intive people: David Lindsay, Recruitment Team Lead – Ireland and UK

How did recruiting work change in recent years?

Any little change in the economy can greatly impact how Recruitment looks on a day-to-day basis.

In general, there has been an uptick in how savvy most people are, which is thankfully killing off some of the more aggressively sales-y recruitment tactics that should’ve been consigned to the dustbin of history a long time ago.

The Pandemic also accelerated the adaptation of mass remote working (which given the sometimes-conservative nature of the Irish working environment, was resisted for quite some time). As remote working was a major goal of mine, I’m proud to be part of a company that embraces the differing working needs of each individual and can facilitate that.

What's on your personal "bucket list"?

I’d say finishing the backlog of games on my Steam account… but I’m trying to stick to potentially achievable ones.

When our daughter is a little older, I’d still love to visit some more of South-East Asia, though I’d need to work on my fitness before doing a jungle trek in Cambodia or Vietnam.

How do you define a great candidate experience?

Be honest and transparent throughout the process, move things along as quickly as possible and provide prompt feedback. That will get you 90% of the way there anyway! I’ve always tried to treat people as I’d like to be treated myself and tried to hold my hands up and apologize if I make a mistake.

How should candidates make a great impression on interviews? What are the 'no-goes'?

I’m always impressed by someone who has come prepared, both with regards to talking about their own work, and with questions that will help them decide if we’re the best match for them. I also really value honesty during an interview – answering a question with, “well I don’t have experience with that but____” and logically working through the problem almost always creates a better impression than trying to bluff through.

I don’t think there are many things absolute enough to paint as outright “No Goes”, though obvious things like rudeness, seeming totally disinterested or outright badmouthing previous employers would certainly set off a few red flags.

Name 3 things that you like the most about being a Recruitment Specialist at intive.

The people have been my favourite thing about intive since Day One.

I love the growth and development opportunities I’ve had in my time with the company too.

Finally, with the variation in projects that we work on as a company, I really enjoy getting a little slice of insight into what so many different Engineering teams are doing on a day-to-day basis.