Kirk Petyo: Welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast where today's brightest minds in the medical device industry go to get their most useful and actionable insider knowledge direct from some of the world's leading medical device experts and companies.

Etienne Nichols: Innovation thrives when true quality is the focus. Instead of documentation for documentation's sake. Greenlight Guru Quality and clinical gives engineers and clinicians one real time platform. Build faster and prove safety sooner.

Join the leaders at www.greenlight.guru.

hey everyone. Welcome back to the Global Medical Device Podcast. My name is Etienne Nichols. I'm the host for today's episode and, and today I want to talk about finding the right talent and attracting the right talent for your medical device organization.

This is something that not every medical device company really has a strong process for. We're very process driven industry and this is maybe one that not everybody has a good process for.

And so I brought in Kirk Petio from Talent Factory Recruiting. Kurt Petio is redefining Medtech hiring. He's the managing partner at Talent Factory Recruiting. He connects mid to small medical device and life sciences companies with top tier engineering and regulatory talent.

And with 20 plus years in the game, he's not just filling roles, he's building powerhouse teams. And I could attest to what I've seen him do, but we can maybe talk about that later.

But talent factories 88.25% fill ratio at least from what I understand. It seems to crush the industry standard. So they don't just source candidates, they're trying to find the right ones.

From Class 1 to Class 3 devices and medical device biotech diagnostics, they place experts who drive innovation. So if you want to fix your hiring process, hopefully we can talk about that and get the insights.

But I kind of get a little long winded there. How are you doing, Kirk?

Kirk Petyo: I'm good, I'm good. That was a great intro. I'm really excited to spend some time with you, Etienne. And you know, from the first moment that I met you a couple of years ago and doing some networking and some referrals, you know, I knew that our relationship and conversations were going to go past just that one interaction.

And so I'm excited to be able to provide some,

some, some high level knowledge of, of the recruiting industry, how it pertains specifically to medtech, biotech, medical devices, things like that, hopefully there's some, there are some takeaways from regulatory quality executive leaders that you know whether your company is big or small that there could be some, some value adds there.

So I'm just excited to spend some time with you. And thanks for allowing me to be a part of this.

Etienne Nichols: Awesome. Well, I'm, I'm glad you're here. You know, it's funny, when I think about working with talent recruitment and different things, there's, there's lots of different directions we could go. But the thing that I'm most interested in is from a.

And, And I don't want to get you into IP because I know you have lots of different things that you, as. As your process of doing things. You have, like I said, I mentioned that, that fill rate, you.

It's. It's really awesome what you're doing over there. So I'm not trying to get into the secret sauce, but what I do want to hear about is how do you.

And maybe how do you differ the companies who are sort of doing okay versus the companies who are really magnetic brands and they're just attracting talent. I'm curious if you can talk about how you build that magnetic brand as.

As a client and attracting those different roles that they're really trying to fill. Any thoughts?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the secret sauce, you know, the individuals that are interested in the secret sauce can spend some time with me one on one, and, and hopefully we'll be able to get some of that, you know, after a.

After this podcast releases. You know, it's, it's, it's really interesting because I, I talk to clients about this all the time. And, and when you talk about building a magnetic brand, I think it's.

It first and foremost comes down to being able to understand the values of what you're trying to build that brand on. And, you know, what is it that you want your organization to stand out as?

Is it a company that's focused on opportunity? Is it growth? Is it profit sharing? Is it stock? Is it bonus? Is it hybrid? Is it. Are you working on a fun, new, exciting device?

Is it something that's new to the market? Are you big? Are you small?

I can probably go a list of another 10 or 20 more things. But it's, it's really important for you as the organization to define what is it that we want to focus on first and foremost?

And then how do we create a message around that so that people within the market are excited about that? That kind of dovetails into, you know, not going into the secret sauce.

But when we talk to candidates, we really try to understand. We call them value drivers and those value drivers of what that candidate, of what is important to that candidate because their life needs to be better at your organization than somewhere else.

And if you're not able to tell that authentic story, if you're not able to do anything outside of creating job postings and putting up a few things on LinkedIn and they're not part of your story and what's important to you and you don't have that dynamic, inspiring leader that doesn't matter how big the company is.

