Hiring Insights: Recent Episodes
Top Talent Advocates
A podcast dedicated to providing insights into executive hiring. Whether you are an executive, an attorney, a recruiter, a coach, or a candidate, there is something for you to learn and discover.
Stewart Hirsch, a seasoned expert in the world of coaching and professional development, joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman on this episode of Hiring Insights to share insights into unlocking your career potential through the power of referrals, networking with confidence, developing the right leadership skills, and career advancement. Stewart practiced law for 21 years, in law firms and in-house, including TJX, Staples, Welch’s and others, developing extensive experience advising senior executives and leading business initiatives. As an executive and leadership coach, Stewart serves as a sounding board and strategic thought partner for C-Suite and other executives, assisting with communication and relationship-building. Having coached hundreds of lawyers and other professionals to increase business, Stewart brings a wealth of knowledge and insight. Topics discussed in this episode:
How do coaching services for executives and lawyers address the professional gaps they may be experiencing? What specific coaching areas can they benefit from, and what services can help them become more well-rounded individuals?
Beyond coaching and independent learning, people can use various other methods to grow and expand. Continually work to not only enhance skills and knowledge but also foster personal and professional development through diverse experiences and connections.
Leadership is often about inspiring. Some people think it's about managing and that can be part of it, there has to be some management work in there, but it's really about inspiring others and influencing others to do what is needed and creating a collaborative environment.
What does it look like to be a successful outside or in-house counsel?
We all are referral sources for each other, whether you call it that is in question, but you do it all the time. Referral sources are resources.
Networking: we must have the mindset of both caring and curiosity about other people, it’s a way of thinking.
Overcome fear or reluctance to network by taking the focus off of you. Focus on the other person. People like to talk about themselves.
How and why to use LinkedIn as a tool to connect or reconnect with people in your network.
Lisa Lang joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman on this episode of Hiring Insights to discuss her diverse legal background, career advancement, relationship building, and the benefits of utilizing social media. Lisa is the Vice President and General Counsel at Ohio Northern University, her varied background spans private practice, nonprofit, academia, and six years in the United States Army, first as a legal specialist and then as a legal non-commissioned officer. Lisa is an author and passionate about building community and being a resource as she shares her journey and experiences in the legal world. The topics discussed in this episode:
- “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, youalways have to connect them looking backward.” Steve Jobs
- Don’t be so fixated on a specific goal, that youlose sight of opportunities that may exist right in front of you.
- The relationships that you build and develop arekey to not only doing good work and having trust, but also for advancement and opening up opportunities.
- How do you develop a personal brand, a reputation and a persona outside of your organization?
- Opportunities that LinkedIn and social media canopen up beyond finding a new role.
- If you’re utilizing LinkedIn, it’s not as much about the content you're posting, but the relationships that can be built from commenting and engaging with others.
- When building relationships, give without expecting anything in return.
- Career advancement isn’t always a straight climbup in title and pay, consider lateral moves that will provide experience for the long-term strategy.
Brian Davis joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman on this episode of Hiring Insights to discuss advancing your career as an outside counsel. Brian handles lateral partner recruiting and in-house searches for financial services clients and law firms. He is particularly skilled in private equity, hedge fund, corporate, corporate finance, capital markets, compliance and tax searches for major financial institutions, broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity funds, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and law firms, domestically and internationally. In addition to his work in the United States, Brian has extensive experience with international firms in London, the European Union and the Middle East.
Topics discussed:
When do law firms choose to engage a search firm and what does that process look like?
Tools that candidates should be utilizing when either contemplating a search or in the middle of one.
If you’re an associate or partner considering a move, what active steps should you be taking?
No one is worried about your career except for you, you have to manage it.
Expectations for an attorney’s book of business and does that impact their ability to be recruited.
Common myths about the recruiting process.
Trends in the legal industry.
Red flags that candidates should avoid.
