We sat down with Christine Berg, an Executive Search Partner on the Bolster team, to discuss how she thinks about search. Christine has over 10 years of experience in high-tech recruiting, along with extensive startup experience, including 2 successful exits.
With a knack for connecting with candidates and taking an invested interest in understanding her partners' business needs, she brings a down-to-earth and human approach to recruiting. She specializes in Revenue & Sales and GTM leadership roles.
Bolster: Why is traditional search broken?
Christine: Traditional search has inherent flaws. My experiences as a hiring manager, early-stage hire, and recruiter have taught me that the current models don’t work for everyone, and they haven’t for decades. Whether that be retained or contingent, being paid a fee that rewards the recruiter more money if the client hires someone with a higher salary skews an industry towards inequity, salary inflation, and misalignment of goals. This is not a win/win situation—an inflated salary earns the recruiter more money, but doesn’t necessarily mean that the executive being hired is the best fit for the organization.
Additionally, I’ve found that this tends to limit the qualified talent pool to executives who are in the “circle of trust.” Because of this, there is little to no creativity in searching for untapped talent. Uncovering up-and-coming talent becomes too risky for recruiters who would rather get paid for known candidates.
B: How do you think about finding the perfect candidates for a position?
C: I typically go beyond the job description and enjoy learning about the nuances of my client’s needs while getting to know the organization as a whole. I look for the right candidates who can bring something new to a company, make a positive impact on culture, and significantly contribute to their growth. The description of a “perfect” candidate is usually just that—a description and not an actual person. What someone’s experience on paper looks like could lead hiring managers to think that candidate is “perfect.” That’s why going beyond and marrying skills with organizational context for where the company needs to go is paramount.
B: Complete this sentence - “Reach out to me if…”
C: ...you are a Founder/CEO looking to scale your business, and would like guidance about how to do that. Learning where your business has gaps and then filling those with the right people at the right time is where I can help. I’m also a big advocate for working with the VC community on consulting or hiring gaps within their portfolio. VCs don’t need to do the heavy lifting and can leverage us as their partner.
Bolster combines the power of experienced recruiters (like Christine) with our unique, AI-driven platform to surface the best candidates and deliver a superior executive search experience. We’d love to support your search. Book a time to chat with Christine or another member of our team.
