Reader,
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​You struggle to vet technical requirements and position yourself to manage the decision maker well enough to move the deal forward.

I’m not asking you. I’m telling you.

I’m a boots on the ground full desk rep. I’ve had to think creatively to make matches work.

I’ve also worked with hundreds of sales and recruiting leaders and sat in on their client conversations.

When capable operators stall on true opportunities, it usually comes down to one thing:

The amount of revenue lost to this gap is staggering.

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If you do not come from an engineering background, you need a workaround.

I know this because I got tired of wasting my time and losing money, so I built one.

Example:

I was brought in to meet a new Director of Engineering at LPL Financial with three senior FTE roles tied to an enterprise migration.

Two months in, no hires.

HR and two agencies are on it.
Dozens of interviews.
​No traction.

The projects were critical and this was deemed a true need.

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Now I come on the field to bat and this manager ultimately takes 4 interviews with me and nixes everyone with general feedback of “not senior enough”.

My response? I asked to sit in on the fifth interview.

After reviewing the 5th interview the problem became clear:

This manager had been technical earlier in his career, but now operated as a resource leader.

Solution:

I pulled in an engineer from my network who had worked at LPL.
I had my engineering friend meet this manager, repeat the req qual and together the three of us rebuilt the process.

The engineer rewrote my technical intake, created a screening rubric, and handled the technical screen.
I owned sourcing, packaging, and client coordination for pre-sales.

I made a point to build relationships with the director’s two technical leads (his right hands), which gave me additional signal and internal advocacy. This engineer spent over 10 hours with me and it was all free.

Result:

• Seven engineers interviewed.
• Two hires made through me.
• The third role was reallocated internally when they shifted an architect onto the team.

Why this matters:

This manager spent months burning time across HR, agencies, and candidates just trying to fill his senior role.

The fix was not more volume. It was understanding the decision maker’s thought process on hiring and technical blind spots so I could design the right process that compensated for it.

With AI driven req volume increasing, this gap is widening. If you want deals to close, you will need to upskill or engineer a workaround.

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-Jaclyn

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