For several years now, I’ve had the privilege of knowing David Puente, whom I met during my time at Amazon. I was deeply impressed by his exceptional sourcing skills, and I’m grateful that he agreed to be interviewed by me on WizardSourcer.
Introduction
David is a devoted husband, father, son, brother, and an accomplished recruiter. Personally, I am passionate about my career as a recruiter and sourcer, because of the opportunity it presents to positively impact someone’s career. I’ve had the privilege of working in staffing (TEKsystems) as well as larger tech firms (Amazon and Meta) at the outset of my career. The chance to help people secure their dream job, dream company, promotion, or pay rise makes the challenges that come with this role worthwhile.
Presently, I have more than eight years of experience in sourcing/recruitment, and I’m well-versed in full-cycle, sourcing, closing, and passionate about diversity and inclusion. Over the past three years, I’ve championed diverse recruitment by leading Diverse Sourcing Sessions, designing strategies, organizing lunch and learns, acting as a company Diversity Champion, and obtaining a Diversity Recruitment (CDR) certification.
When recruiting and sourcing candidates for the positions assigned to me, my aim is not just to send them through the process and move on. Instead, I strive to ensure that each candidate is best positioned to succeed, grow, and achieve their personal and professional goals.
What inspired you to become a talent sourcer, and what motivates you to continue in this career path?
Sourcing was a role that I fell into out of chance and opportunity. In 2013 I was working for a small aircraft repair company where I focused on marketing work. After a year of marketing and trade shows, the owner of the company had asked me to focus on hiring more aircraft mechanics, sheet metal technicians, painters, and other various roles to help the company keep up with the amount of work it had gained. About two years later, my wife and I relocated to Florida and I started working as a technical sourcer in the staffing industry, followed by Amazon and Meta. The biggest inspiration for me was the impact I was having for so many people. Whether it was the candidate or the client/business. I was getting individuals into their dream job, that promotion they were looking for, or getting their family in a better situation. I was helping companies achieve their goals and I really fed off that energy.
My motivation remains within the impact that I am having. Knowing that I have helped multiple companies lead the way, in their respective industries, gives me a feeling of accomplishment and I look forward, each day, to the continued impact I will have. I also love the different avenues and strategies used within recruitment. There is no one way of doing things, but many different platforms and strategies that can be used. Keeping up with the trends and finding that new approach keeps me on my toes.
Can you walk me through your approach to sourcing passive candidates? What channels do you use, and how do you prioritize them?
My approach starts with understanding the role, having the intake call, and getting further insight from individuals currently in the role (if possible). I really like to understand the role, the impact it would have, and how that impact will happen. From this point, I look over my notes and start finding candidate profiles based on my notes to present to the HM. I like to take the first two to three days to make sure that I am on the right path. Once I feel comfortable and the HM states I am on the right path, I will fully begin my search.
For sourcing I will use my employers ATS, as a starting point, to see who has applied or interviewed in the past, but I do prefer my passive search to be through google xray, Seekout, hireEZ, and other sourcing channels. I prioritize these different platforms/channels based on the role that I am recruiting for. If a role requires specific experience, such as working on projects that are $400M dollars or more, I will gravitate toward google, where I can focus my search with “400..999 milllion”
How do you stay up-to-date on industry trends, and what strategies have you found most effective for sourcing top talent?
Keeping up to date on industry trends is the fun part for me. I have obtained multiple certifications through AIRS, and one offs from other companies to keep up with the latest trends, but I also find myself subscribing to multiple recruiting newsletters and youtube videos on a monthly basis.
For sourcing top talent, my strategies revolve around the role, location, and level of the individual. Sometimes the right person will come along in a search right away, while other times you need to build a relationship, keep in contact, and wait for that person to be ready. One thing I always keep top of mind is DEI. I want to make sure that I am keeping an open search and focusing on specific areas, minority owned businesses, and other avenues to keep an open search.
How do you assess the skills and qualifications of a candidate before presenting them to a hiring manager, and what criteria do you use to determine if they are a good fit for the role?
Assessing the skills and qualifications will mainly revolve around a pre-screen of the candidate. I wish every resume and profile was descriptive and perfect, but they’re not. So, I look for keywords or ideal titles and dig into the experience from there. Once I have a better understanding of their role, experience, and impact, and feel good about the background and accomplishments, I will send it over to the HM for consideration. One new trick I have used recently is to ask ChatGPT for similar titles to the one that I am looking to fill. This helps expand my search results.
