Meet Sarah Muoio

Interview transcript

From accounting to talent acquisition

00:06
I've had a long and interesting career. I started right out of college in accounting and quickly learned that I wanted to spend more time with people than numbers, and so moved into a recruiting role.

00:22
I was working for professional services firms, and I got exposed to the operations side of professional services: talent management, talent acquisition, engagement management, working with clients.

00:37
I had been with the same company for about 16 years. So when I was approached by Genioo with the idea of building the talent acquisition function in the US, the light bulb went off. That was about two years ago, when I joined Genioo.

Finding work-life balance

01:00
Without a doubt, it's work-life balance. I was always very driven in my career. And then you throw children into the mix and you're suddenly torn between how can I be the best mom and how can I be the best professional working woman?

01:17
This was back in a time where, in professional services, working part-time was not really the norm. I went to leadership and said I really wanted to come back on a part-time basis, and it was new to them. They created an opportunity for me to come back, but it was at a greatly reduced hourly rate. And I was torn. I wanted to be that really super accomplished working woman, but I also wanted to be a good mom.

01:49
There's a couple of comments that really stuck with me during that period. I would meet people at the playground, and these would be full-time moms. They would ask me, you know, was I working? And I'd say, yes, I feel like I've got the great mix. I'm working part-time and I'm at home part-time. And they said, wow, that must be awful. You must constantly feel like you're never doing a good job in either role. And I got similar feedback from the moms who worked full-time.

02:17
So it was a challenge finding that balance between work and home life. I ultimately found an employer that recognized that, by allowing me that flexibility, the productivity that I gave them was super high, because I was so thankful that I had that flexibility.

Diversity and inclusion in recruiting

02:49
I am very involved in impacting D&I. Of course, I'm going to hire the most qualified person for a role, but I want to make sure that we are getting a super diverse pool of applicants.

03:03
One of the areas I want to focus on this year is really building employer branding that showcases the diverse pool of people we have that work here today. Making it attractive, making people want to come, having them want to bring their own stories and their own experiences. We're really looking for people with different perspectives. If we hire the same people that have had the same life experiences, it naturally creates a blind spot.

03:35
So we review every CV and resume. Personally, I definitely see the benefit of AI from a pure volume standpoint of reviewing resumes and CVs, but I think what you miss is the holistic picture. By looking at a resume or CV in its entirety, you can see a person's journey. Diverse backgrounds, maybe an unorthodox career path. Maybe it's someone who took a gap in their career.

04:04
You can see that perhaps this person is going to bring something that is different, that is not as cookie-cutter as the way that we have defined the role, or won't be the exact same profile as the five other people that we have sitting in the role today.

04:22
I think it's really important that we are talking to people that have come from different career paths, different journeys, because with that, they bring different experiences and new ideas. And that's critical to helping us increase the way we think and the way that we solve problems. Bringing those diverse opinions really helps us to grow.

Advice for women in recruiting

04:53
I'd love to share this advice with other women looking to move into the senior recruiting space. Get out of your comfort zone. Don't stay in a job that you don't love for too long.

05:05
And I think most importantly is to apply for the job. Statistics show that women will only apply to jobs when they meet a hundred percent of the criteria that's listed, while men will apply when they have about 60% of the criteria. So don't be afraid. Apply for the job, ask for the promotion, ask for more responsibilities so that you can continue to grow. There's nothing wrong with getting a no or a not now, but if you don't ask, you're just going to stay put in the same role where you are.