, 2010 • Comments

You walk into a room and see a friend who announces “Hi! I would like to introduce you to Mike. Mike and I worked together and Acme Co.” And before you can reply Mike grabs your hand, shaking it furiously and saying with wide-eyed admiration “I have heard all about you!” You blush, insisting that you really aren’t that big a deal.

I imagine that is the best feeling the world. It’s like you are a celebrity. In all my travels I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t appreciate being treated with that sort of admiration and respect. Especially recruiters and hiring managers.

Last week I offered some simple advice for building a great relationship with a recruiter: ask their opinion. This week, the advice is even simpler: treat hiring managers and recruiters like celebrities.

This week, the advice is even simpler: treat hiring managers and recruiters like celebrities.

It doesn’t take a lot. Just follow these simple steps…

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Win the Job Through Admitting Your Ignorance

Posted by Jeff Hunter • January 25th, 2010 • Comments

I’ll say it over and over until you want to smack me around (I can hear you now “Too late!”): getting a recruiter on your side is critical to landing your dream job. And as we talked about last week, if you want to get a recruiter on your side you need to earn their trust. A recruiter is like your agent. You want them to use their credibility with a hiring manager to influence a positive outcome for you.

How do you build trust with a recruiter? We’ll review a number of tips over the coming weeks, but here is the way you need to start: ASK QUESTIONS!

First, please, take a risk and shut-up. It may be the hardest thing for a candidate to do, but talking too much is always a bad idea. I call it “Talking Your Way Out of a Job.” It happens all the time, with great candidates blathering away, boring the recruiter. The recruiter ends up convinced of one thing and one thing only: I can’t possibly put this person through to the hiring manager. I’ll look like an idiot!

In short, no trust!

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Trust: The Most Important Component of Your Job Search

Posted by Jeff Hunter • January 18th, 2010 • Comments

Over the last month I have asked recruiters 10 questions about their work. I encourage you to read the responses – Sean Rehder , Craig Campbell and Glenn Kwarcinski – because their answers can help you understand how recruiters think.

Over the course of many interviews it became clear that most recruiters agree on one thing: they want you to give them straight and honest answers. Honesty and integrity ranked amongst the most important attributes they are looking for in candidates.

This makes sense. After all, a recruiter is like your agent: they are representing you to the hiring manager. They are giving you their professional stamp of approval, their word that you are worth the hiring manager’s time. The recruiter understands that, when all is said and done, their “word” is really how they make money and keep their jobs. A recruiter who earns the trust of a hiring manager is more likely to fill the position quickly and reliably. When a candidate breaks their trust the recruiter ends up hurting their position with the hiring manager. A candidate’s casual shading of the truth could end up costing the recruiter money, or worse, their job.

Admittedly trust is not a two ...

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Job Recruiter Insights From Apple

Posted by Jeff Hunter • January 11th, 2010 • Comments

Glenn Kwarcinski is a senior technical recruiter in the Wireless Technologies Division of Apple. I worked with Glenn at Electronic Arts, where I learned that if you wanted sharp insights, quick action and direct feedback, Glenn was your man. He is a true rock star recruiter who is the kind of person you want on your side in a job search. I asked Glenn 10 questions about interviewing, staffing, recruiting, resumes and about everything else in between and here is what he said:

The dumbest thing a candidate ever told me… “I like that you have showers on campus, because that is where I like to take my one night stands.”

I go the extra mile for a candidate when… They are upfront and honest (no sales jobs).

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10 Insights To Help You Land A Job – The View From Management

Posted by Jeff Hunter • January 4th, 2010 • Comments

Remember: You have a better chance of getting hired if you know how recruiters think and what they look for. Recruiters are usually the gatekeeper for hiring managers. A recruiter on your side can often make the difference between an unanswered email and an offer letter.

This week we continue our series of conversations with recruiters, asking them 10 questions that will hopefully give you an advantage in your job search. We started with Sean Rehder, and last week we talked with Craig Campbell.  This week I offer my own insights. I will be using some of these answers to start broader discussions  in the Clearview Collection this year.

