Welcome to another episode of Talent Grind's Meet My Network podcast! I'm excited to share my conversation with Brian Piotrowski, Director of Talent Acquisition at EXP, a leading engineering consulting firm.
Brian has built an impressive career in recruiting, starting at a boutique staffing firm before moving to corporate talent acquisition, where he's spent over a decade growing his leadership capabilities. His journey from individual contributor to director overseeing three regional managers and a team of 12 recruiters offers valuable insights for anyone in talent acquisition.
Highlights from our conversation:
On transitioning to leadership:
"I was always curious and always wanted to learn more... I was always asking more questions, always learning to see what was next, what more we could be doing. That constant curiosity helped my manager notice me."
When Brian first moved into management, he experienced imposter syndrome - questioning why he was selected and if he had the right answers. He learned that effective leadership isn't about knowing everything, but about leveraging your team's collective knowledge.
On measuring success in recruiting:
Being part of a professional services organization, Brian focuses on getting the right people in quickly so they can immediately contribute to projects. His team measures success through hires per quarter, month, and week, while also considering utilization rates and ensuring staff aren't burning out.
On the changing landscape of recruiting:
"We came from COVID where everybody was looking for a new role - we had the great resignation. Now people are looking for stability... everybody wants longevity right now."
On AI in recruiting:
Brian isn't an AI doomer - he sees technology as helping create "a cleaner path forward" in recruiting:
"I think the candidate experience should get better. I think the hiring manager experience should get better. The recruiter's experience should be getting better."
He's particularly excited about emerging tools that measure quality of hire and longevity, using data to understand what makes a successful employee both short and long-term.
On what makes a great recruiter:
Brian looks for curiosity and engagement - people who stay informed about industry trends, attend conferences, and constantly learn. As he puts it, "If you're not staying up with the times, you will fall behind. Those are the people that will get replaced by AI."
What keeps him passionate about recruiting:
After years in the industry, Brian still finds joy in the human connections:
"Within recruiting, you get to learn what makes everybody tick within the company - why they are in their role, why they come to work every day, what makes them passionate about what they're doing. When I get to sit down and talk to somebody about what they do on a day-to-day basis and just see the passion light up their face - that's actually the part that I enjoy the most."
My takeaways:
I loved Brian's perspective on AI as an enabler rather than a replacement. We both agree that while recruiting technology will evolve dramatically in the coming years, the human elements of relationship-building and closing candidates will remain essential.
I've been saying this for a while now: AI isn't going to replace recruiters - it's going to transform how we work. Instead of spending 80% of our time on administrative tasks and 20% building relationships, AI will flip that ratio, allowing us to focus more on the human connections that make recruiting so rewarding.
Brian also echoed my sentiment that recruiting offers unique insights into organizations that few other roles provide. We get to see the inner workings of companies, understand what drives different teams, and learn directly from experts across various domains.
Hi, I’m Michael, a recruiting exec based in the SF Bay area, who specializes in startup recruiting and HRTech building. I previously built recruiting functions at Oyster, Bolt, and Dropbox. Now I am co founder at TeamSourced, where we offer a free platform along with our recruiting service business.
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