The Edge of Work

Salesforce, the CRM software company has long been an innovator in technology, but it’s also a pioneer when it comes to looking for, hiring, and developing diverse talent into its company. In this episode, we spoke to Jennifer Stredler, VP of Untapped Talent at Salesforce. Jennifer has extensive experience working in workforce development, leads many of the efforts at Salesforce to identify diverse talent, bring them in the door, and provide opportunities for them within the organization in meaningful and impactful roles. During our conversation, Jennifer spoke about the Untapped Talent team she leads at Salesforce, and some of their programs and initiatives they run within their organization, as well as sharing with us some of the ways in which she and her team have helped galvanize the rest of the organization to embrace new and different ways of hiring and providing more opportunities to individuals of different and diverse backgrounds.LinksSalesforce Untapped Talent: https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/how-salesforce-is-opening-the-doors-of-opportunity-for-untapped-talent/Jennifer Stredler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-stredler-341bbb80/ 

Ann Parker is the Associate Director of Talent Consortiums for the Association For Talent Development (ATD). ATD is a professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees around the world. Talent, and attracting, developing and retaining it, has become front and center to helping organization’s thrive in today’s world of work, and ATD’s members are on the front lines of this.During our conversation, Ann spoke about some of the key trends and observations she’s seeing and hearing from her work with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking talent development leaders. We also spoke about the role that talent development plays in organization’s today, how leaders are navigating the short and long term goals and strategies for learning, and how ATD is helping talent development leaders build a better future of work.Links:ATD Website: https://www.td.org/ Ann Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-parker-280313a/ATD Forum: https://atd-forum.td.org/CTDO Next: https://ctdonext.td.org/ 

Thomas Brunskill is the CEO of Forage, a technology and recruiting platform that provides free and accessible education and opportunities to connect with employers and to learn about potential fields, functions and roles. Currently, they work with employers like Lululemon, Wal-Mart, Bank of America and Visa, and are expanding rapidly across the globe.Forage works with companies to design digital learning experiences about job and internship opportunities, what it’s like to work at the company, and educational insights into fields and functions to allow students to gain access to more information and exploration.During our conversation, Thomas spoke about how his own work experience inspired him to come up with the idea for Forage, and how Forage and its platform are promoting more inclusive and equitable opportunities for early in career talent to explore career paths and roles.LinksForage’s Website: https://www.theforage.com/Thomas Brunskill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tombrunskill/

Nancy Soni is the CEO at Pathmatch, a talent marketplace that helps students explore and identify potential career paths and then matches them with employers for internships and full-time job opportunities. Her inspiration for building Pathmatch comes from her own experience navigating career choices when she was in college, as well as after working for almost 2 decades in the corporate recruiting and hiring space.During this interview we covered:What is Pathmatch, and how it’s providing a new approach to helping early career talent explore careers and internshipsHow the current way of hiring college students is outdated, and how Pathmatch is better serving students and employersHow Pathmatch is bypassing traditional routes to students, and using technology to meet them where they areWhat’s next for Pathmatch and their plan for creating career mobility and opportunities for more studentsYou Might Enjoy This Episode IfYou are trying to recruit college students and early career talentYou work in career education and are looking for new and different ways to help your students explore career pathsYou are interested in how technology can improve the career exploration processLinksWeb: https://www.pathmatch.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysoni/

Aki Ito is a reporter and columnist with Insider. Aki writes and covers issues that are topical and timely around workplace and careers, and has written about a number of workplace trends that have picked up in the modern media around topics including the great resignation and quiet quitting.During our conversation, Aki spoke about some of her thoughts on the workplace, and we delved in depth into evaluating the topic of “our relationship with work” as well as what is changing, and what is new about today’s state of the workplace.  LinksWeb: https://www.businessinsider.com/author/aki-ito LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itoaki/

Raffi Salama is the Co-Founder of PassionFruit, a talent marketplace that connects fast-growing companies with independent talent and freelance workers. While talent and freelance marketplaces are not new, their acceptance and usage is growing, and PassionFruit takes a unique approach as many of their independent workers are younger professionals. In addition to matching freelance talent to opportunities, PassionFruit also provides a community and wrap-around services to their freelancers to ensure they have the skills, support, and guidance they need to thrive as independent professionals. During our conversation, we spoke about the reasons for building a talent marketplace, the evolution of the workplace from the working world of the Victorian era to the modern day workplace, and the opportunities that exist for employers and independent workers through the use of independent and freelance talent. We also spoke about some of the biggest challenges companies face with hiring more freelance talent, and what PassionFruit is focused on to scale their ambitions and business.Website: https://www.usepassionfruit.com/

