Perfect Storm of Data

Working alongside engineers and technical leadership means operating in a world that runs on facts, not feelings. Two real hiring situations show what happens when a recruiting team stops defending itself with opinions and starts showing up with data instead.

The first case involves a high-volume technical org with more than a dozen hiring managers and dozens of open requisitions, where leadership complained constantly that recruiting wasn't sending enough resumes. A three-month data pull told a different story: submittals were rising every month, and managers were engaging with nearly ninety percent of the people sent their way. The real leak was further downstream, in an optional second technical screen that was causing candidate fatigue and disagreement between interviewers, and in an offer stage where compensation from competitors was driving half of all hires to decline. Surfacing that data forced a real decision: loosen requirements, raise pay, or accept more declines.

The second case covers a niche, low-volume search for engineering managers with specialized technical backgrounds. Despite steady submittals, interviews were rare and roles sat open for months. Digging into the hiring tool exposed three separate breakdowns:

• Half of all submitted candidates were never even opened by hiring managers before disappearing from the queue
• Most of the candidates who were reviewed were marked "no" with no feedback recorded, leaving no way to adjust sourcing
• Strong candidates were sitting in front of unresponsive managers long enough to get scooped up by other teams

The fix was a mandatory weekly touchpoint with every hiring manager holding an open requisition, paired with a recurring report sent up to leadership showing engagement, feedback quality, and priority. Managers who couldn't commit the time were told, plainly, that their req would get deprioritized. Transparency at that level changed behavior quickly.

Both stories point to the same practice: tracking submittals, screen-to-offer conversion, and offer declines closely enough to know exactly where a pipeline is breaking, and using that record instead of frustration or guesswork when pushing back on hiring teams.