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Translating Experience: Clarity from Leadership in the People Industry with Christy Honeycutt (2/2)

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How can we help recruiters advocate for us in a tough job market?

According to people industry veteran Christy Honeycutt, our guest in episode 353, it starts with being kind and translating your experience into something a recruiter can understand. And even more importantly, it takes practice.

In part 2 of our discussion with Christy, she translates deep experience in talent acquisition and recruitment that gives us insight into the current job market. You’ll hear more details about the nuances of RPOs (recruitment process outsourcers), the difference between job hugging and job abandonment, and the importance of personal branding and differentiation. Stay until the end when Christy shares her reasons for turning down C-suite positions and how clarity on her long-term goals is carrying her forward into what’s next.

Now that you’ve heard someone model it for you, how will you translate your own experience?

If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Christy, check out Episode 352 – People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2).

Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025

Topics – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins, Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry, Today’s Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite

2:56 – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

  • When it comes to RPO (recruitment process outsourcing), is this a one-size-fits-all approach, or does it show up differently depending on what a company needs?
    • In Christy’s experience, most RPO organizations offer services like executive search, but they may offer full RPO, which usually involves hiring more than 500 people per year.
    • Normally an RPO brings a mix of skills to the table. A client may want the RPO to take only talent acquisition or may want to control offer management, but they may want the RPO to take everything (attracting new talent, offer management, coordinating with HR for new employee onboarding).
      • “If a company wants it a certain way, they can stop it at a certain point…. But most RPOs, full RPOs, is attraction to offer accepted and then it tees over to the HR team.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • John has worked for companies where the recruitment or talent acquisition personnel were marked as contractors in the internal global address book but had company e-mail addresses. Would this mean the personnel are contracting directly with a company or working through an RPO?
      • Christy says it could be either scenario. When she managed an RPO earlier in her career, they were most successful when the client encouraged the RPO to brand as the company.
      • Someone might indicate they do recruitment for a specific company on LinkedIn but be an employee of an RPO.
      • Christy tells us how important it is for the RPO to understand an organization’s mission, vision, benefits, and culture because the RPO is often attracting talent and selling people on why they should apply and interview.
      • “When you think about recruitment and talent acquisition, regardless, it’s a lot of marketing because you’ve got a really cool position and you’ve got to find the perfect fit.” – Christy Honeycutt

5:55 – Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins

  • Right now, recruiters and talent acquisition professionals have a distinct challenge. Many resumes look the same because candidates are using AI tools.
    • “What people think is helping set them apart is actually making them look more similar. So now you’ve got recruiters and talent acquisition; they don’t know if these are fake resumes. They don’t know if they’re real. And they’re getting on the call with these people and finding out they are fake; they don’t have any of this requirement.” – Christy Honeycutt
  • Christy shares a little secret about learning recruitment. She gives the example of a recruiter needing to recruit for an executive level role in technology.
    • Recruiters are encouraged to seek out and find the C-players to practice asking them questions, understand nuance, and grasp the terminology. This is a training exercise.
    • Following this process, a recruiter would then have more credibility once they speak to the A-players they actually want to hire.
    • “What I would encourage is if you are a C-player, you’re not going to know it. Just be kind and know that the person you’re talking to has never held a technical role (probably, most likely)…and might not understand half the stuff that you guys do. The acronyms aren’t going to be the same. Just be gracious with them because the more you can help them translate your experience, the better you’re going to be positioned to get you over the line…. They don’t want to talk to 10 people to get 1 hire. They want to talk to 3 people to get a hire…. And remember that the TA, HR, recruiters, whatever you want to call them…there’s a pretty good chance that they want to help you and that they’re doing the job because they like people. And I think they get a bad rap.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy tells us about something called a slate (a group of 3-5 individuals who apply for a job that a recruiter will go and interview). Recruiters are using AI to help filter through applications.
    • “The biggest thing I can tell you is be your own person. Be your own, authentic person. Have your stories of how you’ve shown up and shown out…. I tell everybody for every job that you’ve worked at, you need to have 3 wins…. Figure out…your top things that you accomplished at each role and have that and be ready to speak to it. And then…ask questions. Interview them too…. Make sure it’s a culture fit for you.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy says things like the great resignation and quiet quitting are just behaviors that get repeated over time. Right now, there is a fearful state of job hugging.
      • “We’re job hugging. No one is hugging a job. People are trying to stay employed in the market. That’s all it is.” – Christy Honeycutt
      • Christy says if you are staying somewhere because you have a job and are not happy, figure out how to make yourself happy by determining it is not a fit, understanding your passions, and beginning your exit plan.
      • “Companies are not our families. They are going to let us go. It’s going to come down to the business.” – Christy Honeycutt
      • It’s important to keep the human element in mind if we are seeking a new role (the human element on both sides).
    • Christy tells the story of a senior recruiter who called her about a conversation with a job candidate, and Christy knew the person was burned out, bored, and curious.
      • “High performers are always open minded and curious, but if you fall in that category, figure it out sooner than later so you’re not burning yourself out because then you’re in a very dangerous situation. That job hugging is going to be job abandonment. You’re going to get to boot. It’s not going to be the other way around. It’s just kind of level setting with your psyche.” – Christy Honeycutt

