Venture capitalists are far more collaborative among each other than one may think, and today, we learn how this willingness to share ideas enticed today’s guest to join his current company. Joe Burridge is the Head of Talent at Play Ventures – a venture capitalist firm that loves helping ambitious and passionate entrepreneurs to fulfill their dreams – and he begins our conversation by walking us through his latest career developments since his last appearance on Talk Talent To Me in 2019. After musing on the importance of talent professionals upskilling themselves by listening to podcasts like this one, we discuss the merit of going full-freelance in today’s economic climate, when and how Joe knew that he and his employer were on the same page, the importance of having vast talent pools and making the right hires, and the pros and cons of joining a startup as a talent professional. To end, Joe explains what we could be doing more of to embrace and encourage collaborative work environments.

Key Points From This Episode:

• How Joe Burridge's career has developed since his last appearance on this podcast in 2019.

• Whether he regarded his contracted work as a temporary or permanent solution post-layoff.

• His experience of working in-house and leading a team versus doing more consultative work.

• A brief interlude on the value of listening to podcasts like this one as talent professionals.

• When and how Joe knew that his concerns aligned with his employer's needs.

• A case study from his career, highlighting the importance of talent and making the right hires.

• The pros and cons of joining a startup.

• Joe's recruiting approach, and the trends he sees in current candidate pools.

• What we can learn from the (surprisingly) collaborative nature of venture capitalists.

Quotes:

“In North America, for the most part, if you get laid off it's a fairly immediate thing. Thankfully, in the UK, layoffs take weeks, sometimes months. So, you've got quite a bit of breathing room to figure out what you're going to do next.” — @JoeFindsTalent [0:07:04]

“If you spend your free time listening to a recruiting podcast, I think you're probably a pretty good recruiter. It signals to me that you really care about getting better at your job.” — @robstertweets [0:13:55]

“Yes, there's an abundance of talent available, but you need to be more honed into hiring for culture than ever before when you've got such a variety to choose from.” — @JoeFindsTalent [0:24:32]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Joe Burridge

Joe Burridge on LinkedIn

Play Ventures

Episode: Senior Recruiter, EA Joe Burridge

Alison Kaizer on LinkedIn

Kelly Kinnard on LinkedIn

Rob Stevenson on X

Talk Talent to Me