🚀 Dennis van Valderen’s Post

Most companies suck at hiring It's because they underestimate candidate experience Never heard of candidate experience? It’s the journey a potential employee goes through while interacting with your company during the interview process. From the first touchpoint to the final decision, every interaction counts. A poor candidate experience can ruin your chances of attracting the talent you need, no matter how great the job offer is. While we're on the topic of experiences, I’ll be the first to admit - the experience on our old website was pretty terrible. We’ve been so focused on finding the best talent for our clients that we neglected our own online presence. You know what they say: "The chef never cooks at home." But that’s all in the past. We’re excited to introduce our brand-new website!! Link in the description!

Focus not on what you do, but on 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞 And we're in luck, because hiring is exactly what we excel at here at Bluebird - "you guys should do that as a profession 😉." Two weeks ago, Pontus started at Bluebird in our IT team, directly collaborating with me and 🍁 Jacob on our IT roles. Pontus has a background in Sales Engineering and has been collaborating his whole career with engineers and sales people, making him the perfect fit for our customer-facing IT roles. The last two weeks have been filled with busy onboarding days. We've covered almost everything, and you’ve already provided valuable input (thank you!). We also had some non-work-related fun moments, from watching the Netherlands (unfortunately) lose to England, to hitting up a bar with the team - though we didn't make it a late night, Pontus promised we will "go out fully" in the future, and I'm curious to see what that means. To finish the week, we enjoyed some fantastic ramen together AND celebrated the deal of 🍁 Jacob together in the office!! GIF included.. Pontus, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so adventurous to leave your secure job in Helsinki, Finland, and relocate to Amsterdam to join us in our crazy mission to disrupt the recruitment industry. I also want to thank your partner for supporting you on this exciting journey, giving us the opportunity to work together. These past two weeks have been incredibly fun and productive - I can't even imagine what we'll achieve in the future. 🚀

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 This man is going places, here's why: As a recruiter, you message a lot of people, but you also get a lot of messages. The number of 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 messages I receive when my profile is listed on a job post can be overwhelming. However, Hadi took a unique approach. Let’s examine his message from top to bottom. 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐲: No Emoji! 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: He shows he read my profile and reflects on what it means for him and the industry. 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: He cited a section of the job ad, showing he read it and intentionally integrated it into his message. This is how you do personal outreach! If I come across a role with relocation options soon, Hadi will be top of mind and among the first I contact. Oh, and to any recruiters in my network that have clients who offer relocation packages at the moment, feel free to reach out to Hadi Akbarijedi*. *I checked with Hadi about sharing his name and message, and he was delighted to be featured in this post. I couldn't help Hadi at this time as the job did not offer relocation.

I jumped out of a plane this weekend. 🪂 Here's what it taught me about B2B sales: Haha, I almost got you - I’m not even in B2B sales 😂 But now that you’re here, I want to express some gratitude to some fantastic people. Almost eight months ago, I started this Bluebird IT adventure, and I've grown and changed a lot since then. I don't want this to turn into a promotional post gone wrong (B2B sales; hint hint), but I’m genuinely thankful for the positive changes I’ve undergone. I've transformed my outlook on almost every aspect of my life. Where I once thought, "This is likely to fail", I now begin each day thinking, "Today is filled with opportunities to be my best." This shift has been heavily influenced by my colleagues at Bluebird. I truly want to thank each and every Bluebird for your endless support. 🏆 Here’s to a fantastic week ahead - may your dreams fly high! LOL.

“The candidate has withdrawn from the process” Company: “What!? Why?” By the time you scheduled a first interview, and then took several weeks for a follow-up, the candidate received three other offers. Company: “But our company is the BEST-ever. Everyone should want to work here. This candidate is just window-shopping.” I get it, I really do, from your perspective your company is the best and most fantastic company to work for. But the world of tech moves fast and high-calibre candidates are constantly being poached with competitive offers. Speed is crucial in recruiting. Move quick, or you might miss out on your ideal candidate.

