From Candidate to Client: How Bloom’s Advice Helped This VP of Marketing Grow
With over a decade of tech marketing experience, Megan Wheeler was looking for the right next step. She’d just left an international tech consultancy and took a few months to travel. Upon coming back to Toronto, she reached out to all the recruiters and talent leaders she’d connected with — one of them was our founder Avery Francis.
Fast forward a few months later and Avery not only helped place Megan in her current role of VP Marketing at the Open Application Network (OAN), but Avery and Bloom worked with Megan to redesign her job descriptions and land two hard-to-find hires in less than two months. Both experiences hinged on in-depth advice from Avery and the Bloom team, which Megan said was critical to her finding a great role personally and hiring the right people for her growing team.
In the candidate’s corner
Avery had been working with The OAN on a new employee experience project and The OAN had just identified a need for a new marketing leader when Megan reached out. Instead of just matching a candidate to an opening, Megan said “Bloom took the time to chat with me to see if it would be a good match for everyone involved”.
During the conversation, Avery talked with Megan about her career to date, her goals, the work she liked and was good at, and more. For Megan, it was a great candidate experience right out the gate.
“Avery is very, very good at sussing out what the candidate is really good at doing and what they are looking for — then determining what a company needs, even if they don’t know they need it.”
After the conversation, Avery introduced Megan to the OAN leadership team, and she went through three interviews. To Megan, though, they didn’t feel like interviews at all.
Before the introduction, Avery advised The OAN to treat the interview process as if Megan already had the job — they should talk about solutions, brainstorming, and see how their collaboration might work together. Above all, though, Avery was adamantly against Megan being asked to do free labour, such as writing a blog post sample. Not only did it not make sense for the role, it was a poor employee experience that could drive away an otherwise amazing candidate.
From candidate to client
As with many growing startups, leadership hires functional leaders to build out their teams. This meant one of Megan’s first jobs after she joined The OAN as VP of Marketing was to grow the marketing team. She continued to work with Bloom due in part to the great experience she has as a candidate.
During that process, Avery went from advising her as a candidate to consulting with her as a client. In particular, Megan said Avery provided two key pieces of advice and feedback that led to brilliant results.
How to write job descriptions properly
Instead of a simple bullet list of responsibilities, Megan said Avery advised her to write the job description as “one half of a conversation” that would show the company’s culture, personality, and give candidates a sense of what type of company they are applying to.
When Megan shared out the job descriptions in her network, friends and colleagues said that the OAN job descriptions were some of the best they’d ever read.
“Bloom helped me write the job description I wish I’d been able to apply to five years ago.”
Reminder: no unpaid work!
During the interview process for her team, Avery reminded Megan that asking for any free labour, such as a writing sample or project sample, would produce a negative candidate experience, since it sets the tone that the company would continually ask for free labour.
Instead, Avery advised Megan to focus on helping the candidates see if the role at The OAN would be great for them (and vice versa). This meant an interview process focused on in-depth collaborations and conversations, much like the process Megan went through herself with The OAN.
These two pieces of advice, combined with Bloom conducting a passive candidate search in the background, helped Megan hire two key roles on her marketing team in under three months.
The biggest impact was communication
It’s not uncommon that senior leaders may get placed by — and end up working with — the same recruiters. Good recruiters frequently have retainer contracts with organizations, and Bloom working with The OAN is no different.
What stood out for Megan going through this candidate-to-client process was how communicative and supportive Bloom was.
“With every recruiter I reached out to, I got the impression I was just a name to add to a list. Bloom was committed to helping me find the right role and continued that commitment to helping me find the right candidates once I joined The OAN.”
Happy Hiring!
PS: At Bloom, we support companies who aren’t ready for a full-time Head of Talent but need the leadership on an interim basis. We do the nitty-gritty foundational work like implementing the best tech, tools and processes that are infused with your org’s values. Just looking to hire for some key roles? We can assess, attract and hire top talent for your key roles giving you a competitive edge in this tight talent market — If you’re looking to up your talent game but aren’t ready for a full-time hire, get in touch!
