No Matter What Roles You Recruit For, Get Technical - Recruiter Interviews Craig Fisher

By Chamira Gamage
Thanks for joining us this week as Talentwolf speaks to Craig Fisher, Head of Recruiting Innovation, Employer Branding SME at Allegis Global Solutions, and founder of TalentNet LLC events and consulting. Craig has dedicated his career to empowering organizations, job seekers and recruiters to pursue authentic branding for their market. 

Today, we have a yarn with Craig about his picks for the future growth industries, toughest roles to recruit in the expansive US market, with plenty of career advice for recruiters, potential hires for his own team and himself during his first job! 


Craig, we will start off with how you fell or actively got into recruitment! What’s your story of getting into the industry?  

I started out in Pharmaceutical and Hospital Equipment sales.  That’s not easy to break into right out of college.  But I studied the recruitment and hiring process of pharma companies and positioned myself accordingly.  I liked that process very much and it helped me to eventually be a better hiring manager in the healthcare space as well as help my friends to get jobs.  After 6 years the laws changed about how you could entertain doctors.  Many of my medical sales friends got into recruiting physicians and I got recruited into it.  I was hooked.  Soon after the .com revolution started and many of us transitioned to tech recruiting and I did specifically that for the next 15 years in various capacities of recruiting, sales, management, and business ownership (always still recruiting).  


What characteristics stand out to you when hiring for your own team?   

It may sound a little corny, but Allegis really is about culture fit.  We regularly tell each other “I appreciate your partnership” and that we are “glad to be here”.  We try to be very responsive and keep a customer-focused mindset.  You also need to be versatile and open to stretch roles.  We regularly shuffle the deck to give our teams broader experience and opportunity for growth.  That means we each must be open to shifting responsibilities and learning new skills.


Aside from an increase in salary, what other incentives are employers in the US using to appeal to new employees?

Creative referral programs, a feeling of belonging and respect for others, creative benefits, passion for community involvement and service, flexible schedules


What are you finding to be the toughest role to recruit in the US?  

The toughest areas are in healthcare, IT, skilled trades, and sales.  Surgeons and skilled nursing, DevOps, Agile, data scientists, electricians, quality salespeople.


What’s one piece of career advice you’ll go back in and tell yourself when starting your first job? 

No matter what kind of roles you recruit for, get technical.  Learn the technical language, needs, and interests of your prospects.


As a recruiter, it’s easy to have your finger on the pulse with sector trends, when you are visiting new clients each day. What are the industries to watch for growth in the future? 

The biggest trend right now is digital transformation.  But upskilling and age bias are the things to watch for as workers 55 years and older are the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. 


What’s your proudest achievement over your career?     

I started a recruitment conference 10 years ago designed to give audience members a place on the stage if they have something interesting to contribute.  Many of our current industry “thought leaders” got their first speaking opportunity at TalentNet Live.  It has become the largest recruiting conference in Texas and the Southwest, yet it is still regarded as one of the more intimate and informative events in the space.  We celebrate our 10 year anniversary this year at Toyota’s North American HQ (we always host at a major employer’s offices) December 6th in Dallas. 


Everyone has a recruitment story. What is the unexpected thing that happened to you in an interview or client meeting? 

In 2015, an Allegis recruiter contacted me to interview for a job as a Talent Acquisition leader focusing on employer brand at software giant CA Technologies.  She told me she was calling because I showed up on the first page of Google for the search terms “employer brand strategy Dallas”.  It was intentional on my end to be found for those terms as I utilize organic SEO on Linkedin and my website to be found for such things (I was then and remain an employer brand strategy consultant).  But that was the first time I was told a company was searching for specifically that - and I won the job.  I still rank on page one for those search terms.


Connect with Craig Fisher


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