In this episode of Recruiters on the Rise, host Colleen Gallagher sits down with John Curran, Director of Talent Acquisition at Hillendale Home Care. John has been in recruiting since the mid 1990s, back when Java was not yet a thing and Dice was the only way to find technical talent. He spent decades in tech and biotech at companies like Symantec, Invitae, and Genomic Health before making a deliberate pivot to in-home senior care closer to home. With seven years of sales experience in his back pocket, John brings a grounded, people first perspective to talent acquisition that is equal parts strategic and human.

Takeaways:

• Curiosity is the one thing that sets the best recruiters apart. The recruiters who truly stand out are the ones willing to lean into discomfort, challenge what is not working, and speak up in a professional and positive way. It is not about being formulaic. It is about being genuinely curious and unafraid to do things differently.

• Metrics are a diagnostic tool, not a report card. Conversion ratios, time to fill, and quality of hire numbers are most powerful when they reveal root causes rather than assign blame. At Danaher, tracking every stage of 435 manufacturing hires showed bottlenecks in interviewer availability, not recruiter performance. The data pointed the team to the real problem.

• Challenge the thought, not the person. When coaching hiring managers toward better decisions, the most effective recruiters reframe the conversation around outcomes rather than ego. Getting a peer to adopt a new process and seeing it succeed publicly can do more than any direct pushback ever could.

• Employer brand only works when it is authentic. At Genomic Health, John helped build a culture brand so genuine that alumni still gather for dinners today. From flash mobs to professionally produced culture videos, the goal was always to capture the real spirit of the place, not manufacture one.

• Non tech companies are an untapped opportunity right now. For recruiters who are displaced or burned out on long commutes and rigid structures, industries like senior care, manufacturing, and utilities are hungry for recruiting expertise and far more open to new ideas. The impact potential is enormous, and the appreciation is real.

Quote of the Show:

• "I just stopped being afraid. You just shake it off. There's a certain point where you're like, yeah, I don't care. Let's just do it. And I think it's very empowering if you can get beyond that point." - John Curran

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-curran-55600a1/
• Website: https://hillendalehomecare.com/

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