It could be the manager, the director, the president, the executives, whatever it may be,

all of that comes into play. And I believe it all comes down to that candidate experience,

comes down to doing all of these little things that all make up for a big dynamic brand that you're trying to create.

And those are the, all those little things they add up and I think really create and separate good versus average companies in the market.

Etienne Nichols: One of the things I'm curious too about because we're kind of focusing on medtech or medical device industry when we talk about this, but it really is a little bit broader than that even and our audience is medical device focused.

So when I say it's broader, what I'm talking about is what about pulling in people from outside the industry? What about pulling in people who are fantastic software developers who know nothing about software as a medical device, or fantastic mechanical engineers who've never done a design, controls or risk management matrix?

You know, I, and I'm just gonna go real quick into this. When I came to the industry, I was blown away by the amount of documentation that's required. And a lot of people are, are there's a little shell shot going on.

And so I want to educate the industry and outside the industry, hey, this is what it takes and you can make it easy. But what is it something, what is something that we could do as a medical device industry to attract those a players who instead of going to Tesla or instead of going to,

you know, trying to go to Mars and all these other different things, they want to actually solve the things hurting the people we love the most. What are your thoughts?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, well, it's interesting. I think that's an interesting topic because, you know, I, I supported defense and aerospace and medical device for the majority of my 20 years in the industry and kind of lump that into regulated, you know, some sort of environment.

And regulated can mean, can be different for all different types of people from automotive, even some consumer and industrial products. You've got DOD and aerospace, you've got medical products, you've got pharma.

This is quote unquote regulated in some aspects, SOPs, processes, systems in place. And so your question about how do we bring a players to the team is you look at capability versus competencies.

The competency is what the person is going to come to your organization on day one. That is their knowledge, their history, their experience, their education,

so on and so forth. Their capability is what they can learn, where they can grow,

their impact on the organization and how they're going to bring more than just their education and experience. And so I say that because I've been in many situations. One in particular was there was a big defense company here in Chicago that needed to hire 40 + C object oriented developers within a Linux based system.

That's not very easy to do. And they wanted to do that in six months.

And we did it and it was a very successful engagement. We placed just under 200 people with them in under 10 years.

But the way that we did it is we took out the competency aspect and made it and looked at, okay, what are the true must haves for this candidate to be successful.

And you have to have some sort, when you get into quality, I'm sorry, when you get into medical device, you have to have some sort of process driven behind your design.

You can't be all in ad hoc and expected to meet, you know, VA certifications and processes and things like that. And so you have to understand that process is part of the design,

part of the development.

If you want great candidates, you don't just look at based of what their competency is and what they have. It's based on where they can go and what they can do in the future.

Etienne Nichols: That's really interesting because I don't think I've ever made that exact delineation between capability and competence. And I like that the way you, you describe that almost capability being the, the ceiling that you're able to bust through or you know, how, how high can you go in different directions.

That's really neat.

I'm curious then if we go maybe kind of go a step further into this when those companies are looking at those different candidates. I mean you talk 200 over 10 years, that's, that's a lot.

How do you know that, that this person in front of me is a good worker? Maybe shifting the gears a little bit to the company itself when they're hiring those people.

How do I know this is a good worker and not just a good interviewer?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, well, I think that, you know, interviewing is a challenge for a lot of companies.

I can, I can attest there's times, you know, over my career in 20 years where I've done A good and a bad job of that. And, you know, I think you're, you're lying to yourself if you say that you're not always constantly improving as an organization when it comes to interviewing and bringing in talent.

Talent is one of your biggest expenses, and it's going to continue to be that. And trying to find and attract the right talent for your organization is always going to be a challenge.

And so, you know, when I think about, you know, bringing in the right people,

first and foremost, I think there's got to be a structure to it. And yeah, I think your audience is mostly regulatory and quality folks, you know, being a QMS system.

So maybe they would like that, you know, having a structured process.

But, you know, you have to have something that's a benchmark that you can constantly revert back to and say, okay, you know, looking at apples and oranges, looking into an AB comparison, how does this, how does this match?

