Mike Bailen – Why Now Is An Exciting Time To Be In Recruitment

 
Is Recruitment Marketing? This is the question I put to Mike Bailen, Director of Recruiting at Eventbrite and former Head of Talent at Zappos who I caught up with at #ERE15 yesterday. He also discussed why this is an exciting time to be in recruitment, and what he hopes to do in Australia this June. I’m no legal expert, but I don’t think he’ll be able to live out his dream without being arrested.
 
You can watch the video or read the transcript below:

 
Kevin: We’re here with Mike Bailen who is the head of Eventbrite here in San Francisco. So Mike, tell us a little about Eventbrite and previous recruitment jobs you’ve had?
Mike: As Kevin mentioned I head up recruiting at Eventbrite and we are trying to to be the first global marketplace for live experiences so it’s a really exciting time to be at the company. I used to work at Zappos. Zappos is based out of Las Vegas and is an online shoe and retail company. Both Eventbrite and Zappos are very culture focused, so we really put our people first and front and center.
 
Kevin: Ok great. So the theme of our conference this year is ‘Recruitment Is Marketing’ and some people agree and some people don’t agree with that. We’d love to get your thoughts on how important marketing is to recruiting and is recruiting marketing.
Mike: I think that they’re synonymous but I really do think that marketing is probably the most critical aspect of recruiting. From what I’ve learnt over the years is that ‘Content is King’ so you really have to produce really really good content, talk about your brand, talk about who you are and be able to spread that to the masses. I think we’re really living in a fortunate time where we have really great social technology and tools, and we can actually give our employees a platform to talk about what it’s like to work at your company, or talk about the really cool projects you’re working on. I think right now is an amazing time to be in recruiting and recruiting really is marketing.
 
Kevin: Great, so just to wrap up this really short interview, I know you’ll be coming to Australia for the first time I think in June. Tell us what you’re looking forward to seeing in Australia?
Mike: Well first of all I’d love to hang out with a kangaroo, I don’t know if that’s possible to walk up and hang out with one? But that would probably be the one thing I’d want to do. I’ve heard really great things about the Harbour Bridge so I think being able to go up there and take in the views of the city. Now if I could actually take a kangaroo with me up on the Harbour Bridge then it would probably be the best moment of my life. So those are the two things I’d wanna do.
 
Kevin: Alright, so thanks so much Mike.
 

Mike Bailen will be presenting a Keynote session at #ATC2015 on ‘Totally Turning Recruitment On It’s Head At Zappos & Eventbrite”. In this session he’ll discuss how both companies have shifted their recruitment models to be more proactive, relationship based and efficient creating a more enjoyable recruitment process for everyone involved.

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