2024 By the Numbers

…and we’re back! I’m refreshed and ready to dive into 2025 after a great few weeks off with my family. I’m starting the year by doing some review of my 2024 – and finding some really exciting stuff. 

I certainly have some early thoughts to share about 2025 soon.  **Here’s my early headline -> it’s going to be busy.** My calendar is starting to fill up, but I still have a bit of room for roles in Q1. So now’s the time to message me if you could use some help in finding great candidates fast to hit those 2025 goals. 😊

There were some great successes on both the retained and contingent sides of my business in 2024! Here are just a few:

CONTINGENT

o   It was busier than I thought it would be – and I expect 2025 to be even busier

Total contingent hires were up 31% in 2024 above 2022 – (21 vs 16….no one wants to talk about 2023…). Those 21 hires were the highest total since 2019.

o   Milestone! First dedicated AI role

While most of the business remains focused on Software Engineers, the most noticeable change to my “Hires by Department” pie chart is the appearance of AI. It’s happening – and I expect even more in 2025. (It was awesome to dip into this world and hire a “Head of AI” for Synthesize Bio, a very cool startup connected with Madrona)

o   Leadership Leadership Leadership

 Exec-level and Senior / Lead level hires made up 67% of our contingent hires in 2024. That’s a 25% increase from 2022. I think this reflects how the startup community on the West Coast began waking up in 2024, and I expect all those Leaders to have growing product and development team needs in 2025

RETAINED

  • 30+ hires for Senra Systems, including a new Head of Recruiting

    • I closed out a tremendous partnership with Senra Systems (a Hard Tech startup based in LA) at the end of the year. In ~14 months, we hired 30+ folks across multiple departments and seniority levels. This company is a rocket ship and I feel lucky to be a part of it.

    • 2025 note - Hard Tech and Defense Tech are definitely on the rise

  • Milestone! - First Retained CEO search

It was such a thrilling challenge to take on my first retained CEO search. It was a rewarding 4 months and was proud to help make it a success for RealSelf and Minou Clark. I really enjoyed all the interactions with Board Members, Execs and a group of impressive candidates.

Appreciation Post!

Appreciation post! I was thinking on my run this morning how lucky and awesome it is that I get to partner with a group of women the way I do. Some of you know this and some of you don't but we call ourselves The Hive.

I partner with a group of extraordinary women every day; all independent business owners, all Moms, all courageous human beings that made the leap into running their own companies. When one of us brings in a new search, ALL of our eyeballs will be on it, and when we work with a candidate, collectively as a team we could have a bunch of potential job options for them. It's a win-win for everyone!

I've never formally shared about this group of women, The Hive. I am SO proud to be apart of this group: Darci Lee Meagan Sylvester Jenny Chynoweth Naarah Hastings Christine Adkins.

Please feel free to reach out to any of us if you need help hiring OR if you are looking for a new role. We specialize in full time, direct hire placement and each of us has a specific focus (tech as well as non-tech).


#womensupportingwomen #appreciationpost #hustle

Impact of raising base cap at Amazon

I can't stop thinking about Amazon raising their base cap to $350K per year. And for so many reasons. The market is FIERCE. Hiring talent is HARD. I get it. They can do it. So they did it. The ripple effect....how this impacts other people, other companies, startups, the housing market, etc.

My friend and competitor (;-)) Albert Squiers said it best on Geekwire yesterday, “Startups in Seattle were already having a difficult time poaching Amazon engineers; this will make it even more difficult.”

As far as what smaller companies & startups can do to "differentiate themselves", what I hear and see as the #1 ask is "work life balance". I think that the past couple of years people have really, really evaluated what matters the most to them and that is, time. All we have as people is time. In most of my conversations, I hear "work life balance" as being the MOST important thing, of course pay is in the top five but at what extent do you hand your life and time over for golden handcuffs? Does increasing pay come with a greater ask of time as well? So many questions and I realize everyone might not agree with this train of thought but I can't help but wonder......

Curious to hear others thoughts on this as well and how startups can compete and how smaller companies can hire people if they can't offer cash like this.

https://lnkd.in/gGwH49JF


#musings #worklifebalance