And are we, are we looking at things in the, in the same bucket? You know, the, the other thing that I look at and think about is, you know, when you start to dig into individuals rules and can they articulate specifically what they did and how they did, and you can call it the BS meter,

you can call it whatever you want, but, you know, when you start to talk to somebody and say, tell me about the system that you were a part of, what did you guys make?

What was your responsibility?

You know, what, what, what challenges did you face on that? How did you overcome that challenge? Who did you go to for that? What was the biggest success? How, how were you instrumental in the success of them?

If you had a chance to go back five years ago when you were doing that, what would you do differently? If you had the chance to be in your, in your own ear, man.

And so I think as you're going, as you're going through that, you can see how well,

or I guess not well, for lack of better terms,

that they are being able to articulate that if it's not just right off the cusp and they can, you can feel that emotion and that passion, that energy coming from them, then you know that maybe they weren't involved in all of that and they were particularly responsible for all of those aspects.

And so when I, when I think about,

when I think about a candidate talking through that, if you can get into the weeds with that, you can really uncover their little thing. And then I, I think the last piece, and I love this question,

is when I talk to an individual about their superpowers and I I gotta give a shout out to, to Katie McDonald. She's a friend and a mentor that I've, I've, I've been knowing over the last couple years with a client of mine and she asked this question and it's interesting enough because when I get the reference for clients,

I asked the same question.

And most people, when they look at that, they say, okay, a superpower. What is a superpower? A superpower is not a strength.

Superpower is something that, you know, is an intangible aspect of you as a person that without a doubt it's on the tip of your tongue. You can talk about it, you're excited about it.

And companies is going to be in a better position now that you're a part of their company.

And you are bringing this one thing to the organization.

Now if you're a good salesperson within, you know, or a good interviewer per se, you can then flip that and say, okay, great, well, what's something you're working on? And then now you can uncover what you're going to get into and whether or not you're ready to fight off where that individual's maybe challenges or pitfalls or some of the things that they're working on.

Because there's nothing worse than a surprise after getting hired into a company. Yeah.

Etienne Nichols: And then maybe I like that too. I like the kind of one, two, punch in that they ask you what your superpower is if you get that question and they say, well, you know, what are the projects you're working?

I can apply. Let me show you how my superpower would apply to that particular situation. I can see that being a valuable conversation as well. Two way street, you know, both, both people, it's.

Sometimes I think we forget that both people should be interviewing the candidate, should be interviewing the company as well. And we, sometimes we forget that. I'm curious what you think.

How much damage can one bad hire do in medtech to a company?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, well, I've, I've seen it in a wide range of things, you know, and it doesn't just have to be MedTech. I think it could be, it could be any organization.

You know, if you're a really, really big company, we'll say a Fortune 100 company, you can, you can fall between the cracks and you can, you know, kind of blend in and, and be cancer and really not be as it may not, you may not come out as, as fast and,

and be a disaster. However, if you are a mid to small sized company, sometimes those companies, every hire is critical and Every hire is crucial. And I believe that when you hire the wrong individual and you don't look at the intangible traits that they're bringing to the company, it can be,

it can be disastrous.

And I think it comes from. I talked a little bit about this a couple weeks ago on a podcast that I was on and I talked about how when small startup companies hire their first critical leaders that are going to be the face and the individual that is driving the strategy within the organization,

everything is a trickle dot effect from that person. And so even though you might think that one person may, may not change the dynamic of a whole organization,

it can bleed quickly and can be a catastrophe.

Etienne Nichols: Yeah, I remember a, an article I read, I think it was the Kellogg Institute that or a Kellogg Insight that talked about how sitting next to a high performer within 25 foot radius can increase your productivity by 15% and alternatively sitting next to a really poor performer can actually drag you down even worse than,

than the 15%. I don't know where they got the numbers. You know, I'll maybe I'll try to reference that and, and put it in the show notes if someone wants it to look further into that.

But I am a believer in what is that phrase you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I no attribution that I have at the moment but I think it matters.

Alternatively maybe if I flip the question on its head what's the cost of leaving key roles unfilled for too long? And obviously it's going to depend on each role but I can see that maybe having a deleterious effect as well.

