ROTR - Jeremy Cockrell
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[00:00:00] This is Recruiters on the Rise, and I'm Colleen Gallagher. Join me for candid conversations with talent leaders as we explore the work that drives them, the lessons they've learned, and how they're helping people find careers they love. This show is sponsored by Lavalier, an interview intelligence platform built by Textio
Colleen Gallagher: Welcome everyone to today's episode of Recruiters On The Rise. I am so excited to have our guest with us today. started his career with internships across a number of major professional sports leagues before landing with an NBA and NH- NHL franchise. he went from there to agency recruiting, where he hit President's Club and helped turn his office into the top-performing location in the company. since led international recruiting teams and consulting, and today he runs talent acquisition for a sales force implementation partner that was recently acquired by a global consulting firm. team's hiring process moves from first interview to offer in under two [00:01:00] weeks, and he's gonna tell you exactly how he pulls that off. Um, he's also got a strong take on where AI belongs in recruiting and where it doesn't, especially when it comes to candidate experience. He currently serves as the director of talent acquisition at Torrent Consulting. Jeremy Cockrell, welcome to the show.
Jeremy Cockrell : Thank you, Colleen. Super excited to be here. Um, appreciate you having me on
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah. All right. So let's dive right in. Um, there's so much we can get to, but I love to just open the show with hearing from our guests about your take on what's the one thing that sets the best recruiters apart from the rest?
Jeremy Cockrell : you know, in our industry and, and what can make you excel. And in my mind it's, it's two specific things. Each on their own can make you a very good recruiter, I feel like together makes you elite. One being creative and curious, and there's a lot of depth to that, of what that means.
But if you are creative and curious, you can make a number of things happen in our industry. Second is truly understanding urgency. [00:02:00] I think that is an important piece into understanding working with internal stakeholders as well as obviously operating and owning your own desk. So if I had to boil it down, those are probably the two things that I think are extremely critical in being elite in our industry
Colleen Gallagher: And you said understanding urgency and not just operating with urgency. Like what's the difference?
Jeremy Cockrell : When I talk about understanding urgency, I'm truly talking about the entire process and how that impacts your desk, the candidate experience, and everything that goes in between. From understanding how to operate with your stakeholders from an intake to beginning, all the way through of how to operate with a candidate throughout the interview process, as well as to obviously closing into an offer and beyond.
And when I say that is understanding the steps in between, understanding the contacts that you as a recruiter need to have with that individual throughout the process, as well as having those interactions with your stakeholders, your hiring managers, because sometimes it gets lost, and sometimes you get stuck on one side or the [00:03:00] other, and you need to have a complete understanding of creating urgency throughout the process, which creates a great candidate experience
Colleen Gallagher: And then you talked about creativity and curiosity. Um, how does, how does that show up in the process for you?
Jeremy Cockrell : In our world, and I've been in it for 14 years, it's forever evolving in the types of talent we need to find, how we need to find it, and what's going on in the marketplace. Sometimes it's a great market for us, sometimes it's a bad market for us.
Yeah
And if you're not creative and curious of how do I ingrain myself into the market in which I'm operating, if you're not willing to go outside the box and think differently...
I know everybody loves LinkedIn Recruiter. I know everybody loves AI. There's a number of different tools out there that can help you, and as you should utilize your tools at your disposal. But not one tool is going to obtain the talent, especially if you're talking quality over quantity, which is what we should always be talking about.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : The idea of being creative and curious to find the creative ways to make it [00:04:00] happen is imperative in how you can really impact your organization and impact yourself
Colleen Gallagher: it's especially true when the ability to, learn things or sort of, execute is,
you know, can-- components of that can largely be taken over by using AI. And so looking for folks, um, you know, I know obviously you're focused on, um, sales f- folks that have, uh, talent or, uh, experience using Salesforce or implementing Salesforce, but is that like a still a hard and fast requirement for, for you all?
Or how do you think about bringing people onto the team and, and coaching or teaching them? Is that an element as well?
Jeremy Cockrell : it's kind of a mixture of both. Vast majority, the world we are as of in 2026 has actually accelerated us hiring more high-end Salesforce talent because the platform in itself, for anybody that's in the ecosystem or understands Salesforce, it has [00:05:00] accelerated drastically. So to have individuals that can jump in and operate on a project immediately is vital to us, obviously, in, in our world in consulting.
But as far as elevating and raising up talent, that's always been a big thing at Torrent. We have props to our enablement team and a number of different things we put in place to continue to obviously add to our employee base based on that, because you can't always fill top, top-end roles. It just will never continue to operate at that level.
