Hiring for a Sustainable Future: The Soft Skills You Can't Afford to Overlook w/ Dave Cook
Release Date: 01/30/2025
Career Break? How to Confidently Craft Your Return to the Workforce w/ Erika Price
Talent Hunters
The resume gap…it used to feel like it spelled the end of a career, but that’s not true, especially now. We’re living in a time when career gaps (once seen as red flags) are becoming part of the new professional norm. Whether it's stepping away to raise a family, navigating layoffs, or hitting pause for personal growth. The question isn’t whether you’ve had a break, it’s how you tell the story of that break. Returning to the workforce after time away can feel like starting from scratch, but what if your so-called "gap" is your greatest strength? What if the skills you gained...
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What Technology Can (and Can’t Do) For Recruiters w/ Julie Thomas
Talent Hunters
If technology’s impact on the sales profession was up for debate before, 2020 turned the dial all the way up. The digital transformation that was already in motion accelerated at lightning speed during the pandemic. Now, salespeople face a new challenge: making sure screen time doesn’t become a barrier to the face time that drives success. Technology can make us more efficient, but it will never make us more effective. To thrive, we still have to do everything we did before the digital shift, and then some. Technology should be a tool, not a trap. That means resisting the urge to hide...
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Win the Relationship, Not the Deal: How to Get Better Recruiting Results w/ Casey Jacox
Talent Hunters
Most people think sales is all about getting deals and hitting targets. That mindset misses a much bigger opportunity. The fact is: even the best salesperson won’t win every deal, that’s just the nature of the game. But what if you could lose the deal and still win the relationship? What if you could deliver value even when someone chooses not to work with you? When we shift from chasing transactions to building trust, we gain something far more lasting. Because long after the deal is off the table, the relationship can still be intact, and still be meaningful. Relationships don’t grow...
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Tech Recruiting: How to Hire at the Intersection of Code, Business, and People w/ Vlas Lezin
Talent Hunters
Most people think tech jobs are just about building complex systems, but that’s only scratching the surface. Technology doesn’t exist for its own sake. It exists to solve real problems for real people and companies. At its core, working in tech means standing at the intersection of two worlds: the product and the business, the hard technical skills and the soft human ones. The challenge? That intersection is often ignored in hiring. Too many tech companies treat roles like a checklist of tools and buzzwords. They build convoluted hiring processes that favor keywords over clarity. In the...
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Gamechanger or Job Killer? What AI Really Means for Recruiters w/ Debra Senra
Talent Hunters
If you ask five recruiters what they think of AI, you’ll get five different answers, ranging from “total game-changer” to “the end of the profession.” The truth is somewhere in the middle. AI isn’t a magic button, and it’s not a death sentence. It’s the perfect tool for subject matter experts who want to cut out the busy work and spend more time where they truly add value. That makes it a natural fit for recruiters who know how to leverage it. But AI has its limits. It’s not human. It doesn’t feel. It can’t build trust or navigate the nuance of candidate...
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Payment Modernization: The New Battleground for Efficiency and Talent w/ Rich Dooley
Talent Hunters
If you’ve ever bought something on Amazon with one click, you’ve seen embedded payments in action. But that same seamless experience is now making waves in the B2B world. And it’s changing how money moves between businesses and how fintechs and banks collaborate. As organizations modernize operations, they’re looking for talent that can not only keep up but lead the charge. They need people who understand automation, spot inefficiencies, and speak the language of finance and tech. If you’re in talent acquisition, understanding the evolution of B2B payments can help...
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How to Solve Healthcare’s Workforce Collapse with Data and AI w/ John Derse & Will Self
Talent Hunters
For most of the workforce, the chaos, uncertainty, and intensity of COVID are in the rearview mirror. But for the healthcare workforce and hospital systems, it’s still very much the present. Not only has the sector struggled to recover from the effects of the pandemic, but in many ways, working conditions have worsened. From unsustainable hours to shrinking margins, the human toll has been immense. Simply put: we’re not attracting doctors and nurses like we used to, and we’re rapidly burning out the ones we still have. Something has to change. We need to rethink talent...
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Find the Pain Point: the Timeless Truths of Recruiting Success w/ Ashley Smith
Talent Hunters
Week after week on Talent Hunters, our host Vince Holt has brought out powerful insights from guests across every corner of the business. From former governors to top-tier doctors and seasoned recruiters. But today, we’re switching things up. Vince is stepping out of the host’s chair and into the spotlight. With over 35 years in the recruiting industry, what does he believe is the key to long-term success? How can recruiters and franchise owners stay focused on the fundamentals instead of chasing every shiny new trend? In an era of hiring freezes, layoffs, economic uncertainty, and...
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How to Make Healthcare Work For the People Who Work in It w/ Dr. Catarina Dolsten & Charles Jones
Talent Hunters
Most doctors and nurses didn’t choose medicine for the money. They chose it to make a difference. But for many, that purpose feels out of reach. Declining working conditions. Long hours. System friction. Eroding efficiency. Burnout. Too many patients, not enough providers. It’s turning a calling into a transaction. As older healthcare workers retire and fewer new professionals enter the field, the shortage is only growing. To fix it, something has to change. The treatment of people who work in healthcare should matter as much as the work of healing people. How do we make...
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Boomerang Boomers: The Real Reason Retirees Are Returning to Work w/ Dr. Bob Murray & Alicia Fortinberry
Talent Hunters
One of the biggest trends we’ve seen in the working world recently is the rise of the Boomerang Boomer—retirees returning to the workforce. There are many factors driving this trend, and while financial necessity might seem like the obvious reason, it’s not the only motivator. Human beings are relationship-forming animals. We’re actually driven by purpose, community, and learning, not just money. We need to feel useful in ways that go beyond financial contribution. The challenge is that many of the other places where humans used to find these things—connection, identity,...
info_outlineThe interview has always been our primary way of evaluating candidates and their abilities. But let’s face it: the time we have in an interview is limited so it’s hard to know how someone will fit in the team and whether they’ll excel in the role.
This is especially true in a space like sustainability, where the right hire isn’t just about being a technical fit. It’s about having passion for solving one of the biggest challenges on the planet today.
In this environment, the right candidate is a lot more than what you see on a resume or hear in an interview. Hiring authorities are looking for the soft skills that seem inconsequential in the interview process but are critical in doing the job.
How do you look for those skills in the interview process? What kinds of questions do great candidates ask hiring authorities?
In this episode, we’re joined by Dave Cook, a Senior Sustainability Leader at Owens Corning. He shares how Owens Corning is working towards their zero-waste in landfill aspiration and the large role talent plays in that.
Guest Bio
Dave Cook is a Senior Sustainability Leader at Owens Corning. He is a passionate energy innovator dedicated to driving sustainable engineering solutions. Dave excels in leading cross-functional teams to tackle complex, high-impact techno-economic challenges using data-driven strategies. With a proven track record of inspiring and guiding teams, he consistently delivers results that make a difference.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-cook-solar/
About Your Host
Vince Holt is the founder and CEO of Management Recruiters of Mercer Island. With 35+ years industry experience, he is the only MRINetwork team member to win CSAM of the Year, Person of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards. In addition to spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, Vince has raced motorcycles for over 50 years, winning 5 National Championships.
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