What are your thoughts?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, you know it's, it's, you know, that's my job as a salesperson is be able to uncover what those, what those impacts could be. And you know some companies are very open and honest about it and say hey if we don't get this fill, here's what this going to do.

We're trying to commercialize, we're trying to develop a new product, we're trying to bring a new prototype to the market and,

and it's easy to quantify those numbers. If we don't make this shipment, we're out X However, I think a lot of companies really keep that close to the chest and it's, it's my job to try to do my tactics to, to try to uncover that so that I can provide the best value because hiring is hard,

hiring is critical and I have seen a lot of times where companies will have a tendency to look at a hire as a transaction versus looking at a hire as a critical moment within that business to produce X or produce Y.

And then they come late to the game,

they're three months, six months behind. And then they make bad decisions. They have a quota that they have to hit or they lose that budget. And again, a lot of different situations to where if you, if you stay ahead of it and you know that the, the, the what that risk is going to be,

you can, you, you can quantify it and say, okay, it's worth the time to do this now. Get it done.

Etienne Nichols: That makes sense. If I were to ask about maybe some outdated practices, I mean medtech and the medical device industry, when I look at it, there are aspects of it that are very antiquated.

And one of the things we're at Greenlight guru. Our goal is to try to improve those quality management system practices, clinical evaluation practices. And I'll just share a real quick story because it is related to that.

Attracting talent, keeping talent. I was pulled into a sales process. At one point the sales guy asked me, he's like, hey Etienne, I want you to talk to the CEO of this medical device company.

They have a QMS and he's real proud of it. I want to see if you can see if there's, he's looking for cheeks in the army armor. So I go into this sales call, the whole engineering team's on the call.

He, the CEO's proudly showing me what he's built. And I'm looking at him like, you build this in access? He said, yes. So we talked about it. I'm like, you have built something amazing, my friend.

You might be able, you have all this automation and all the engineering. I see their face behind him. I said, but is your team actually adopting this? It looks like it might be too difficult to use.

And they're all like. And we almost had a heart to heart moment at that. And so I just use an example. Are there any things that are outdated or things that you.

We talked at the beginning of attracting talent from outside MedTech. Are there any things that detract talent from MedTech in your mind?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah. Wow, that's, that's a really, that's a really good question. I imagine you crushed it on that meeting, by the way.

Etienne Nichols: It was fun.

Kirk Petyo: But, but yeah, yeah, you know, it's, it's interesting.

Coincidentally enough, I had an interview yesterday with a gentleman and we talked about the medtech industry and his, his non interest of going into it. And a couple things revolved around it.

And this isn't just him, but it's, it's kind of top of mind because we just, I just had the conversation, number one is the process and the documentation. And that process dictates design versus design dictates process.

You know, it's something that I think that I've really come to adopt in being part of medical and in defense. Now,

some people don't like that. You know, they like to be able to say, I want to make this work and I want to take this widget. Widget. And make it a widget and I'm going to come up with a prototype and I'm going to launch it and I'll prove works later on.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to prove the process as I'm going through.

That's one thing, I think another thing that I've seen is that. And it's not as prevalent, but you know what medical device is. I mean, you're there to help improve people's lives.

But there are also a risk factor of you designing something that could be a detriment to them or could hurt them, or you could be part of an organization. As a lot of stuff was going around with COVID and different vaccines and things like that.

And do you believe in that? And are you,

are you,

are you on board with the good and the bad that comes with that stuff? And I think politics plays into that. I think news plays into that, which could create a negative connotation.

But you know, the people that are looking at these, these big companies, they're not the ones that are designing, you know, these, these pharmaceutical products or this medication or, or whatever it may be.

A lot of them part of the process and manufacturing and, and lactogene and things like that. And at the end of the day, it's there to make somebody's life better.

But you know, there is a piece to where there is a negative thing that will come with that. With all good comes some bad.

Etienne Nichols: Yeah, yeah.

And I do think you, you can't get to a point where you're trying to attract all people. You have to be good at something and you're going to attract that certain type of person that will be attracted to that.