Um, so it's a, it-- You have to have a good balance. Um, 2026 has been us hiring a lot of high-end individuals. And one thing when I kind of go back to being curious and creative,
Yeah
as well as urgent, I feel like I've had an opportunity of going into different industries throughout my career, and when I came here, I didn't know a single thing about Salesforce, like outside of it being a CRM and I've seen a UI.
Um, truly understanding and grounding yourself in the world in which you recruit can [00:06:00] absolutely allow you to be more creative and curious within your industry. That opens up a whole new world of opportunities with candidates. Um, so we try to balance it, and we're starting to actually put some workforce plan in place of how to continue to elevate talent on top of us bringing in more senior level talent.
Colleen Gallagher: you just said about, you know, coming into your role and not having as much experience, um, got me thinking about, obviously we see a lot of recruiters that are specialized in more technical roles, for example. So like, what would, um, what was that evolution like for you? Like, how would you recommend and, and, and how important is it that you are deeply versed in the technology right now?
Jeremy Cockrell : I'll just speak to Salesforce because I know it. It's the ecosystem. Uh, there's a lot of other SaaS, obviously, platforms out there that have their own ecosystems. A few of the things that really created opportunity for, for myself, our team, and, and what we were trying to do from a recruiting standpoint in elevating our [00:07:00] organization is, one, when I talk about ingraining in the ecosystem,
Colleen Gallagher: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Cockrell : I mean, like, you are connecting and having conversations with people that you're not even trying to hire.
And every- while it's a multi-billion dollar industry, it is a very small, tight-knit community.
Uh, there's things out there like Trailhead and other things that Salesforce specifically does that you can get involved in and find contacts, be part of communities. Additionally, there's several in-person events.
Get out and meet people. I can't explain that in the world we are today that so many people do Zoom, so many people are on the phone. We all started on the phone. I mean, realistically, if you've been in recruiting, you start on the phone. But getting out and getting face time with people and being at the right places that obviously impact what you're trying to achieve from a candidate experience and the types of candidates that you're looking for can drastically change your brand, your name, and the marketing in which you're doing in the marketplace.
[00:08:00] And those are some of the things that we started to do. We really started trying to get active in the, in the Salesforce communities, active in in-person events within those communities on top of obviously more traditional avenues of LinkedIn Recruiter, other recruiting and sourcing tools, and so forth
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah, I mean, I think y- the tie-in to candidate experience is so important there because it just is how you create trust with, the folks, especially when you do have some specialization in terms of the technology that you're supporting. And like you said, there's a-- it's a big ecosystem and everyone knows everyone.
And so, you know, um, as a, an employer in the space, you know, if, if a candidate has a bad experience or somebody you hire has a bad experience, like people will hear about it and talk, right?
Jeremy Cockrell : 100%.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah.
Jeremy Cockrell : word of mouth in the ecosystem world is vital, and I will tell you, the more we've gotten into the ecosystem [00:09:00] as a team, as an organization, the more people know about us. I mean, when I first got here, working with my marketing director was, like, so important in what we were trying to achieve. And I will say, like, leading to where we are today, the referral game is so much higher than it's ever been for us.
That's in our organization, and we created a referral program for that, but externally, it-- I feel like the referral game has, has dwindled a little in our industry over the last couple of years. Um, I still think it's by far the number one option we should always have, uh, because if people know people, and people know you're a good place to be and an employer of choice, then people will find you too.
Um, and they will use their networks to do so
Colleen Gallagher: sort of external referrals, like how... Is that a formalized, um, thing or is it just more your, your own networking and
Jeremy Cockrell : We don't have a formalized like, "Hey, here's an, here's a form to fill out." I always approach things when people are willing to do something out of their [00:10:00] way, whether that's internally or externally, even our own referral program. There is no form. We have an application that people can put a referral on, but there is no form because I don't want people to think I have to do an extra step to, to give something that's a benefit to us,
Colleen Gallagher: Right
Jeremy Cockrell : my mind, send me a message or send me the person, whatever you wanna do. I- my team, myself will handle it and we'll run with it. Um, I wanna alleviate the blockers. That's the only way I look at it. Like, I don't want other people to have more obstacles, especially if they're trying to do something to benefit, um, another individual or yourself
Colleen Gallagher: I guess sticking on the candidate experience topic and just bringing in, um, you know, the, the hot and sort of oft overused term these days is AI. And you and I chatted previously, and you were talking about how you think AI is creating some real friction when it comes to the candidate experience, and curious what you're seeing there.
