Cindavi

"We really value you... we just can't promote you." My candidate heard that right before his manager listed off all the great work he'd done this year. He'd crushed every metric: ▶️ Led a redesign that cut part count by 40 percent ▶️ Solved the alignment issue that stumped the senior team ▶️ Ran all validation testing for their biggest customer delivery ▶️ Mentored two junior engineers through full design cycles His manager started: "You've had a great year. Really strong work." "Thanks! So, about that Senior Engineer promotion we discussed..." "We're not quite there yet. We need to see you take more ownership." "More ownership? I literally owned the entire redesign project." "Well, ownership of outcomes, not just tasks." He asked what that meant. Got vague corporate buzzwords. Three months later, the company posted a Senior Mechanical Engineer role... externally. $110k to $125k posted range. He was at $98k. Doing senior work. Getting junior pay. He updated the resume and got an offer that he accepted 3 weeks later. $115k, Senior title, & 1 more week of PTO. The lesson: ▶️ Companies lose great engineers not because they lack talent, but because they fail to recognize it. ▶️ It costs more to hire externally than it does to promote the people already doing the work. Ever been told you're “not ready” while carrying an entire project on your back? 👇

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Cindavi! We’re grateful for our clients, candidates, partners, and everyone who’s been part of our journey this year. Thank you for trusting us to support the engineering and life sciences teams that keep America moving forward. Wishing you and your families a warm, restful, and meaningful Thanksgiving. - The Cindavi Team 🦃🍁

“I used to hire for experience. Now I hire for curiosity.” A hiring manager told me that after we’d just wrapped a search for a senior design engineer. He said his old hiring playbook was simple: 👉 Find someone who’s done the job before. 👉 Make sure they can do it again. 👉 Minimize risk. It worked… until it didn’t. His last “most experienced” hire was great on paper… 🔹 20 years in the industry 🔹 Knew every system inside out …but struggled every time something new came their way. The person he ended up hiring this time? Someone who said “I don’t know, but I can find out” more than any other candidate. Within months, that curiosity changed the team dynamic. 💡 They were documenting better. 💬 Asking sharper questions. ⚡ Finding faster solutions. Experience is valuable – no doubt! But curiosity is what keeps experience from going stale. And in technical teams especially, the real risk isn’t hiring someone who has to learn… it’s hiring someone who thinks they’ve already learned it all. #hiring #engineering #leadership

"What's the salary range for this position?" 💰 The candidate asked this in the first 5 minutes of our call... I hesitated. Most recruiters wait until later in the process. But she pushed: "I don't want to waste anyone's time if we're not aligned." Fair point. "The range is $105k-$115k." "I appreciate your honesty. I'm looking for $130k minimum. This isn't going to work." Call ended. 10 minutes total. The hiring manager was annoyed. "You should have sold her on the opportunity first!" But here's what would have happened if I had: ▶️ Phone screen: 1 hour ▶️ Technical interview: 2 hours ▶️ Panel interview: 3 hours ▶️ Final onsite: 2 hours 8 hours of everyone's time... ... for a deal that was never going to happen. The lesson: ▶️ Transparency isn't rude. ▶️ It's efficient. Do you discuss salary in the first conversation, or wait until later? 👇

He interviewed Tuesday. Got the rejection email Thursday... "We've decided to move forward with other candidates." He replied within an hour: "Thank you for letting me know. Would you mind sharing any feedback on how I could improve for future interview?" Two weeks of silence. He followed up again. ...nothing... A month later, he saw the same company post the same role again. The reality: ▶️ Companies that won't give 2 minutes of feedback don't deserve 2 hours of your interview time. He makes a note: ▶️ Never apply there again. The pattern: ▶️ How a company treats you in rejection tells you exactly how they'd treat you as an employee. Ever asked for interview feedback and been ghosted? 👇 #interviews #feedback #rejection #candidateexperience

The job was posted on January 15th. She applied within 2 hours... She checked the posting every week. ▶️ March 1st - still posted. ▶️ April 15th - still posted. ▶️ June 3rd - still posted. She never got a call. Six months later, the same posting was still up. She'd moved on. Accepted another role. Been there 4 months already. But that "urgently hiring" position? Still "actively recruiting." The lesson: ▶️ If your job posting has been up for 6+ months, candidates aren't the problem... Your process is. What's the longest you've seen a job posting stay active? 👇 #hiring #jobpostings #recruitment #hiringprocess

He interviewed on Monday. He got an offer for $125k on Friday... three weeks later. It was exactly what he asked for. But he turned it down. The company went silent for 21+ days after his final interview. No updates, no timeline, nothing. He assumed they weren't interested. Meanwhile, he kept interviewing and found a company that moved fast, communicated clearly, and extended an offer within 3 days. He accepted at $118k/year. The lesson: ▶️ Silence doesn't create anticipation. ▶️ It creates doubt. Have you ever rejected an offer because the company took too long? 👇 #hiring #communication #offers #timing

"What was your college GPA?" 🎓 A hiring manager asked this to a candidate with 12 years of engineering experience last week. The candidate paused. 😯 "Honestly? 2.8. I worked full-time through school." "We're looking for someone with stronger academic credentials." Hard pass. 💢 That candidate just got 3 offers elsewhere. But sure, keep asking about grades from 2012. The reality: ▶️ After 10+ years of real-world results, what someone scored in Calculus 2 means nothing. If you're still checking transcripts for seasoned professionals... ▶️ You're not screening for talent. ▶️ You're screening for people who were good at school. Those aren't the same thing. Have you been asked about your GPA years into your career? How'd you respond? 👇 #hiring #gpa #experience #realworldresults

We got 1,200 applications for one role. 📧 And rejected every single one. ❌ Here's why: Tons of strong resumes. Zero with the one niche skill we actually needed. So we headhunted for that specific expertise. And we finally found the perfect person for this very specific role. Here's the thing: ▶️ It's not that the other 1,100 candidates weren't great. ▶️ It's just that none of them were the exact fit we needed in this scenario. And I get it - rejection emails for "lack of specific experience" feel brutal. "But I could learn that!" Totally fair. In many cases, we DO bet on transferable skills and potential. But when a project has a 90-day deadline and zero room for error... There's no time for the learning curve. Sometimes you need someone who's solved those specific engineering challenges already. That doesn't mean the other candidates weren't smart, capable, or talented. It just means they weren't right for THIS role, at THIS moment, with THIS timeline. The reality: ▶️ Not every rejection is about your worth. ▶️ Sometimes it's just about timing and specificity. Have you ever been told you're "not specialized enough" for a role? How did you handle it? 👇 #hiring #engineering #specializedskills #rejection

"Can we reschedule? I'm at the ER with my kid." 😰 ...the text came at 1:56pm... ...interview was at 2:00pm. The hiring manager wanted to pass immediately. "Last-minute cancellation? That's disrespectful." But something made me call the candidate. Turns out their 6-year-old fell at school. Possible concussion. They were in the ER waiting room, texting between triage updates. "I'm so sorry. I should have called earlier but everything happened so fast and I panicked." We rescheduled for the next week. They showed up 10 minutes early. Apologized again. Nailed the interview. Been with the company for 2 years now. Perfect attendance record. The lesson I learned: ▶️ First impressions tell you something ▶️ But they don't tell you everything. The candidate who cancels at 1:58pm might be unreliable - or might be dealing with an emergency. My advice - ask before you assume. Have you ever had to cancel an interview at the last minute? Or been on the hiring side of this? How did it turn out? 👇