Jennifer Callahan Kindel

As a Recruiting Business Partner for Cisco’s Join & Connect (J&C) team, I collaborated closely with business leaders and hiring managers to align talent acquisition strategies with Cisco’s evolving business needs, ensuring the recruitment of top-tier talent to enhance competitive advantage. I worked cross-functionally with Americas and Global Recruiting Leads, as well as People & Communities (P&C) and People Experience (PX), to ensure cohesive and strategic recruitment efforts. Acting as a trusted advisor, I provided insights on talent availability, market trends, compensation, and compliance to support data-driven decision-making. I led full-cycle recruitment for critical business requisitions, from sourcing and screening candidates to managing internal hiring initiatives and contractor conversions. Additionally, I leveraged external market trends and internal data to develop sourcing strategies for Critical Workforce Segments and build robust talent pipelines. By mentoring and developing recruitment teams, I enhanced their capabilities as business partners, ensuring alignment with Cisco’s talent strategy. I also embedded diversity and inclusion principles into all aspects of the recruitment process to support Cisco’s commitment to a diverse and innovative workforce.

As a Talent Advisor, fostering a strategic partnership with hiring managers is essential for aligning recruitment efforts with organizational goals. This involves engaging in regular discussions to understand team dynamics, specific role requirements, and long-term business objectives, ensuring recruitment strategies are tailored to each department's needs. Collaboratively developing comprehensive recruitment plans helps set clear expectations and align efforts across teams. Additionally, providing guidance on effective interviewing techniques and candidate evaluation methods, along with sharing market insights on competitive compensation, empowers hiring managers to attract top talent. Establishing a continuous feedback loop through regular check-ins allows for real-time adjustments to recruitment strategies. Building trust and rapport is crucial, as it fosters a collaborative environment where hiring managers feel supported. Offering training sessions and resources on recruitment tools further empowers them to take an active role in the process. By defining cultural fit together, Talent Advisors ensure candidates align with the organization’s values. Regular updates on talent market trends also equip hiring managers to make informed decisions. Ultimately, this strong partnership significantly enhances the recruitment process, ensuring the organization attracts and retains the best talent.

Recruiting team leader in the Irvine, CA market for high volume hiring process. Responsible for directing a team of sourcers, coordinators and support recruiters through each hiring class. Works with client’s Talent Acquisition team, and Account Manager, to set quarterly hiring goals and deliverables. Collaborates with sourcing team on a marketing strategy as well as conducting and relaying market research along with grass roots efforts to identify targeted candidate pools. Expert level use of online recourses and Boolean searches to source top talent. Assess candidate based on required competencies though phone interviews and also onsite interview support as needed. Managed deliverables and metrics throughout phone screen and onsite batch interview process. Once hires have been identified, the process comes back to my team, where we conduct detailed reference and background checks before extending offers and beginning the onboarding process.

Managed recruiting process for Technical Operations team virtually for the Mt. Vernon, IN facility. Sourced for candidates in a variety of positions, specializing in technical roles, including QA/QC personnel, D level finance roles and Software Engineers and highly specialized production machine qualifiers. As part of the local recruiting efforts I worked closely with local colleges and alumni services to execute a University recruiting program that included both intern roles and entry-level engineering opportunities. Used extensive Internet searches to create contacts with passive candidates. Worked in Taleo to keep candidate information, tracking and onboarding functions properly recorded and compliant. Created recruiting strategies with hiring manager to ensure jobs were advertised in the appropriate markets. As an end to end recruiter I over the entire recruiting process from req approval/creation to the offer and onboarding process where I work closing with the relocation department on behalf of the candidates.

As part of the Talent Acquisition team, it is my responsibility to aid recruiters in the day to-day tasks of the recruiting process while providing a positive interview/ on boarding experience for both candidates and hiring mangers. Recruiting activities include, posting open positions on job boards and screening submissions for presentation to Sr. Recruiters, conducting initial phone screens when needed. Scheduling interview panels using Microsoft Outlook to manage teams’ calendar availability, create WebEx bridges and book resources such as Cisco TelePresence technology. Additionally, I manage all candidate information and interview details in our candidate tracking system as well as collect feedback from the interview team before extending and offer. Handled all candidate travel arrangements for onsite interviews and expense reimbursements while working closely with the accounting department to ensure complacence with the T&E policy and ensure rapid reimbursement of any out of pocket costs. Through HireRight I initiate the application process and order the background reports necessary to begin the offer and on boarding stages.