Jeremy Cockrell : I feel like we're losing the human-centric piece in recruiting that made recruiting so unique. I [00:11:00] mean, we as recruiting, the people that aren't in it think it's so easy. It is not an easy industry. It's a multi-billion dollar industry for its own reason. And I think part of what's made people successful is that human-centric understanding of how to connect dots, be curious and creative in connecting dots, but also be able to fully allow themselves to connect with great quality talent and market that talent from an agency standpoint or obtain that talent when you're in the corporate world.
And for me, when I think of AI, AI should absolutely be another tool for sourcing. I will never deny that. That should absolutely be a part of your tool belt. AI should help you through the interview process of helping obtain notes and, and calls and screens, helping obviously digest those notes and helping obviously present and move candidates through the interview process.
Where I have a very hard stop on AI is when, and I know it's out there a lot, I know there's probably people that might be listening and be like, "You're crazy. You gotta lean into this." [00:12:00] But the using bots for screens, I, I have a hard, hard no on that right now,
Colleen Gallagher: No
Jeremy Cockrell : for a variety of reasons. One, especially if you're in the corporate world, candidates have zero clue into who you are, what your company's about, anything like that when they can't even interact with a human to get an idea of a culture from a person.
That's why we do interviewing, right? You interact with people. Um, two, I feel it doesn't also give a candidate the right experience from their lens to say, "I enjoy even if this one conversation with a screen with a recruiter went so great, I wanna keep you in mind." They do that with a bot, they're probably gonna be like, "I don't even know what I had a conversation.
They were asking me questions and I was just answering them." I just feel like you miss that human-centric piece that I feel like is so vital in what we do in talent acquisition.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah, I, I hear that. Um, and I don't disagree with any of that. I do think that the sort of early use, early in the process [00:13:00] use of scr- of, of a bot is, not necessarily desi- it's not designed to take away that human connection. It's really there to help You know, maybe, maybe it feels like an overly romanticized view of this, but like it is there to help try and get more, um, more candidate interaction. 'Cause I think right now what we're hearing is like recruiters are so overwhelmed in terms of like the amount of inbound that's coming in is can we-- uh, and you know, resumes are not as useful of a tool in terms of signal of candidate, um, fit for a role, so how do we replace that?
And this feels like a way to do it. But I, I don't think it's a, um... Like a lot of things in life, I don't think it's like a, a sort of black and white,
Sure
answer on this, And it-- there are probably use cases where it makes a lot more sense than others.
Jeremy Cockrell : And I understand that too, and I completely get, especially, you know, you're a Fortune 100 and you put up something on, obviously on LinkedIn, [00:14:00] you're gonna get 1,000 applicants. How do I figure that out? I don't have enough time in the day. Um, at the same time, I'm also, I guess I'm a little old school in this fact.
I also am like, how much are you doing outreach to go find candidates versus candidates coming to you? 'Cause I always, again, I, I always go back to the quality piece of you're not always gonna get the most qualified quality candidate that's always applying. Um, but at the same token, yeah, if you have to go through that many, you have to have something to help automate it.
There's a reason there's so many different products out there to help automate. Uh, people can only do so much and, you know, it's been, it's been a little rough for our industry the last three plus years and, you know, teams are smaller and you gotta figure things out. So completely understand that too. Uh, it's just hard for me to envision getting a good candidate experience, great candidate experience, and getting candidates to buy into your, you as an employer choice, your brand when their introduction is not with someone that's actually an employee there, whether that's a recruiter or [00:15:00] someone else.
Colleen Gallagher: I guess t- tying this into sort of the, the, uh, making sure everything feels very human-centric, I think one of the things you shared with me was that your, your team calls every rejected candidate by phone, not an email. They actually get a phone call. So why, why do you do that?
Jeremy Cockrell : Just to be fair, if somebody applies and is not a fit, we will send them an email because we haven't spent time with them.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : The way, we, we look at it, the way we envision it is somebody gave us their time. They thank us for our time, but they gave us their time, too, especially most of the people we're talking to that are already-- that are currently working, taking time out of their day.
So in our minds, we feel it's just the right thing to do, pick up a call, pick up a phone, make a call for two minutes, and just say, "Hey, we've decided to move forward with other people," or whatever the reason might be that you can or cannot share. We all know that in some cases. Um, but I will tell you the amount that it comes back to you is pretty impressive.