I have been around recruiting and hiring a long time. It all started in 1987. I was a young kid, fresh out of college, determined to be a writer, making a small salary managing security guards during the swing shift at a manufacturing plant. Since that time I have been a part of recruiting and hiring in the retail, apparel, aerospace, construction, entertainment, high-tech, security and financial service industries. I have sourced and recruited sales people, security guards, janitors, bankers, executives, software engineers, accountants, recruiters, HR professionals and many others. And that has ...

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Tech Company Staffing Guru Answers Top 10 Questions For Your Job Search

Posted by Jeff Hunter • December 28th, 2009 • Comments

This week we ask Craig Campbell, Director of Talent Acquisition at Dolby Laboratories), ten key questions to help you in your job search. Prior to Dolby, he recruited at Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and MGM Mirage. Craig is an expert in both the sourcing side and the recruiting side of the business.  You can learn more about Craig on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.

I especially like Craig’s response on the question “I have never hired a candidate who…”  This gets back to the point I made in a previous post about getting recruiters to invest in you: you have to know what lights your fire, your real passion. This will make or break your success with many recruiters.

The dumbest thing a candidate ever told me… “I got fired because the company was bad at tracking vacation, so I took a couple months off.”

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Ten Secrets From A Staffing Pro For Your Job Search

Posted by Jeff Hunter • December 21st, 2009 • Comments

You have a better chance of getting hired if you know how recruiters think. So I have started asking some of the recruiters I know to answer some questions for you.

Our first volunteer is a great recruiter and sourcer named Sean Rehder. I have worked with Sean for years, and he always seems to be able to find great people. He has a no-nonsense attitude that comes from his Wisconsin upbringing. He has worked with some of the fastest growing companies including Dolby, Genentech, Electronic Arts, CNET, MGM Mirage, and he also worked as a third-party recruiter. You can learn more about Sean at his website (http://www.seanrehder.com/).

The dumbest thing a candidate ever told me… I need you to send me bail money.

I go the extra mile for a candidate when… They are responsive, fair, open to suggestions, and make it clear they WANT the job.

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How Valuable is Your Online Network?

Posted by Jeff Hunter • December 14th, 2009 • Comments

In the old days, before Twitter and telephones, a community could mean the difference between life and death. You needed the trust and good-favor of your neighbors to face the elements, harvest your food and defend your interests. Community wasn’t a fancy concept discussed over coffee by social scientists and computer jockeys.

Now we have specialists to take care of our problems and technology to tell our friends how we are doing. Networks have replaced communities. Barn raising has been replaced by Facebooking. The days of depending on a network for survival seem long gone.

Or are they? If you are looking for a job, your network may be all that stands between you and a desperate future. Millions of job seekers competing for thousands of jobs means that you need every possible advantage to distinguish yourself from the competition. As any recruiter or hiring manager can tell you, your network is often that advantage.

We forget this fact during the good times. Or perhaps the fact that our lives don’t depend on the quality of our relationships means we are just out of practice, with the craft of community falling the way of the blacksmith. Regardless, it seems as if the volume ...

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Job Posting Specifications: Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Posted by Jeff Hunter • December 7th, 2009 • Comments

Years ago I was talking to a section of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford and  asked the following question:

A candidate finds their dream job in the career section of the newspaper. The job description explains that only people with 5 years of newspaper ad experience need apply. The candidate has no experience with newspapers, as they are a young silicon valley go-getter who has spent all their time developing a new market called “online advertising.” So the candidate contacts a friend who works at the company to get the scoop on what will really be required for success with the job. The friend replies “The hiring manager doesn’t know it yet, but we are getting out of newspaper advertising. We think the future is in online advertising. So you are actually a perfect fit for what the job really needs. But the hiring manager can’t come to grips with that, and is making this all about newspaper skills.”

I then asked the class “So what do you do? Do you confront the hiring manager with their myopic view of the future? Do you pass the job by, even though you are perfect for it? Or do you lie and ...

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