In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adrienne Dinkelacker, Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Atlas Group, a boutique tech recruitment firm that she runs with her sister Loreen.

Adrienne has over 15 years of recruitment experience, working in agency and in-house. When she’s not at her desk, she’s dancing the night away—preferably salsa or kizomba!

Listen in as Adrienne discusses what it means to “sell without selling”. That is, she stresses the importance of nurturing strong relationships with clients and candidates, thinking long-term as opposed to keeping a transactional, short-term mindset.

Adrienne also invites recruiters to focus on ensuring that the candidate is a “culture add” over simply being a “culture fit”. She says that the greats in the industry make it a point to turn the interview into a conversation, and are masters at tapping into the power of storytelling and other behavioral interviewing techniques when communicating with candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [01:21] About The Atlas Group
• [05:43] The importance of building relationships with clients/candidates
• [07:22] The Atlas Group as a niche player in the market
• [10:40] Adrienne’s early business mistakes
• [14:25] How leaders can build resilience in their team
• [18:51] The Atlas Group’s go-to tech stack
• [20:22] Adrienne’s candidate philosophy
• [24:20] Common mistakes recruiters make when conducting interviews
• [30:34] Powerful behavioral interviewing techniques
• [35:11] How to answer: “What’s your biggest weakness?”
• [38:28] How to answer: “Why do you want to work here?”

Key quotes:

• “The relationships that we build, whether they’re clients or candidates, are so important. You never know what opportunities will come from them.”
• “I’m not selling anything as a recruiter. I’m just facilitating.”
• “If you have an arsenal of stories during the interview process, it helps so much.”
• “The interview is a process of people connecting with each other. It’s not one above the other because, at the end of the day, we’re seeing if this is a good fit for both parties.”