Um, [00:16:00] I have prime examples of people that are employees here that we did not work out, uh, the first maybe one, sometimes twice that we've connected with them, whatever it is, um, due to timing, fit, whatever it might be.
Yeah
And I truly feel it wouldn't have worked out if we didn't do things like that to make it more human-centric and having that touch point.
Um, I mean, just to give you an idea, we have somebody that I was in touch with for four years before we landed this person here. Um, I have some others of two, three years. I just feel if you do things in a different way and use two emails and it's another conversation for another day. I know there's emails that are being used when people are getting impacted by their jobs, and I just feel the whole human-centric piece is, is an important piece that we can't lose, especially in talent acquisition
Colleen Gallagher: I was hiring for a role recently and the, you know, the person that I didn't move forward with, I sent her an email and said, "Hey, I'd love to, you know, here's kind of where we're going, but I'd [00:17:00] love to jump on a Zoom and, like, give you a little bit more feedback." And like, we got on the Zoom.
It w- I actually felt so, it was so nice because she was like, "I was talking to my mom earlier," and I was like, "Oh my God, she offered to get on the ph- like a Zoom with me and like talk to me about why I didn't get the role." And I was like, "You spent a ton of time." Like, you know, she went through like the whole interview cycle with us.
And so, and sh- you know, I was lucky enough to have a number of really strong candidates. And so it was like The effusiveness of her appreciation sort of made me realize like how often that's not happening.
Exactly
and you know, I, I'm lucky enough that I'm not, know-- Hiring isn't full-time job, and so it's not as though I'm managing a number of open roles, so it
was much easier for me to do that on this. Um, but you know, I was like, "Oh, this is..." You know, it was really touching how, how nice it felt to do that even though I was rejecting [00:18:00] somebody. Um, so,
I,
makes a ton of sense.
It
a lot of, um, goodwill that way and and
Thank you
about building goodwill, it was just about being honest and transparent about what was happening.
Jeremy Cockrell : For sure. I mean, we're all humans, and I feel like we all need to treat each other as such in some ways. Like, and to your point, I've had several do the same thing when I call them and say, "Hey, this is the situation. We're gonna have to move forward with other candidates," whatever it might be. And there's the shock that they were like, "I thought you would ghost me.
I thought you would send me at least an email, if nothing else. Um, but the fact that you're calling me..." I just-- The, the idea of employer choice was such a big topic several years ago, and that has been something I feel like that has not been talked about in a while. Um, and it still makes an impact. Like, regardless, people will find you if you are a place they want to be, and they hear is a place they should be.
Yeah
things like that make a huge difference, and I guess I come back also [00:19:00] to my agency time of, you know, you get to, get to work, you're calling 40-plus people a day, 50-plus people a day, 60-plus people a day. I can make one more call and tell a candidate that's been in the process, "Hey, this isn't gonna quite work out."
Um, that takes two minutes. So I just-- I guess I look at it a little different based on just experiences.
Colleen Gallagher: I guess like just sort of like tactically, how do you keep track of folks that you wanna re-engage with or, you know, were a lot of positive signals during the process and for whatever reason it didn't work out. Do you-- Are you using some technology or is it like you know, master memory in your head or,
Jeremy Cockrell : No, not master memory.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : I wish I could remember that many people. Anybody that's ever been in the TA chair, there's no way you can remember everyone.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : so a few things. One, going back to my comment earlier about working with a marketing director, when I got here, one of the things that we were like, we need to put in place and do is actually a nurturing program.
So we actually have a nurturing [00:20:00] program for individuals that we have engaged with that are in our ATS that have not made it to obviously final stages or been hired here. Um, there's certain key indicators, obviously with our ATS that allows people to be in our nurturing program or not. And that is one thing that we do that helps keeping people engaged as well as continue to remind them about our brand, who we are, what we're about, and in different ways.
Um, and that's about a 52-week program actually, uh, in its own. Additionally to that, um, obviously we have a number of things in our ATS that give us reminders and thoughts on, on when to reach back out to people. Um, and sometimes I just go as basic as, let me just put on my Google Calendar, this is when I need to reach out to this person again, just to say hello, see how they're doing.
Um, and, and on top of that, just staying active on LinkedIn and engaging with some of those individuals helps as well. Um, and sometimes they just reach out to me and say, "Hey Jeremy, anything going on?" Um, and I think that's something else I tell a vast majority of candidates our team does is, you know, the [00:21:00] doors...
We have an open door policy is kind of way I always tell candidates like, you don't need a reason to reach out if you ever just wanna check in, just let us know.