But what I really liked that you said was about the, the negative, the potential for harm. You can't get away from that. And it's kind of like when I've looked at some happiness studies recently and, and I'll try to tie this back, but happiness versus unhappiness we usually look at it,

it's like, I'm either happy or I'm unhappy. Reality. In our brains, we have a happiness lever and you have unhappiness levers. Working out will decrease your unhappiness. Spending time with your family may increase your happiness.

Those are two different, separate things. And you kind of take the sum of each. When I think about a company, you have things that attract your talent and you have things that detract and you have to be honest and understand those.

And I think that's kind of. You said that very well. If we don't, if we talk about a company's first hire or a manager's first hire or the a hire, that maybe, maybe it's not their first hire, but they.

This is a critical hire. What do you see as really important in this process?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah,

well, going back to that, I 100% agree with you, with what you were talking about to those different levers, and that, that comes down to the values. Like what are you trying to show as a value as an organization that I can highlight and focus on that is.

Is going to attract the talent to my company? And that kind of goes back to that. One of those first questions that you asked me. So when I think about, you know, a first hire, say it's a new manager.

They're. They're running a new role, maybe they got promoted to a quality manager, director, regulatory, whatever it may be.

I think it's first and foremost you need to be clear on the expectations of what you're trying to look for. It is so, so important to break those two down because expectations of responsibilities and requirements are two separate things.

A lot of companies try to put qualifications or, you know, job resp, you know, job expectations,

but that doesn't always define what the person's responsible for versus what they're expected. And so you as the manager, number one, need to be able to understand what that is.

Number two is you have to be on board that that is what you want in the company.

And that I think if you go into number three, you have the right people that are part of that process, that are also on board that that is what you want and that is what the company wants.

So many times you'll see companies pull all of these people in from different areas that don't have anything to do with the leadership, the guidance, the development of that individual,

however they want to say in who they're going to hire and what the person that they're going to bring in. And I think that's I think that could be really detrimental.

Really, really detrimental. And when I think about like me, if I'm going to hire a new, a new person or if I'm going to hire my first person,

I'm going to want to know what those personality traits are and do they align with my personality traits. Will I be able to know that I'm going to go through some challenges, I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to need to have a mentor that is going to be alongside of me to help let me make those mistakes,

help pick me up and help me develop this person while also teaching me and helping me get better in this job. And so I, I've seen so many times to where companies will bring someone in, they'll interview them and the manager doesn't really know what they're looking for.

They say, well, we're looking for this, but that's not really defined. Two is the person's never really interviewed. They don't know how to interview, they don't know what to look for and they don't have anybody kind of coaching them through it.

Anytime you're a new manager, you have to have somebody that's going to be your backbone that you can say, what am I asking? That's right. What am I asking? That's wrong.

Because you're going to be the one that's responsible at the end of the day for the success or failure of that individual.

Etienne Nichols: Yeah, yeah, I think that's well said. And when we look at the micro and look at all those specific tactics that they need to have, I think that's really smart what you're saying about how you need to be honest if you know what you're actually after or is that really what you want?

And, and sometimes when I look at my own self, I, you, you need an outside perspective telling you so having that sounding board, that mentor is really helpful.

Any other things that you recommend about that process or specifics? Because I want to switch to macro here in a minute but when I'm looking at like the, the one on one or that real nitty gritty process, Any other things you recommend or, or.

Kirk Petyo: Just thoughts you have in regards to.

Etienne Nichols: Interviewing, in regards to the process of well, interviewing and you know, maybe we'll take it one extension further. If someone were to use a talent recruitment firm,

communicating with them is, is, is I would imagine just as critical as communicating with the actual interviewee then when the time comes, but relaying that information, any thoughts or maybe any missteps that you see people Commonly make.

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, that's a. That's a. I think there's a lot of challenges that companies. Yeah, that's it. That's a really, really big question.

And I'll make sure to not ramble on this one, because I could probably talk about that for the next morning straight. Then you're like, kurt, you know, this. We're done.

I got to cut this. You know,

I think that I'll break it into a couple things. I think, number one is companies really struggle with talent, just as it is, you know, hiring talent, bringing people in.

And the. A lot of it comes down with the engagement. What is the engagement? What do they. What are they trying to. To do? And. And what is the process of how does this candidate feel?

