258: How to Hire for EQ w/ Iain Campbell McKenna

Today I am joined on the show by my good friend, procurement executive recruiter Iain McKenna.  Iain is Founder and Managing Director of the executive search firm Sourcing Solved.

Our conversation is split into a couple of different parts:

In the first half of our interview, we discuss the hiring process, and specifically if our reliance on AI - such as keyword searching on CV’s and resumes - severely restrict an organizations ability to hire the best candidate for a role. Iain shares tips on how procurement leaders can hire for personality, drive, EQ and an empathetic management style rather than those with the best keyword match.

In the second part of the interview we switch focus and specifically discuss hiring in the context of procurement services and software firms.  A number of firms are aggressively hiring in this space, and yet their initial brief tends to focus on hiring from competitors rather than from industry.  We discuss how, as a practitioner, you can best position yourself for a move into consulting or to a procurement software firm - and the benefits for software and consulting firms in hiring practitioners.