Um, and I think just having that engagement truly helps us land people for future opportunities
Colleen Gallagher: Well, that probably ties into my next question, which is, you know, some of the stats that you shared with me around time to, um, time to hire are, you know, sub 14 days. So tell me more about how you're, you're hitting those targets and,
and, Yeah
and that velocity.
Jeremy Cockrell : kudos to our entire interviewing hiring manager team for, for getting on board. I think that's the number one, right? Having the conversation to say, "Hey, you have to understand, like, the consistency and momentum in an interview process is vital for us, and it's vital for a candidate."
You know, of the, the old saying of time kills all deals, it's so true.
Colleen Gallagher: Yes
Jeremy Cockrell : And as much as you can do that, as well as for a candidate, them understanding the momentum of going from one interview to the next to the next, and [00:22:00] remembering what those interviews were versus waiting weeks and sometimes in some cases months for another round, makes it very challenging for them to stay engaged and understanding.
So when I got here, we had a lot of conversations around process, how we need to tweak it, what do we need to do. Um, and we do a three-round interview process, not counting an interview like recruiting screen.
Mm-hmm.
If you count our screens in the talent position field, it's four. Um, but we do hour-long interviews at each stage, and we have it pretty much lined up, process defined.
Uh, and something else that fortunately we were able to convince, uh, our hiring managers and interviewers is we don't submit candidates. And I know when even my past consulting role, obviously it's staffing, you always submitted candidates, and I feel like that brings its own lag of time to wait. Um, now we have such trust that it's like not even a question, uh, that we're just gonna interview people.
But a lot of times we'll go straight from a screen, and [00:23:00] then we'll coordinate through our ATS and everything else for a, a first-round interview, and then we just keep rolling through the process. And typically what we try to do and, and something we, um, are gonna be looking at is how to make more time blocks, more what we call a pod program.
Uh, and I'll give our senior recruiter on my team credit who thought of this, uh, to even help make the efficiencies even better. So we already know if you get past a first round when the second round will happen and then the third round. Um, and typically we can do that in a week and a half, in 10 days, uh, which is why I always give our hiring managers and interviewers a lot of credit because it's not their number one job.
It's not even their number two job, right?
Um, but hiring is vital and important, especially in consulting, 'cause
Yeah
entire, our entire revenue is aligned to people. Um, so you can obviously give the case of ROI on that, but it's still not their number one. Their number one's clients and working on projects.
So having that understanding and having that obviously collaboration with obviously [00:24:00] our internal hiring managers and stakeholders is vital in, in creating that. And then candidates, they're like, "Yeah, let's go." Like, especially even, even passive candidates, 'cause if once they have your interaction and then one skills interview is the first round for us, typically they might be bought in already, and that goes back to the human-centric piece, our interviewers being a part of that candidate experience and just continuing to roll through.
Because the consistency is so important in our industry
Colleen Gallagher: I mean, it's-- it sounds to me, like you have a really strong partnership between you and the hiring managers and just anyone involved in it. And like, how do you to that point? Like, you know, how did you build that trust and, and what do you think has, you know, helped make that the case? 'Cause I think that's something that most recruiters would say is the hardest part
Jeremy Cockrell : I was fortunate when I came to Torrance. Uh, prior I was at a larger general mid-size consulting company. Um, a lot of [00:25:00] people were trying to drive their own things. If you've ever been in larger consulting, you understand how portfolios and partners and principals work. Um, and sometimes you'd have great ones, sometimes you'd have difficult ones.
And I think I learned through my four and a half years of how to align to great ones that at some point prior to me might have been difficult ones too. That allowed me not only to come here and help obviously align, but also I will say our team also understands that even before I arrived, the importance of people, and that I can't obviously give advice to.
But at the same time, what I was able to do is having... Within my first month here, I talked to every single manager, leader that I possibly could.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's number one. I don't care if you're a brand new recruiter. I don't care if you're in leadership in talent acquisition. That would be one of my biggest pieces of advice is connect with leaders and managers because you're probably going to be interacting with them.
And it doesn't-- And I know [00:26:00] they might not wanna give you the time of day. Do what you can to get 15 minutes with them and try to do an introduction, because if they can start understanding you, again, going back to the human piece, as a human and, and you have a role and you have a job and how you're benefiting them, and start talking through that process and getting them on board.
You also have to show up when it's time to finding and bringing quality talent because then they believe it. And once they believe it, I think it's very-- it's actually much easier. But first thing is, is getting on the calendar and getting on a call with them.