Mosah Fernandez Goodman sits down with Bryan Krajeski in this episode of Hiring Insights. Bryan is not only an incredible external recruiter, but he also has a long history of sales, marketing, and internal recruiting experience. In addition to giving us some insight into the recruiting world, both internal and external recruiters, Bryan will help us understand what goes on behind the scenes in a recruiting process, tips and tricks for how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, the importance of networking, how to draft a great cover letter, and use your resume effectively to help yourself get noticed.
Specific steps a recruiter goes through to place someone; sourcing, building a talent pool, challenges.
How to advantage yourself as a candidate.
What happens after you submit an online application?
Recruiter myths.
Making outreach to a recruiter; when they can help, and when they can’t.
Utilize the career tools at your disposal (LinkedIn, resumes, cover letters) but put thought and strategy into how you are creating them.
Requisites and red flags for resumes.
Network. Network. Network. Talk to the recruiters who make outreach, look to people in your industry, and strategize what companies you are targeting.
How best to work with a recruiter.
What qualities make a most placeable candidate (MPC)?
Finding a new position is a marathon not a sprint.
On the second episode of this two-part series of Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman sits down with Tom O’Connor, George Zaharatos, and Lem Montgomery. Tom is the former Executive Vice President of Compliance & Ethics, EHS, ESG at Guardian Industries, George is the Principal-Global Data and Technology Leader for Trade and Customs at KPMG, and Lem is an attorney for Butler Snow, LLP. We focus the discussion on their insights into what it takes to be a successful candidate searching for an executive position in today’s job market.
- What you need as a job seeker in today’s market to get hired.
- As an attorney looking for a senior level role, whether that’s a firm partner or going in-house, what should you know starting your search?
- Social media plays a role in the hiring process today, but how much?
- The best c-level executives have these common traits…
- What NOT to say in an interview.
On the first episode of this two-part series of Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman sits down with Tom O’Connor, George Zaharatos, and Lem Montgomery. Tom is the former Executive Vice President of Compliance & Ethics, EHS, ESG at Guardian Industries, George is the Principal-Global Data and Technology Leader for Trade and Customs at KPMG, and Lem is an attorney for Butler Snow, LLP. We focus the discussion on finding a career you're passionate about, mentorship, and networking to advance your career at any stage.
- Navigating your career path; is it intentional, linear, or opportunistic?
- Regardless of your age or the stage of your career, having a mentor in your life is crucial to success.
- Building a network without it feeling transactional.
- Overcoming the fear of potential rejection when networking.
On this episode of Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman sits down with three attorneys: Brenda Morris, Drew Fossum, and David Hecker. Brenda is the Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, Litigation, Employment and Compliance at Sealed Air, Drew is the Vice President and General Counsel at Tenaska, Inc., and David is the Group General Counsel for Kiewit. Part 2 of this 2-part episode focuses on their insights into the job seeking process and experience.
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The legal and executive job market today; recession, record revenue, who’s hiring right now?
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There could be 10 other resumes just as good as yours, whether you’re a CFO looking to make a move or an attorney with 20 years of experience, what should you be doing to stand out in the job search process?
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Looking at, evaluating, and negotiating your compensation prior to starting a job.
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Considerations before starting a search; be realistic about the possibilities for your career or the type of practice you are looking for, and the type of lifestyle you want to live.
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What things are a hiring manager looking for to gauge and understand a candidate’s validity or credibility?
On this episode of Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman sits down with three attorneys: Brenda Morris, Drew Fossum, and David Hecker. Brenda is the Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, Litigation, Employment and Compliance at Sealed Air, Drew is the Vice President and General Counsel at Tenaska, Inc., and David is the Group General Counsel for Kiewit. Part 1 of this 2-part episode focuses on their paths to an executive level legal career, career strategies, and the importance of networking.
- Career journeys: they’re never linear. What did you expect to happen along the way, and what are some things that happened that you weren’t quite expecting?
- You can’t always control the options that you’ll have at various points in your career, but they’re critical junctures. The more you have thought through some type of strategy, the better prepared you’ll be.
- Taking on new opportunities, constantly absorbing knowledge, finding value in mentors and consistently networking, all play major parts in leading you down the most opportune path.
- Building and cultivating a professional network.
- Going in house as an executive is a dual functioning role, what should you be aware of to bring value across cross-functional teams?