11:28 – Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry

  • Going back to recruiters getting practice and experience from interviewing candidates, Nick looks at this from the lens that everyone needs at bats to gain experience. Though it may be batting practice for a recruiter, it is also practice for the candidate. We don’t practice interviewing very often.
    • Christy agrees it is practice on both sides and emphasizes that kindness is key.
    • She’s had multiple conversations with recruiters who didn’t understand why a hiring manager did not want a specific candidate. We might never know all the effort a recruiter put into promoting us with a hiring manager.
    • Some recruiters, however, should not be in their roles. Christy tells us about a time in her career when she was referred to as “The Kraken.”
      • Christy managed a tight team of talent acquisition professionals who respected and loved her as a boss. They knew she had high expectations of her team. Christy’s team members would have to launch programs for global clients within 30-60 days sometimes, for example.
      • “So, my team had to be kind of like special ops because we managed the globe, and it was high pressure.” – Christy Honeycutt
      • As she progressed in her career, Christy would be given individuals who were not performing on other teams. Before managing someone out of the business, Christy always gave people a chance to redeem themselves because until she met the person and they worked for her, she was only hearing one side of the story.
  • Christy recounts being asked to join an RPO to clean it up.
    • She met with each recruiter to understand the key metrics and performance indicators.
    • Christy tells us that for any job opening (or job requisition) a recruiter was carrying at this time, they should be submitting 3-5 candidates for each job, and a manager would expect this within 2 weeks of the job opening. There was a specific recruiter who only submitted 2 candidates per week across 15 job openings, and Christy recounts the performance conversation with this person.
    • “There are some people that are in roles that they shouldn’t be that take advantage and kind of sit back….” – Christy Honeycutt
    • As people gain seniority in talent acquisition and recruitment, sometimes you deal with people’s egos. This is the exception and not the rule.
  • John mentions it would probably be difficult to coast based on one’s reputation in talent acquisition. Based on the metrics for success and open job requisitions, it should be obvious who is doing well and who isn’t.
    • Christy says this goes back to leadership. Maybe these individuals never had a boss who would hold them accountable.
    • “If we go back to managers and leaders, most of them aren’t trained, and a lot of them want to be liked.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy is the daughter of a Marine. This means the mission gets accomplished no matter what with the fewest amount of casualties. It’s her job as the leader of a team to keep them focused on the mission and accomplishing it. Removing someone from the team may be the best option to keep the rest of the team on track in accomplishing a mission.
      • “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so if your weakest link is not holding themselves accountable and respecting their team, then they’re putting everybody else’s jobs at risk. And unfortunately, there are bad actors in every industry, in every role, in every organization…and we’ve all seen them. They are like cancer. They really hurt retention. They hurt elevation. They are usually the ones taking credit, taking too long at lunch, whatever the case may be…we’ve all seen them…. It all comes down to behaviors.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy thinks leaders want to be liked and are afraid of having a complaint filed against them.
      • For example, people might file a complaint because they were not doing their job and their manager held them accountable for not doing it.
      • “It’s weird to be in the people industry for so long because it’s just behaviors. It’s just humans.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Before someone shows up for work, we have no idea what may be going on in their life outside work. Christy encourages us to meet one another with more grace.
      • “Those of you out there, if you’re lucky enough to have a job and be employed, do the job. Because there’s a lot of people that don’t that will come in and do a better job than you. Honor yourself, honor your employer, and show up. But unfortunately, there’s bad actors.” – Christy Honeycutt
  • John directs the conversation back to hiring cycles. He has heard it’s beneficial to apply for a job opening quickly and to be in the first wave of candidates but didn’t really think about the why behind it.
    • Christy tells us this varies based on the position, the job requirements, location, salary, and other factors. In fact, recruiters often have to reset unrealistic expectations from hiring managers (i.e. what a specific role salary should be).
    • “If you think about a client and them opening a position, they probably needed that position 30 days before it was ever approved. So, there’s already a ticking time on the recruiter whether that’s fair or not because in the manager’s mind that role opened the second they thought they needed it. Not when they requested it, not when it got approved, but when they realized in their brain, ‘I need this position filled,’ that’s when the clock starts for them. So, it’s an unfair disadvantage for a recruiter.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Listen to Christy’s description of a best-in-class 4-week process from job opening to making the right candidate an offer.