Um, and again, I feel like sometimes people are reluctant to have the conversation still,
Yeah
time, because conversations can be hard.
But sometimes the hardest conversations, whether it's calling a candidate back when it's you're dispositioning them or with a hiring manager that you don't know and you're like, "I gotta introduce myself, and I don't know what to say. Um, I heard all these things about them." Sometimes you just gotta, you know, be comfortable being uncomfortable and understand that it's gonna behoove you in the [00:27:00] end.
Um, again, I was fortunate with our people. I never really had the reluctancy when I walked in just from the conversations, but I still had to establish a relationship and obviously trust on what we're trying to do and what we're trying to achieve in talent acquisition.
Colleen Gallagher: I mean, I know, I know you sh- you shared like the, the view of isn't their first priority, but I would actually argue that it is. not-- even also in your case, right? Like, the fact that they're making time for it, to me says that they are making it a, a top priority. And I think the best organizations do that because e-even if... A- and it's not saying that I don't disa- like that I disagree with what you said or anything, it's just, I actually think at the, at the heart of it, what I'm hearing You say is that they that, like, hiring good people is like the number one thing you have to do right, because everything flows down from that. And that's where I think you get that disconnect between hiring managers and recruiting teams often is [00:28:00] like And, and I get it. Like, I worked in consulting for a long time, you know
as a, as a consultant, you know, at least the-- uh, you're not sure how your engagements work, right? But like generally speaking, it's billable hours and, you know, projects. And so like if you have, you know, if you have the pipeline of deals, you just need more people, that's how your revenue gets higher.
And so there's like that much more immediate understanding of like the ROI, like you mentioned. Whereas I think in some, you know, sort of everyday companies, software companies, widget making, right? Like it's, it often tends to be you have more steps in between how you actually evaluate and understand the opportunity cost that comes along with like having an open role or having the wrong person in the role.
And, you know, I guess that's all to say like I-- and what you're saying, what I'm hearing is like you've built a really, um, you know, trust-based relationship and also you have a team [00:29:00] that really understands that hiring is the number one priority.
it's not all the time, right? But in the times that it's necessary
Jeremy Cockrell : For sure. And one, one thing I will-- well, two things. The reason I say it's not the number one priority to your point about consulting is, you know, their 40 hours allocated or whatever they might be, and as you know, Colleen, being in, in your 40 hours allocated, that's just what it's billable. Doesn't mean that's actually your full work week.
Um, but one thing I think also, and I, I didn't mention this when you were talking about them making it a priority and their number one, which I will not disagree with that because the time that they make sure they put into it.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : But something that, you know, we, we are also doing and always evolving is, is two things.
One, understanding that it's not their num- in our minds, not their number one priority.
Yeah
So how do we not-- how can we alleviate that so it doesn't feel like-- 'cause a lot of times your interviewers are only this person or this person. How do you expand [00:30:00] that so it's not just on a certain individual because that slows a number of things down.
So something else we've done on the second point is working with our leadership to be like, who else can we start training to be interviewers and help assessing at certain levels? Obviously, throughout the different parts and different stages of our interview process, that's gonna evolve. But hey, can we get a more junior person that we feel has been here several years that can really assess this talent and align them to a veteran recruiter so they can get experience and-- or excuse me, recruiter, veteran interviewer, so they can get experience and be another interviewer option for us?
And I think that's something that I feel like sometimes not thought about and missed, is how do you expand your hiring manager or interviewer, um, list to have access to more people to give you more options, so in that way you can, uh, continue to move everything.
Colleen Gallagher: I mean, I swear the thing I hear the most is like, makes so much sense and it's also like amazing sometimes how it's like [00:31:00] getting calendar time and like all the calendaring around interviewing t- ends up being like the most difficult process. the most difficult part logistically of the interview process obviously makes a ton of sense.
But, if you can expand the capacity to your point, like that's such a, um, a key way to alleviate that. I love that. Um, you, you all are being very proactive and thoughtful about that.
Jeremy Cockrell : absolutely.