To determine if the candidate is a great fit, I will focus on targeted questions that revolve around the responsibilities and goals of the role. I want to see how the candidate fits the role and what impact they have had on others. Is the work that this person doing similar or have transferrable skills/experiences. To help drive this, during the intake call, I will ask the HM if there are any must ask questions to really make sure that the candidate is ideal for the role. To me, an ideal candidate isn’t all about themselves, but is also focused on helping others and showcasing a willingness to be a lead and mentor to others.
Can you tell me about a time when you had to deal with a particularly challenging hiring scenario, and how you navigated the situation to find the right candidate?
Challenging scenarios are a day in the life of a sourcer, but that is what makes the role fun. Being able to navigate through the ups and downs creates a stronger sourcer in the end. In the past I had to work with a hiring manager that felt that his role was always priority. I was working with 10 other teams and 18 other roles total, but I would get messages from him on a daily basis asking for updates and pipeline health. It was a very unique skillset of big Data, machine learning, and very knowledgeable/hands on experience with linux and networking troubleshooting. Most individuals I spoke to just wanted to stay in Big data engineering or get into big data. The idea of getting into a troubleshooting/support role was not there ideal situation.
To help create a smoother process, I created weekly syncs to show the pipeline health and the concern/struggles i was having. Together, we worked on different approaches and strategies to get more ideal candidates and understood where the business could be more flexible. The ability to strategize together and create a more streamlined approach aloud me to increase pipeline health and find the right candidates for the manager.
How do you prioritize and manage your workload, particularly when juggling multiple roles or recruiting for multiple positions?
If you were to look at my calendar, you would see a lot of blocked out times. Whether it’s early morning and I have an hour blocked out for answering emails and InMail’s, 2 hours blocked for sourcing, 1-2 hours blocked for diversity sourcing, etc… Organization is how I stay ahead of my work and to make sure deliverables are met on time. When I have multiple roles, I make sure to speak with my manager and the HMs to understand if there are any people in process, are there any internal candidates, or if this roles has no one under consideration. Getting the lay of the land is key to know what needs to be done now, what has time, and what is not a priority. It all starts with the open communication from the start and keeping an open channel throughout the process.
What is your experience with recruitment tools and technologies, and how do you use them to enhance your sourcing efforts?
Recruitment tools are important in the day to day of a sourcer, but only if it makes life easier. A lot of tools are tied to LinkedIn, but with additional filters. A tool needs to make sourcing more efficient and easier to navigate through the noise. For diversity sourcing, it can be easier to focus on a different tool such as Seekout or hireEZ, but I find that a simple Google Xray search can be more specific and accurate than a platform search. I love testing out and working on different platforms, but I have no issues going back to the basics if I feel it’s more efficient for me.
How do you work with hiring managers and other stakeholders to establish sourcing strategies and ensure that recruitment goals are met?
In my process, working with HMs is a key to success. Whether it is the intake call, sourcing sessions, or resume reviews. The HMs know what they are ideally looking for and it’s always been my benefit to keep open communication with them, have a weekly or biweekly cadence, and discuss the health of the pipeline and what I can do differently. Being open to feedback is something that I need to feel accomplished and to continuously grow, so I make sure to remain vulnerable and keep my mind open to change.
Can you describe your experience with diversity and inclusion in the hiring process, and how you work to ensure that your candidate pool is diverse and inclusive?
DEI is always top of mind for me. During the sourcing process I will make sure to carve out time for pure diversity sourcing. Ideally, if it’s an open role that has remotely capability, I will have dedicated sourcing time where I can target areas/locations known for having diverse talent and I will also target minority owned or led companies that will help me up my chances of finding diverse talent. Over the past four plus years I have been a diversity champion for my employers and have held biweekly diversity sourcing sessions and lunch and learns to help others learn and grow their skillset.
What do you think are the most important qualities for a talent sourcer to possess, and how do you cultivate these qualities in yourself?
When I interviewed other sourcers, I wanted to know about their past struggles and difficult roles and how they overcame them. Being able to fight through struggles and learn from failures is a key to future success for me. An important quality is a willingness to learn from others, yet share their knowledge as well. A talent sourcer needs to be curious and have a great work ethic. Some roles may come easy, but what sets sourcers/recruiters apart from one another is their ability to learn new ways/strategies and implement them.
Everyday I keep an open mind. A curious mind. I want to know how I can make things easier. I want to know how I can impact others and I constantly ask for feedback from peers and managers. So learning from my struggles and keeping up with the latest trends is how I keep these qualities within myself.
Recommended Reading:
Persuasion techniques in recruiting
Time management in Talent Sourcing
A Christian Perspective on Talent Sourcing