20:45 – Today’s Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite

  • If we look at this through the lens of the current job market, how much do recruiters need to sell candidates on roles when there are hundreds of applications to sort through for a single job opening?
    • “Tech is like recruitment, like marketing. It’s always the first to go…until they realize…it went, and we need it. So, it’s a boomerang effect with those industries…always has been, always will be.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy tells the story of being at the HR Tech conference with a young lady who was recently laid off from a tech company. This person walked from booth to booth and began networking with people in search of new roles and was able to leverage Christy to get some introductions. She had 5 interviews over the course of the 3-day event.
    • “In the job market today, with recruiters not able to tell if it’s an AI resume or not, with them being overloaded with a vast amount of resumes…the best thing that anybody can do is make sure that your personal brand is on point. Make sure that whatever it is that you’re doing…you’re sharing, you’re engaging your community, and that you’re seen doing it.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy was part of the same tech startup mentioned above and also lost her job. But she had been working on her personal brand before that happened. Christy was speaking at events, sharing with her community, doing podcasts, and doing many go-to-market things on behalf of her employer.
      • Christy’s heart goes out to others in her field who have been out of work for multiple years.
      • Within 3 days of losing her role, Christy was offered 3 different C-suite positions. She turned them all down.
      • “I’ve had that moment where I’ve realized that where I want to go and where I am are 2 different places…. If I put my focus on something, my energy is going to flow in that direction, and I need to make sure that’s the direction I want to go…. Do I want to go be c-suite and kill myself for the next 4 years? …But the reason that gave me confidence is I’m 3 days without a job. I’ve got several job offers. And I realized, they don’t care how I work with them. They just want to work with me, so why don’t I go out on my own?” – Christy Honeycutt, on the internal discussions she’s having after encountering job loss
    • Christy understands she’s in a gifted place only because she put in the work of giving back to her community before she was in a tough spot.
      • Her efforts include things like hosting Inside the C-Suite and doing free mentoring and coaching for others.
      • “It’s because of all the goodwill I’ve done. My community paid it back tenfold. So set yourself apart in whatever it is that you’re doing…. Where we are today is you have to have a differentiator, or you’re going to be sitting on the shelf for 5 years.” – Christy Honeycutt
  • Christy mentioned previously that it’s lonely when someone takes a C-suite role. How did her conversations with executives on Inside the C-Suite together with her experience in talent acquisition and recruitment impact her decision to not take a C-suite role?
    • Christy knows that she doesn’t do anything halfway. If she were to take a C-suite role, she would be working 80 hours per week and traveling nonstop.
    • Christy and her partner want to slow the pace down for their family, take time to travel, and do more purposeful things. She shares a story about Matthew McConaughey wanting to make the shift from romantic comedies to more serous roles to illustrate a shift of priority and focus.
    • “Yeah, it crossed my mind. But it does not align with my long-term goal…. I realized I have a choice. You know, the universe has brought a lot of stuff to me. Is it because it’s meant for me, or is it noise?” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy has shown up, given to her community in a visible way, and found her voice. But taking a C-suite role right now is not where she wants to be.
    • Some of the job offers Christy received came from people who had been on her podcast. Christy tells more of the story of being at HR Tech and the reactions people in the industry had to her being on the market. Christy plans to continue conversations with those people about ways they can work together moving forward.
    • “I’m really good at certain things, which you guys have broken down and helped me understand. I repeatedly get asked for those things, and those are the things I like to do. So why not go do that? Why not go be a consultant and do the things that I really like to do for people and not do the things I don’t like to do…? …I can just go do the fun stuff that they need my specialization in.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Christy wants to stay true to herself and honor the decision to increase bandwidth for her family.
    • Many of the C-level executives Christy speaks to on her podcast love what they do, but they’ve had to learn to put themselves first.
      • “I hear this more often than not. When they first start their organization, it’s business business business. Their health fails. Their family fails. So, the ones that actually made it and recovered through that little spike and actually make it out on the other side very quickly flip to ‘take care of my body (my temple), my soul, my family, then my business. It’s a battle for them.” – Christy Honeycutt
      • At the time of this recording, Christy is thinking of starting her own firm, so she hopes she can take it slow enough to avoid these pitfalls.
  • When we decide to slow the pace and do more of what we enjoy, can reflecting on those 3 wins from each previous job help us be confident that we can still get those wins without running at a hectic pace? Did Christy do this when thinking about what she wanted to do?
    • Christy says she did not think about these for herself even though it would be her coaching to others in need of advice.
    • “What I found interesting is that when you’re looking for an answer, if you actually open your eyes, it’s right there. It plays back to you. It plays back to you in conversations you have with people…. You often say what you need and what you want and where you’re at, but you don’t comprehend it. But if you hear someone you love, that you trust, repeat it back to you…it’s almost like it gives you permission to accept it.” – Christy Honeycutt
    • Sometimes instead of giving people advice, we need to act as a mirror and reflect back what they’ve said.
    • Christy didn’t need a C-level title. She doesn’t need to go do something to prove she can do it. She’s already done it. Christy understood she was ready for something different, even if it’s a little bit scary to consider going out on one’s own.
    • “It’s scary to put yourself out there like that, but if you don’t, you’ll never know. I’d rather try and fail and learn than regret and not know.” – Christy Honeycutt
  • If you want to follow up with Christy on this conversation, you can find here:

Mentioned in the Outro

  • Do you have 3 wins from each job or at least the past several jobs you’ve held? And do you know the stories that go along with these?

    • There are prerequisites that must be met before we can speak to our wins in an interview. It starts with documenting our accomplishments on a regular basis.
    • Consider what the 3 wins are from your accomplishment list. Maybe you have more than 3 or need to use a different set of 3 based on a job to which you’re applying.
    • Consider writing the story that goes with each win. It could be a resume bullet, but think of it as more detailed and something you can share in an interview.
    • This is part of drafting a career narrative like Jason Belk suggested in Episode 284 – Draft Your Narrative: Writing and Building a Technical Portfolio with Jason Belk (2/2). We should not only write the draft but gain practice sharing the stories verbally in interviews, possibly conversations with our manager, and maybe even in conversations with industry peers at networking events (if and when appropriate). This is an iterative process!
    • We like looking at conversations with recruiters as opportunities to practice telling our win stories.

  • In the discussion with Christy, we heard about her experience losing a job.

    • In Christy’s case she had been giving to her network long before this happened in a very visible way.
    • Maybe you are doing this in a less visible way. Consider documenting that work, but make the overall intent to help others and impact people positively. It will pay off later when you need help.

  • Christy shared an exercise in finding clarity. She knew a C-suite role would not match the pace that was aligned with what her family wanted. It wasn’t just about personal ambition.

  • Remember to check out Christy’s podcasts, Inside the C-Suite and StrategicShift.

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