TrustedHire
Hiring trends, candidate advice, and market intelligence from 15+ years of recruiting Accounting & Finance, HR, and Operations talent.
Most professionals who stayed too long at a company that never promoted them walk into interviews with the wrong story. The way you frame a stalled career tells an interviewer more about your self-awareness than almost anything else you say.
Read MoreOperations candidates get asked some version of the fix-first question in almost every interview, and most give an answer that sounds thoughtful but quietly costs them the offer. The distinction that separates candidates who advance from those who do not has nothing to do with the fix they choose.
Read MoreCandidates from large companies don't fail at small ones because they lack the skills. They fail because they can't explain, convincingly, why they actually want what small companies offer.
Read MoreMost small businesses do not think seriously about HR until something goes wrong, and by then the fix costs far more than the prevention would have. At 40 people, three specific gaps will either protect you or come back to hurt you.
Read MoreAccounting, finance, HR, and operations professionals who were laid off in the last two years are still underselling themselves because they spend too much energy framing the layoff instead of the work. A layoff is a neutral fact, and the candidates who treat it that way tend to move faster than the ones who feel they need to explain it.
Read MoreMost small business owners do not realize a spreadsheet has become load-bearing until something breaks at the worst possible moment. The tools that got you to 20 employees are structurally different from what you need at 50, and the longer you wait, the more expensive the fix becomes.
Read MoreMost custom tools that disappoint were built to fix a process that was never clearly defined in the first place. Knowing the difference between a software problem and a people problem before you spend anything is the most valuable question you can ask.
Read MoreMost finance and HR professionals either anchor too low too early or dodge the compensation question in a way that creates friction. There is a better approach that keeps you in range without committing to a number before you have enough information to know what the right one is.
Read MoreThe silence after a strong final interview is one of the most mishandled moments in a job search. What you do during those two weeks is a real professional decision, not just a waiting problem.
Read MoreMost small business owners who have been burned by a custom software project say the same thing: they did not know what to ask before the work started. A handful of specific questions asked before anything is signed will tell you more than any portfolio or proposal ever could.
Read MoreWanting the job badly is not the problem. Letting the interviewer see it is. Here is how the best candidates stay grounded when the stakes feel highest.
Read MoreAn operations role at a founder-led company is not the job the title describes. The real interview question is whether you can take over something the owner has never actually handed off.
Read MoreMost professionals either accept an offer quietly or walk away, and both responses leave money on the table more often than a simple counteroffer would. The language you use in your very first response shapes the entire conversation that follows.
Read MoreMost job descriptions are written to eliminate candidates, not describe the job. Knowing the difference changes how you apply and how often you get called back.
Read MoreA short stint on your resume is not automatically a problem, but how you talk about it usually is. The professionals who handle it well do one thing differently than everyone else.
Read MoreThe build-versus-buy question sounds like a strategy problem, but it usually comes down to three concrete conditions. Here is how to run the test without getting lost in the weeds.
Read MoreMost small businesses are quietly paying for three or four software tools that almost do what they need, and nobody has done the math on what that stack costs annually. The build-versus-buy decision comes down to a specific calculation, and the answer is not always what you expect.
Read MoreMost professionals who leave a job too late do not leave because of a crisis. They leave because they waited for one that never came.
Read MorePublic accountants who make the jump to industry often walk away from more leverage than they realize. The transition rewards people who know how to translate their experience, not just those who apply first.
Read MoreMany small companies need a controller who can think strategically, but their interview process only tests technical competence. If the role requires CFO-level judgment, the interview has to surface that directly.
Read MoreMost CEOs and COOs cannot tell a competent accounting answer from a confident one, and standard HR interview guides do not close that gap. Here is how to run a sharp accounting manager interview without knowing debits from credits.
Read MoreMost companies bring on their first HR person to handle paperwork and compliance, then quietly measure them on culture and retention. Nobody said that out loud during the interview.
Read MoreMost advice about working with recruiters assumes you are already trying to leave somewhere. The relationships that actually move careers forward get built long before that.
Read MoreMost small companies add HR support reactively, one role at a time, without a clear sense of what the function should look like at the next stage. Here is a practical framework for thinking through HR team structure as your headcount grows.
Read MoreMost small businesses wait too long to think about finance team structure, and by the time they do, they are already behind. Here is a practical look at how to build the right team for where your company actually is today.
Read MoreManufacturing companies in Minnesota have a distinct set of demands when it comes to accounting and finance talent. Understanding what sets these roles apart can mean the difference between a hire who thrives and one who is gone in eighteen months.
Read MoreMost job descriptions are a list of requirements copied from somewhere else, and the best candidates can tell. Here is how to write one that does the real work of attracting someone worth hiring.
Read MoreMost organizations have a mission statement. Very few have a mission. The difference shows up not in what gets printed on the wall, but in what happens when a decision is hard and there is no clear playbook.
Read MoreMost accounting and finance resumes look the same, and that is exactly the problem. A few targeted changes can move yours from the pile to the phone screen.
Read MoreMost small companies wait too long to bring on HR, and by the time they realize it, they're already putting out fires. Knowing the right moment to make that hire can save a lot of pain down the road.
Read MoreAs a small or mid-sized company starts to scale, one of the most common finance questions leadership faces is whether to hire a Controller or a CFO. Getting this wrong can cost you a year of momentum and a significant amount of money.
Read MoreThe 30% of annual salary figure gets cited often. But that number only captures the direct costs. The real cost of a bad hire runs deeper, through team morale, client relationships, leadership bandwidth, and the opportunity cost of the months you spent managing someone out instead of building.
Read MoreMost candidates know to prepare for behavioral questions. Fewer know how to flip the script and use the interview to evaluate whether a leader's style is actually one they can work with. Here's how to do it well.
Read MoreHiring in a PE-backed environment isn't the same as hiring in a founder-led or publicly traded company. The speed is different, the stakes are different, and the profile of who succeeds is different. Here's what to understand before you start the search.
Read MoreWhen a senior role opens up, one of the first decisions a company faces is whether to look internally or go to the external market. It sounds like a simple question. It's not. Both options have real costs, real benefits, and real risks. Here's how to think about it.
Read MoreMost companies invest heavily in finding the right person and almost nothing in setting them up to succeed. The first 90 days are where great hires either take hold or quietly start looking for their next opportunity.
Read MoreMost job descriptions are written for compliance, not attraction. They list requirements, copy-paste from the last posting, and wonder why the applicant pool is underwhelming. Here's how to write one that actually works.
Read MoreLosing a finalist to a competing offer is one of the most preventable failures in recruiting. It almost always comes down to the same set of process breakdowns, and almost all of them are fixable before the next search starts.
Read MoreThe Director of Operations role is one of the most consequential hires a small or mid-sized business can make, and one of the most commonly mishandled. Here's what separates the companies that get it right from the ones that repeat the same mistakes.
Read MoreThe best candidates for most roles aren't looking. They're employed, performing well, and not checking job boards. Reaching them requires a different approach than posting and waiting, and a different message than the one most recruiters send.
Read MoreMost reference checks are a formality. A few scripted questions, polished answers, and a green light that tells you almost nothing. Here's how to run a reference check that actually surfaces what you need to know before you make an offer.
Read MoreThe HRBP role is one of the most misunderstood in HR. Companies often hire for the title but don't define what they actually need. Here's how to identify the right qualities in an HR Business Partner and how to run a search that finds them.
Read MoreLet's talk about the role and whether we're the right fit.