This step marks a forever change in the industry We had a dream to build a company led by IT experts doing recruitment work. A recruitment company without recruiters. When we started with this dream, many were doubting us. ‘Scaling is impossible. Attracting other software engineers - a dream. A nice thought, but destined to fail.’ Against these doubts, the update I'm thrilled to share is all the more rewarding. I am filled with immense pride to announce 🇨🇦 Jacob Smith's joining the Bluebird team. Jacob is a fantastic individual, when I first met him in an interview his energy and passion were undeniable. His dynamic presence and sincerity are an ideal fit for Bluebird. Speaking of caliber - Jacob brings over 15 years of development experience, possessing deep knowledge of the software landscape. His latest role as a Principal Software Engineer at Orbiit, along with being a core contributor to Node.js, showcasing significant contributions, emphasises his remarkable expertise. Welcome aboard Jacob!! Together, we're not just challenging the status quo - we're rewriting it. Here's to the remarkable times we will make in reshaping IT recruitment. The future is bright, and it starts now. 

Could you guys remember my post from last Friday Where I did not blame developers to be a little anti-recruiter? This image was shared yesterday in one of the developer communities I'm still a part of This is the same person sending those messages (sorry for it being in Dutch, but you'll get the message) Is this really how you as a recruiter want to work? Just literally spam people until they block you or make their InMail unavailable Please STOP doing this Companies, really know who you're working with Because this is NOT the way and will give your company a bad name Remember: A recruiter is the first touch point for a person with your company *Names blocked due to the fact I do not like to publicly shame a person

RECRUITER 🤢 The word recruiter has gotten such a bad name over time Especially in the IT industry “We explicitly DON’T work with recruiters” “No-recruiter bonus” Developers disabling their InMail Just yesterday, in one of my community channels, I saw Developers telling eachother to never work with recruiters. And could you blame them? NO This stems from experiences with recruiters who either spam their mailbox without taking the time to read their profile, or don’t know what they’re talking about - sometimes, unfortunately, both. What if.. there could be a world where recruiters truly understand the work because they have been in the industry themself. It’s honestly a no-brainer that this should be the standard for the recruitment space.

Stop getting ignored Having been both developer and a recruiter, I've seen both sides of the hiring process. I frequently get the question from job seekers: "How do I stand out from the crowd?" Especially during the crucial phase of submitting your resume. Today, I'm sharing important tips with you. • Tailor your resume for the role you want ✍️ Highlight the skills in your resume to align with the job's needs, signalling you're not just job hunting, but choosing this particular job. If you're applying to hundreds of jobs, it's understandable that tailoring each application might be too much. But you can still focus on aspects which are relevant to your next job. Never lie, but emphasising important skills could make the difference of getting your first interview. • Be clear, concise and structured Use a clean format, bullet points, and clear headings. Ensure your most impressive achievements are easy to find. • Combine your tech skills with real world examples 🌍 Highlight your tech skills and bring them to life with examples of how you’ve applied them. Avoid rating your skills on a scale (1 - 5), which can mislead non-tech recruiters. Instead, just show you’re up-to-date and hands-on. • Be personal Include a personal introduction in your resume to give a sense of who you are beyond your professional skills. Don't make this too long as my advice would be to maximise your resume in 2 (maybe) - 3 pages. Hope these insights help you land that interview.

As a developer, my impact was below my expectations I always thought that, as a developer, I was making a difference The users of the applications I built should love what I've built, right? 99% of the time, they didn't really care. Sure, they appreciated a new feature, but it rarely made a real impact on their lives. As a recruiter, this totally changed. Every day brings the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in someone's career. Getting to talk with new people every day, each with their own personal story, is just a blessing. I truly love what I'm doing, and this feeling is long overdue. Are you coding your career into a loop? Break the cycle and see what lies beyond the lines of code. *Picture is my first interview ever, as an interviewer, last year.