Episode 18: Forget The Job Description

Align Health Insights, In-House Edition | Episode 18 Forget the Job Description AI, comp, negotiation, and the question every search should start with No guests this time. Mark Czubachowski sits down with his recruiting partner at MCZ Align, Eric Hawthorne, to talk about what they're hearing every day from both sides of the search, and what hiring companies and candidates can each do differently right now. For companies hiring leaders: Before the job description gets written, get the leadership team and the board aligned on what the role actually needs to solve. Mark and Eric talk through why AI experience now has to mean something a candidate has built and put into production, how much healthcare domain expertise matters depending on what your team already has, and why being honest about comp early keeps you from losing strong candidates you could have afforded. Eric also shares a senior product search that changed direction near the finish line, and what it taught the leadership team about what they were really hiring for. For candidates planning a move: Be ready to tell the story behind your career moves, because the reasons now matter more than the gaps. Come with proof of what you've built, not just what you've experimented with. Eric explains why using an offer as a bargaining chip tends to backfire, and Mark makes the case that a job search is really a sales job, then walks through where he tells candidates to start. More insights like this at mczalign.com