- Three words to encourage you to get out of comfort zone when it comes to networking.
Jenny Wood joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman on this episode of Hiring Insights to discuss navigating your career path, how to create followership as a leader, and showcasing your full potential. Jenny is an executive at Google running a large operations team that helps drive tens of billions of revenue per year. She’s also the founder of Own Your Career, one of the largest career development programs in Google’s history with tens of thousands of people benefitting, an author, keynote speaker, mom, avid hiker, and pilot.
- What is the Own Your Career program at Google and what are the practical, actionable strategies that can help navigate a career?
- Your overall happiness depends on having well rounded self-fulfillment both inside and outside of your core job.
- Be bold, be curious, be you. Utilize your curiosity either as a leader or as someone aspiring to be a leader, it’s okay to not have all of the answers.
- Lateral moves are some of the most powerful moves you can make. Look for the potential and the opportunities it could create for you. "Lateral moves are some of the most powerful moves anyone can make. Your career is not always going to be up into the right. You're going to have twisty, windy paths and zigzag payoffs as Jason Feifer of Entrepreneur Magazine, Editor-in-Chief calls them in his book Built for Tomorrow, which is fantastic. "
- Bullets on your resume. Don’t be vague or generic. There are three things that you must have: numbers, context, and action. "I talk about blockers that we've put in front of ourselves that limit our full potential. I think people get nervous. Oh, but I don't have $5 million I can talk about, but you can make anything quantitative, results can be anything quantitative. It could be number of meetings you led. It could be number of documents you wrote."
- It isn’t about the five-year or ten-plan, it’s about the big, small things that you can do day to day that add up to the long-term plan.
- If anybody wants to succeed, coaching, external guidance, someone to keep you accountable is one of the most important things you can do.
- What qualities make someone a better fit for a leadership role?
- LinkedIn tip: ideas as content.
Brian Potts, Partner at Perkins Coie, joined us to provide insights into the changing landscape for law students, how to translate rejection in a job search into motivation, and what you can do to maximize your job search strategy. He is also a writer whose has been featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Bloomberg, the Wisconsin State Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Weekly Standard and author of the book The Jobless Lawyer’s Handbook: How to Get Hired as a Lawyer. He is an inventor, professor and helped found The Legal Mentor Network, the first nation-wide, free mentorship program for law students and recently barred attorneys.
- It’s rare that anyone regrets going to law school, but the system is failing to adequately prepare law students for the actual job search.
- Advice for those headed to law school or even considering a career in the legal field.
- Do you know what rejection is? It’s proof that you’re trying.
- The Jobless Lawyer’s Handbook: How to Get Hired as a Lawyer, a lot of the information (resume, networking, interview prep) is relevant to anyone, not just young lawyers.
- The Legal Mentor Network: transforming an informal network to fulfill a need into a non-profit serving thousands of mentees.
- When searching for your first job or even later in life, stop and strategically think about where are you the most marketable? Can you be flexible geographically to get a steppingstone to your dream job?
- 70-85% of all jobs come from someone you know. You HAVE to network.
- Working with third parties, coaches or professional advisors offers the benefit of more than just advice, it provides accountability.
This episode is brought to you by Top Talent Advocates, career advocacy for top talent!
Hosted by: Mosah Fernandez Goodman.
Ricardo Watson, Chief Risk Officer at JP Morgan Chase & Co, joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman of Top Talent Advocates to share his insights on career management and his personal rise through corporate America by intentionally pursuing and capitalizing on opportunities. This episode includes discussions regarding:
- Managing your career with intent.
- When opportunities are presented to you, adopt an open-minded attitude. Where could this take you beyond one to two years down the road?
- What are executives searching for when building their teams? What are the qualities that can’t be quantified?
- You have to be intentional and focused when pursuing a career. Start with a clear understanding of your list of must have and have-nots.
- Network, resume, interview skills, research; are all of your job search tools on point? You have to “be ready so you don’t have to get ready”.
- One of the most overlooked parts of the interview process are the questions you will ask at the end. Utilize this time to assess the culture and dynamics of the leadership and organization.
