Will Sims Interview Spotlight

Posted by Jonathan Kidder on February 5, 2020January 29, 2023

I had the opportunity to interview Will Sims a Talent Acquisition Manager from Plural Strategy. He runs a very active group on Facebook called: UnRecruitment (Recruitment Hacks, Productivity, Automation). Overall, I’ve been really impressed by what Will has been sharing on sourcing in recent months and I was excited that he was open to getting interviewed for my blog.

1. Tell us about your work experience in recruiting – how did you get your start, how did you progress, where are you at this point in time?

I started my journey in recruitment just before the economic crash back in 2008. You could say it was a pretty tough start to my career in recruitment. Still in agency, I went looking for ‘other’ ways to find talent. That’s when I stumbled across a small group of recruiters practicing the dark art of internet sourcing. Through my own trial and error (heavily weighted on the errors!) I discovered ways of finding hard to find talent online.

Right now, I’m still in recruitment but I have moved in-house. More specifically, I’m in talent acquisition working as a contractor. I love it! I get to work on short and long-term projects.

2. What are the unique talents you bring to the field?

Technology and automation is my sweet spot – I’m a geek! I have been able to tie recruitment processes together with technology to optimize my own and other recruitment teams productivity. For example, I have developed systems using a combination of technologies to automate recruitment workflows that have saved me on average 12 hours a week.

3. Share your biggest success story in recruiting so far

Back in 2016, I built a Facebook Messenger chatbot called ‘Simbot.’ That was a great experience, not only demonstrating how chat-bots could play a role in the industry but it helped introduce me to people I had admired for years back when I discovered the internet sourcing.

4. What is the best advice you’ve received during your career path, and from whom?

I’ll give you a favorite quote of mine I read once from Emerson…

“All of life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

I love experimenting and looking for other ways to do something. I guess this quote sums that up for me.

5. What’s your favorite recruiting tech tool?

AmazingHiring is pretty cool!

6. As a recruiting professional, how do you handle recruiting to achieve the best results?

I think communication is the key to deliver better people-focused experiences and outcomes. And whilst technology is great, I always try to remember to be human.

7. What do you hope to achieve in 2020?

I would say to share more of what I know and my experiences so that other recruiters can develop themselves and inspire them to experiment too.

8. What’s your favorite Boolean String?

intitle:”about me” “recruitment” contact | call | phone | email | gmail.com

Just swap out “recruitment” for whatever you want.

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Jonathan Kidder

With more than 12 years of recruitment experience, Jonathan has helped startups and small businesses find the talent they need. He runs the blog WizardSourcer, which explores the latest trends in talent sourcing, provides reviews of recruitment tools, and features interviews with prominent figures in the industry.