Anita Hossain is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Grand, a group coaching platform.During our conversation, Anita spoke about the observations she made as an Executive Coach working with Founders and how that inspired her and her team to start The Grand. As a coach herself, Anita has seen the power of coaching and how it can help employees unlock their full potential in the workplace, and she shared how The Grand is helping employees navigate these challenges through coaching and a group community. We also spoke about the challenges with transitions in the workplace, small and large, how it is hard to separate an individual’s work and life, and how she sees The Grand evolving and growing as they help to provide people more chances to improve their skills to do their best work.LinksAnita’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/ahossain24The Grand Website: https://www.thegrand.world/You Might Enjoy This Episode If:You’re struggling with a challenge in the workplace, and think working with someone outside of your workplace (like a coach) could be a helpful endeavorYou are a people manager who wants to know how you can unlock the potential of your employees 

Nolan Church is the Founder and CEO of Continuum, a marketplace that connects world-class executives with venture-backed companies for fractional and full-time opportunities.After leadership roles at companies including Doordash and Carta, Nolan founded Continuum to bring fractional opportunities to executives, and to help high-growth tech startups find the expertise and talent they need to solve specific challenges for their business. During our conversation, we spoke about:Nolan’s career, and what he learned from leading people functions and Doordash and CartaThe insights that led to starting a managed marketplace The 3 fundamental elements of Continuums business Why executives struggle with finding fractional and part-time workHow Continuum is thinking about expanding into new markets and opportunitiesThe future of work, and what fractional employment means for professionalsLinksNolan’s TwitterContinuum’s WebsitePallet Scott Belsky: The Rise of Polygamous Careers

Venture Capital Firms are all about investing in what’s new and next in innovation and technology. But while a deep understanding of technology is important, just as important is a keen eye for talent. Whitnie Narcisse is an Operating Partner at First Round Capital, and oversees their talent, operations and ecosystem programs. With the help of her team, First Round has invested in a number of talent and community programs ranging from helping re-train and reskill professionals into sales and recruiter roles, growing the next set of angel investors that can help First Round scout the next talented set of founders and entrepreneurs, and expert matching programs to help their founders solve specific problems and gain expert guidance from the most talented operators in the First Round Network.Listen in to Learn About:How First Round Capital thinks about talent, and how it helps it’s founders with their talent prioritiesFirst Round’s Marquee Talent programs including Fast Track, Angel Track, and “Sprints” programHow it’s training and sourcing new talent through upskilling programs How First Round uses an Ecosystem approach to create serendipity and opportunity through experts, people, and relationshipsYou Might Like This Episode IfYou’re curious about new ways of identifying or attracting talentYou work in or are interested in venture capitalYou want to find ways to tap into experts and talent outside of your companyGuest Linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/whitnie/ https://twitter.com/WhitnieLowhttps://fasttrack.firstround.com/  

Today’s Guest is John Koelliker.  John is the Founder and CEO of Leland, an expert marketplaces that matches ambitious professionals with coaching, classes, and community needed to reach their educational goals. After working at two tech companies as a Product Manager managing marketplace type products, John decided to apply his learnings and start Leland, a marketplace that helps young professionals who are looking for expert guidance + advice in the education and career find the exact expert they need to unlock the next step in their education and career journey.Topics covered include:John’s professional background, and why he’s interested in marketplacesWhat Leland is, the problem it solves, and how it helps young professionals and students achieve career goalsHow the marketplace works, and the process for matching students and expertsHow young professionals access career guidance and information, and how that factors into Leland’s productYou Might Enjoy This Episode IfYou’re a Career Educator or Admissions Counselor and want to know how young professionals find career adviceYou are a young professional or student, and you want to find specific guidance/advice and want to know what your options look likeYou’re building a marketplace or talent platform, and want to understand how these dynamics workLinksLeland Website: https://www.joinleland.com/John's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-koelliker/