- Don’t be a “spot” networker. Constantly put yourself out there and build relationships.
- The importance of having a well-rounded lifestyle as an executive. What are your passions outside of the office?
- Global experience in corporate America.
Kristi Stepp, Partner with Sigred Solutions, a management recruiting and leadership advisory firm, joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman of Top Talent Advocates to share her insights into developing a career and job search strategy, successful onboarding and retention efforts for managers, and proper organizational succession planning. Kristi has over 25 years of international and multicultural human resource experience in the automotive, healthcare, food and beverage, and workforce solutions industries. Prior to Sigred Solutions, Kristi served in strategic human resource roles at several leading global organizations, including General Motors, Kelly Services, Pepsi-Cola and Volkswagen. Most recently, Kristi served as the global head of talent development at General Motors.
Alex Su, a former lawyer who now works at the cutting edge of legal technology as Head of Community Development at Ironclad, joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman to discuss the evolution of LegalTech, lessons he learned from his career pivot, insights and recommendations on how to utilize and capitalize on the advantages of social media, and how to generally pursue a job that you’re not only qualified for, but that you’re passionate about. Alex is a leader in the LegalTech community, active on TikTok (@legaltechbro) where he makes videos poking fun at the legal industry and is a columnist for Above the Law.
Dimitri Mastrocola, Partner and In-House Counsel Recruiter at Major, Lindsey and Africa, joins us to provide a “peek behind the curtain” into the executive search process. Dimitri walks us through the milestone steps of an executive search and shares insights for legal talent and executives actively pursuing a career change or strategically planning their next steps. He is known on LinkedIn as Wall Street's best connected executive legal recruiter and also shares his networking dos and don’ts to capitalize on social media as a resource and tool.
Jennifer (Jenny) Champlin, Director of DEI Incubator at Edward Jones and current President of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), joins us to share how to build and cultivate meaningful professional relationships. The opportunities that have presented themselves along Jenny’s career journey have been widely supported and inspired by the authentic network of people she surrounds herself with. We discuss how to effectively and efficiently manage your career and dive into why NAWL is a great resource and tool for women in the legal industry.
Robert Jones joins Mosah Fernandez Goodman on this episode to share his 42 years of experience at the top of corporate America recruiting, interviewing, and hiring executives. The current Chief Administrative Officer at Gavilon Group, LLC and prior Managing Director and Chief Administrative Officer of Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., Robert lends his insights on complexities and intricacies of bringing an executive onto a team, cultural fit, the importance of adapting to new environments, and negotiating offers, all from an HR perspective.
Join Mosah Fernandez Goodman as he hosts Matt Miller, Chief Legal Officer at Uptake (industrial artificial intelligence software company). Matt discusses the path he charted to reach the executive level including founding his solo law firm, law firm partner, former General Counsel at Bark and Green Thumb Industries, and former Deputy General Counsel at Groupon. Throughout his searches he paints a picture of igniting his network to leverage his connections and setting his non-negotiables when it comes to entertaining job offers. With years of experience in the legal realm, Matt provides a window into what other rising talent may be questioning as they continue to climb the corporate ladder and look for their next opportunity.
Join Mosah Fernandez Goodman as he hosts Bill George, a corporate superstar who helmed Medtronics and served on the Boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, and Target Corporation. Bill discusses insights into the executive search and hiring process and the evolution of qualities needed for a leader over the past century; from working with your hands, the Steve Jobs era of needing the smartest candidate, to now wanting leaders for their hearts. With years of Corporate Board experience, Bill guides you through the process of landing your first board role and how to succeed.
Listen to Lindsay Hofbauer, Business Development Associate at Top Talent Advocates, as she talks about her role building relationships and networking with executives, recruiters and hiring managers to match our candidates to the best opportunities.
Join Mosah Goodman, founder and president of Top Talent Advocates, and Lindsay Hofbauer as they explore and share insights into career advocacy for executive leaders and lawyers. Learn more about their executive resume, coaching, and advocacy services tailored to optimize your job search, enhance your compensation, and accelerate your career trajectory.