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah
Jeremy Cockrell : you know, I think it's, it's so important to what we're doing
Colleen Gallagher: And I love like your, your nuance sort of like, distinction around like I know it's the number one priority it's okay if in their mind it's not as long as like, it's like a little bit of the like Jedi mind trick that's
Sure
uh,
Jeremy Cockrell : again, it goes back to the relationship piece. It's back to just making sure that everything's kind of partnership, understanding what you're trying to get out of it, I think is just so vital, um, in what we're trying to do and achieve a- as a, as an organization, honestly
Colleen Gallagher: I guess shifting gears a little [00:32:00] bit, we-- I mentioned in the, in the opening that your, um, organization was recently acquired by a larger consulting firm, you know, curious how you're thinking about keeping team's identity and culture when you're being absorbed into a much larger organization
Jeremy Cockrell : Well, first, to give you an idea, um, we still run and operate as our own organization,
Colleen Gallagher: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Cockrell : as it is today. So the way we are operating, the way we're running, the way we're obviously, um, handling everything, we are still doing everything as, as us. Um, as a part of that, we do have pieces that we are working together, obviously, with a larger and obviously ownering body.
Um, I'm even already doing outreach and connections with talent acquisition professionals on that side as, as far as their global director over talent acquisition, um, as well as some other leaders in their TA team. Um, and because of all that, you know, I think it's going to make things much easier when the time comes.[00:33:00]
Um, again, I think it goes back to what I mentioned about even hiring managers, like within the first month of reaching out. Within the first month of us getting this announced, I reached out to some of their TA leaders and was like, "Hey, would love to, to have touch points." I meet with them consistently, um, because the last thing you want is unknowns and being like, "I don't know what they're doing," or, "I don't know what this person's doing," when you're b- part of the same organization and how everything comes together
Colleen Gallagher: I love the parallel there. That's great. shifting gears a little bit, learning more about you. So you started your career in, in sort of the professional sports area, did some internships with some of the large, um, professional sports leagues, and ended up working for, um, the organization that, that owns the Hawk- the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers.
So, so how did you end up in recruiting?
Jeremy Cockrell : everybody's got their story, right? And the whole saying of you don't go to college to, to get into recruiting.
Yeah.
So, you know, I, I came out of college and I'd done [00:34:00] internships with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and that was what I wanted to do, was get into the professional world of sports. Um, I love sports and it's a passion of mine.
Um, and I was fortunate to, to land my first role with the Atlanta Hawks and previously known as the Atlanta Thrashers. Uh, worked two seasons and unfortunately, the Thrashers were, uh, sold and relocated to become the Winnipeg Jets. And when you lose two franchises, unfortunately, you have to let people go.
Um, I had just been promoted the season prior, and about 40% of our staff was eliminated, and I was the youngest in my department. So when people say they get laid off, I fully can empathize with that. I've been through it myself.
Colleen Gallagher: Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Cockrell : and when that happened, we actually-- I actually had a previous colleague of mine who had already left and got into staffing and recruiting, and she reached out to me and was like, "Jeremy, have you ever...
I think you'd be good at this. Have you ever heard of staffing and recruiting?" And I was like, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah.
Jeremy Cockrell : so started to talk to her organization, really do some research on it, and then I just started to look at this as an opportunity and started to interview with a [00:35:00] number of different organizations.
Um, ended up not land- going, landing or going to her organization, actually. Um, ended up going to, to Tech USA, as you've seen. Um, was there for five and a half years. But that's kinda... She, she introduced me to it by recommending it to me, and after doing some research, um, landed in it and been in it now 14 and a half years.
So it's, uh, it's definitely, definitely gone well.
Colleen Gallagher: So you're here to tell everyone recruiting is as much fun or more fun than professional sports. That's what I heard you say.
Jeremy Cockrell : Exactly. I
Yeah.
It's,
Yeah
I'll just say this, both are a grind in different ways, but, uh, it is, um, you know, it brings- they bring joys in different ways
Colleen Gallagher: what advice would you give yourself, you know, one day after graduation or, or finishing, finishing school?
Jeremy Cockrell : you mentioned the sports thing and, and the first thing I would look at to me as I'm graduating, um, is literally what you've been preparing up to this moment is not your path in the future, and just understanding that and [00:36:00] accepting it. Um, I'm always a, I'm a very process, planned-oriented individual, to be transparent on that.
Um, so when something is different than what I've been planning and approaching, that can sometimes throw me off. Um, and then the second thing would be like, you know, everyone goes through their own trials and tribulations and, and I'm no different than that and, and nobody else is too, and just understanding those things I think is important and would definitely be the advice I'd give myself going back into it
Colleen Gallagher: That's so true. I, I mean, I feel like I remember thinking, at 21 when I graduated, like I had my whole life figured out. And I look back on it now sometimes and I'm like, "Oh, how silly I was." You know? But,
Jeremy Cockrell : Exactly
Colleen Gallagher: It's good to have that earnestness, um, and, and sort of, I guess, in some ways.