I could probably talk more about that. You know, if we continue to talk through that. Number two is, you know, you think about as a. As a recruiter, like, my job is to make your job easier.

And in. To do that, we have to have constant communication. We have to have understanding of really what you're looking for. We need to be able to understand the ins and outs of your team, the culture, subculture, what you're trying to drive and think about.

All of this stuff. These are all of, again, the little things that all stack up. And if you look at recruiting or hiring as a transaction, you'll get a transactional result.

But if you look at hiring or recruiting or onboarding, which I think are extremely critical as key drivers to making a successful business,

you flourish.

And even if you don't have the right people on board all the time,

you have a tendency to err on the positive side to where you're winning way more than you're losing. And you can see that in attritions and reports.

And, you know, you've got all these different platforms now that you can say, here's why I left the company, here's why I left, here's why I would never work there.

There is a damage once that is done that is really hard to overcome. So without probably talking for like 25 minutes just about that topic that's kind of like in a nutshell, when I think.

When I'm thinking, yeah, a couple of.

Etienne Nichols: The things that I picked up when. When you were talking was you. The transactional kind of latched onto that a little bit. If you are hiring someone just to do X, Y, Z, these are the.

Just I want you to go perform these tasks, but you forget about how they are either building onto your culture or taking away from your culture. And of Course, some companies don't even know what culture they have or what they're after, but you definitely feel it when you don't.

You have what you don't want. You recognize that. So I think that really is important to think about. You're not just bringing in someone to perform a task, but you're bringing someone in to be a team member.

And my thoughts on team and business have evolved over the years, and I'm on board now. But that's really good. I like that. I want to zoom out and I want to ask.

ioned Covid. So going back to: 2020

, especially as it relates to: 2025

you know, we need to be paying attention to this or when, when it comes to hiring, companies are going to struggle because of this. This one thing is, is there anything that kind of stands out, anything that companies would really benefit to, to be aware of right now?

irst part, you know, like the: 2025

is that there's a sustainability to it. You know, there's the fda, there's the eu. There's always process and engagements and improvements that need to be had.

People are getting older, people are going to continue to get elderly and need, you know, different parts of health care. And that constantly has to evolve in order to, to make our lives better, especially as our population continues to age.

But with some of the administration, with some of the things that happen. There is, there is. Plus, you know, there's a lot of companies that are in this, oh, wait, what am, what am I?

Maybe let's just kind of hunt this for the first quarter, which makes sense in some aspects. However,

they then have to understand the repercussions of that over the next nine months and then Making up for that lost time. And then what happens is kind of being overwhelmed and then coming to companies like myself and saying I need someone yesterday.

It's like, okay, that's fantastic but do you know what now that means and are you all in to do that? So I think that's number one. You know, when you talk about like what stands out in hiring within the medtech as things continue to evolve is, you know, I,

I think companies need to remember whether they're large or small, what the purpose is and continue to showcase the values of what separates them in the market versus their competitors.

They can't do it all. You can't have everything. You can't have bonus salary, opportunity, growth stock, remote hybrid.

Again, list can go on and on. You have to make sacrifices, but you have to stick to those sacrifices and understand that you're trying to attract certain type of individual and you have to be excited about that, you have to be confident about that and you have to know at the end of the day that you're going to bring the right people to the company.

Part of it has to be patience,

but part of it has to be that you know what you stand for and that these are the reasons why I talk about this all the time.

Why is the candidate or the person that's joining your company, why is their life now better than where the company that they were previously at and you as an organization from a Fortune 100 company to a three person startup, need to understand and know what that value is and what separates you from all of the other companies that are out there.

That's my thoughts.

Etienne Nichols: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's strong. You know, you talk about the immediate, that that could be the immediate current events that could be handling causing people problems, but by not just taking on and, and pursuing your goals, I mean you're, you're really, you're going to pay the piper later.

I think that's a good point. I mean the market goes up and down and those who stay in it are the winners. So MedTech needs to just keep on moving.

And so I appreciate that piece of advice.

Any last piece of advice that you have that you'd give every med tech hiring if you could just get them all in one room and say, all right guys, I'm going to sit you down.

Is there any, just one piece of advice if you could sum it all up into one piece that you give every MedTech hiring manager today?

