Fetcher Recruiter Spotlight: Liz Bartscherer, Great Jones

September 30, 2020

Liz Bartscherer, Recruiter

Happy Fall, everyone! As we wrap up September, we’re so excited to feature a best-in-class recruiter who has great insights on maintaining the right perspective, learning from experts, and some top-notch craft beer tips, too.

Please meet Liz Bartscherer, who currently serves as a Recruiter for Great Jones in New York.

1. Liz, what led you to select recruiting as your career?

It wasn’t intentional! I started applying to sales jobs after deciding I didn’t want to pursue a career as a stagehand, and the first call I got was from this recruiting agency. In all honesty, I didn’t even know that recruiting was a thing until I started that first job. I had a pretty rough start - believe it or not my music degree didn’t prepare me very well. But eventually I started to get the hang of things and found myself really enjoying the people-oriented nature of recruiting, so it stuck!

2. We love all the work you did with Pursuit, creating Career Readiness curriculum to teach students how to find, secure, and retain developer positions at top tech companies. What did you learn in working with these students and did this impact your career long-term?

Talking to people and helping them work through problems comes easily to me, but I very quickly discovered how much I had to learn behind the scenes. When I started at Pursuit I had never seen a spreadsheet before. A coworker who had asked for a report on our student placement rates spotted me doing the math on a sheet of paper. She sat down and very patiently gave me a crash course in Google Sheets. That was a crucial moment for me. I developed a deep appreciation for data that would later improve my efficacy as a recruiter in a very tangible way. The time I spent with students was just as impactful. It’s easy for recruiters to become jaded. We talk to so, so many people that at a certain point you start seeing candidates as numbers. Working on the other end, guiding Pursuit students through their interviews, really helped me gain perspective.

3. There have been a lot of changes this year, from the pandemic to a new focus on substantive DE&I initiatives. What has been the biggest challenge for you and how have you been managing?

Things have picked up quite a bit in the last few weeks for me, but the summer was slow. Like many other companies, we slowed down hiring in the spring. I learned recruiting on the agency side where it’s all about hustle, so the slower pace these last few months was a challenge for me. Once I figured out that I still needed to structure my day, even though there was less to do, I got into a good rhythm. It also meant I could take my dog for longer walks during the day which was such a welcome reprieve when everything was still closed.

4. Big question, but for companies that are working to implement new Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, what is your advice? Where should they start?

I am by no means an expert here. But from what I’ve read it seems the top advice from people who are experts is to start with setting tangible goals and treating them like you would any other metric or key result. This Medium article was the most helpful for the team at Great Jones when we started this work.

5. How did you learn about Fetcher? What’s your favorite feature in Fetcher?

Great Jones was using Fetcher when I joined - that’s actually how the company found me! In fact, I only responded because of the follow up emails. I remember thinking, “this is exactly what I would do.” I correctly assumed that meant Great Jones was thinking about recruiting in the right way. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the automated follow ups are my favorite feature :)

6. As a craft beer connoisseur, what are your favorite breweries?

Oh man, there are too many. I live close to KCBC in Bushwick and love supporting my local spot. Other Half is very popular for good reason. Maine Beer Co. makes delightful and very drinkable IPAs and pale ales. But more than any one brewery, my favorite place to drink beer is Brouwerij Lane in Greenpoint. They always have the best draft list and the staff is super knowledgeable, very helpful when you’re indecisive or can’t remember which beer you had and loved the last time you were there.

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Liz, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and experiences with us. We appreciate all of your guidance and thoughts. So happy to have you in the Fetcher Family!

Know a recruiter who we should spotlight? Tell us about them via email at support@fetcher.ai.

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