But, um, you know, like to your point, I think it's like you'll figure things out.
Jeremy Cockrell : so many people are like... I remember when I was going to college, so many people were like, "What you go to college for is not necessarily what you're gonna be doing." And it's, I'm, I'm obviously proof of that, so
Colleen Gallagher: I mean, [00:37:00] like you said, I, I think I've only spoken to one person who, like, knew they wanted to do recruiting coming out of college. It's not generally something that people-- You know, it's not like there's a recruiting major, you know,
Jeremy Cockrell : Sure. Exactly
Colleen Gallagher: I guess talk to me, what do you do for fun?
What are, what are some of your hobbies outside of, uh, TA?
Jeremy Cockrell : my wife and I are, are pretty active people. Um, so I work out usually four to five days a week in the morning. Um, I also do a lot with like sauna and actually do cold plunging, um, which I know has become more and more of a popular thing. Been doing cold plunging for about a year and a half now.
Um, you know, as, as you age, you gotta do recovery, and I think that's, that's a big thing. Um, it definitely helps you, um, and it obviously puts you in a different state of mind. Um, additionally to that, we, we enjoy the outdoors. Obviously, we live in Florida, so we enjoy, you know, being at the pool, beach, um, seeing friends.
And then we also, and I, I think I was telling you this, um, a little bit ago, we also enjoy hiking even though now that we're in Florida, uh, can't do that as often. Uh, we came from North [00:38:00] Carolina, so we were an hour, hour and a half away from a trail. And, um, so we went out to, to Colorado this past fall even to, to do Rocky Mountain National Park.
So we, we enjoy doing a number of things. Traveling is a massive thing, and going over the, the pond, as you could say, is something we enjoy too. So those are probably my, my biggest things that outside of the passion of sports and as I mentioned already. So
Colleen Gallagher: Yeah. do you have a full-- Do you have a, your own cold plunge?
Jeremy Cockrell : It's a great question. Uh, the answer to that is no. We, uh, we actually... There's a cold plunge place literally within three minutes of our house.
Colleen Gallagher: Oh
Jeremy Cockrell : it's a, it's like a co- they put it together as a cold plunge coffee, like, bar setup. Um, so they actually have tubs. Oh, it's, it's pretty awesome. Um, so you get in and you do your cold plunge, you get out, put a robe on, have a coffee in the morning if you want, um, or however you wanna do it.
So it's, uh, it's something that we really enjoy, and, uh, we have a, we have a routine Saturday mornings with it. I'll just say that.
Colleen Gallagher: Oh my gosh. That's awesome. I mean, I've not heard of that, [00:39:00]
Yeah
but in some ways I'm like, that makes sense to have in Florida because people are probably more apt to like go in it because they're hot or It's, like hot- hotter weather. so, but I love that concept. I've not heard of that. That's, that's great.
Jeremy Cockrell 2: a lot of times when you're on a plane, you'll swell up, you'll do a lot of things. So if you actually cold plunge the day of,
Colleen Gallagher: before,
Jeremy Cockrell 2: helps Yes, before, like we'll go like in the morning, like if we have like a 12 o'clock flight, we'll go in the morning, cold plunge, get our stuff, and then go.
Colleen Gallagher: Huh,
Jeremy Cockrell 2: It helps immensely
Colleen Gallagher: Good
if you ever have those issues
if there are any, uh, cold plunge places in, in, uh, near me. But, um, well, this has been so fun. I, I really like-- is such a good conversation. Um, but before I close out, where can people find you? What's the best way to connect with you?
Jeremy Cockrell 2: also Colleen, really appreciate obviously the time. It's, it's been a pleasure. Um, it's a lot of fun and, uh, for people to find me, I'm very much active on LinkedIn, Jeremy Cockrell. If you can't find Jeremy Cockrell, look up Jeremy Cockrell and [00:40:00] Torrent. You'll find me. Um, happy to connect with anybody there.
Um, always a good place to obviously have a chat, so feel free to reach out
Colleen Gallagher: thank you again, um, Jeremy, so much for joining, and thank you to the audience for listening. If you learned something today or laughed, please tell someone about this podcast. this has been another exciting episode of Recruiters on the Rise. We will see you all next time
And that wraps up another episode. Thank you for joining. For show notes and other episodes, visit us at recruitersontherise.com. Recruiters On The Rise is sponsored by Lavaleer, an interview intelligence platform. Lavaleer goes beyond basic note-takers to improve your ability to assess candidates with AI-powered interview questions, summaries, and transcription.
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