Kirk Petyo: One piece of advice that I would give every MedTech hiring manager. Wow, that's a really That's a really good question.

Etienne Nichols: Take as much time as I can. Cut it out.

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, it's usually like 10 things. You know, it's not usually one.

You know, if. When I think about this industry and I think about hiring, I think about recruiting, I think about retracting talent,

I think about,

you know, getting the right people on the bus to, you know, get you to where you want to go.

And I, first and foremost, I love what I do. I'm very passionate about what I do. I think maybe that's why you and I have connected so well is I think you see and you feel that passion partnering with a recruiter who doesn't want to reach you as a transaction and really wants to build a rapport,

understand your company, understand your culture, understand the inner workings of what good looks like, understand what a great hire means and what a means to you or what A plus means to you and truly go into a partnership is one of the best situations that I've seen for a lot of my clients.

Now you've got internal recruitment that can fill a large, robust amount of lose, which is fantastic. I'm not looking to compete with those. But when you think about those strategic niche, critical roles don't wait so many times.

I'm on a call tomorrow with a client, and this role has been open for eight months. It's an embedded firmware, electrical plants to medical device, combination product, and they're struggling to fill it.

And it's getting to a point to where eight months have gone by. What opportunity costs, what. What risks are you now at for not hiring that individual? And then now we're going to.

Potentially not we, but you as an organization start to make sacrifices when, if you get it early in the game,

those sacrifices don't need to be. Need to be had. So I guess my, my, My piece of advice is maybe a little bit of plugs for me. You know, it's like hire a recruiter who knows what they're doing.

It may not always be me. There's a lot of great recruiters that are out there. But partnering somebody who truly is vested in the benefit of your organization and doesn't just want to treat you as a transaction, but wants to get to know the inner workings of what good looks like so that they can believe in you,

they can believe in your company,

and at the end of the day, they feel great about making a successful placement into a. Into a great organization.

That's my thoughts.

Etienne Nichols: I like it. You know, we at Greenlight grew. Our goal is to make Jobs easy to the point where you can focus not on building a QMS like that guy. I recommend that kind of the story I mentioned.

And engineers can focus on engineering or you can focus on building a medical device. And I think it's the same for you. If, if, if the goal for a medical device company is to build a great medical device company, don't just focus on these other tasks where people with specialization and the niche context like you have could make that so much easier and so much more seamless.

So that makes sense. And I guess the second thing I would say to the audience is if you're an embedded Firmware with Class 2 professional experience, reach out to Kirk right now.

All right.

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, this pretty quick. It's exciting time. This is good times right now.

Etienne Nichols: Where can people go to find you and learn more about you and your process and the things that you're doing?

Kirk Petyo: Yeah, well, I think there's. There's a couple of ways, you know, one is LinkedIn. You'll see a picture of myself and my family. I've got two kids and a wonderful wife, Chrissy.

That, that is kind of a picture. I think that kind of illustrates who I am as a person. I, a family man and, and, uh, love spending time with my kids.

So get a chance to own my own business so that I can do that kind of stuff, like coach and teach and, and do that kind of stuff. You can find me on LinkedIn.

They could find. They can email me@kirkfrecruiting.com then we have two different websites as part of our organization. We have a talent factory recruiting website, which is part of our growth in and maintenance, types of roles that we support.

And then we have a different division, which is the division that I support, which is talent factory medical.com, which focuses all on biotech, medical device, medtech, pharma, that kind of stuff.

Etienne Nichols: All right, awesome. Well, we'll try to include all those links in the show notes so that people can find you as well and learn more about what you're, what you're doing.

Thank you so much, Kirk, for coming on the podcast. Really appreciate all the insights you shared and hope you're able to find those software developers and everyone else who you're working with.

Really appreciate it and the things that you're doing for the industry to try to make those connections. Those who've been listening, thank you so much. We hope this episode has been valuable to you.

If you enjoyed it. Send us a link. Send us a send. Not send us a link, send us a message. Send Kirk a message. Let him know what you think on LinkedIn.

Send me a message. I'd love to hear from you all, but until then, we will see you all next time. Everybody take care.

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until next time, keep innovating and improving the quality of life.