The Vault Unlocked - Why It's So Hard to Get a Job Right Now (What Recruiters Actually Want)

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

In this episode of The Vault Unlocked, Kayvon Kay sits down with Jess Garcia, recruiter and staffing manager in the biotech space, to uncover the truth about hiring in today's market. Jess shares her journey from selling cell phones to becoming one of the top recruiters in San Diego. She breaks down how the economy, post-COVID trends, and shifting workplace culture are reshaping recruiting and why businesses must work harder than ever to attract and retain talent. Kayvon digs deeper, pressing Jess on how companies can stand out, why A-players are more complicated to hire than ever, and how AI is changing (but not replacing) recruitment. If you're hiring, leading a team, or just curious about how recruiting really works, this episode will give you the inside scoop. You'll discover: Why staffing is one of the toughest sales jobs How candidate behavior has shifted since COVID Why interview processes often drive candidates away How culture and reputation shape recruiting success Why A-players are staying put, and how to win them The role AI plays in the future of hiring

You're listening to the Vault unlocked where the real secrets of success are revealed. Every episode, one founder, one confession, one strategy that created income, scale, and unstoppable growth. The code is cracked. The vault is open. Today we have our guest, Jess Garcia, from what I can tell, the recruiters of all recruiters. How are we doing, Jess? I'm doing great, Kvon.

How are you? I'm doing fantastic. So grateful for you to be here. Tell us just for my audience, people listening right now, tell us a little bit like who you are, what you do, how you do it, a little bit about the product, the service that you're offering. Yeah. Yeah, well, grateful to be here. Thanks for having me. I am a San Diego-based staffing and staffing manager, recruiter.

I work with clients, mostly in the biotech space, a little bit broader scope occasionally, but we do recruitment for temporary, to hire and direct hire staffing services, really focused on really taking the process away from the client, making sure that we can do all the communication, all the management, the pre-closing, the closing offer, sell them on the company, give them all of the bells and whistles of why they should join their organization and really kind of take the stress out of the hiring process for managers. So I hear that. So recruiting, I think you said biotech.

So specifically in the biotech. tech world. Is that correct? Yeah. What got you in that? Let's hear a little bit more about you. Like what was your background? How did you land in this position? How long you've been doing it? Yeah. Yeah. I started obviously as a complete rookie. I was working at a cell phone store as a manager and I had a customer come in and kind of introduced me to the industry. I had never heard of the industry before. And I spent a year at that company. It was a global company. learned a lot, but really realized that it wasn't the place for me. So I found this space. Didn't know it was biotech at the time because we have a couple sister companies that correlate.

And at the time, business in biotech was really booming. We had a lot. That was a big portion of our clientele. And so I just, I learned. I studied, I educated myself, and I learned a lot from clients. I'd like to think I wasn't afraid to ask questions and tell people, you know, if I didn't know something, I, you know, allowed for the education process to happen and really just kind of stuck with me. So I've been here for seven years. And I absolutely love it. And it's just that's how we all fall into things. I love it. Yeah. No, let's take a step back because I think that's interesting. So you're working. So my fellow, saleswoman here. I love it. So you're

selling, you're slinging cell phones, right? We all got to start somewhere. I was slinging, I was slinging all those shoes, so I got it. So you're slinging, I'm selling shoes, you're selling cell phones, and someone comes in and you said, you said this industry, right? And I was like, I know what the industry is, but just for my

viewers like, I want to go back and what do you mean by this industry? What industry would you say you're in? Staffing. Not a lot of people know that staffing exists. Yeah, staffing and recruiting industry. Yeah. So that, and again, is that, when we talk about staffing all levels, are we talking C-suite, executives, are we talking all the way from, you know, $50,000 employee kind of level seats?

Yeah. Our organization has kind of pockets of people who specialize in different things. I would, I focus on the temp and temp to hire side of the business. So more so anything from entry level all the way up to usually like a supervisor level, where you start to see people, the market actually demanding direct hire. And if someone was thinking about getting into this, let's just say someone's like, I never even heard of this industry. Like, tell me the good, the bad, the ugly of the entire industry.

Yeah, and it is not for the week. Like all sales, I mean, it really has ups and downs, but it's very economy driven. And so I would say you just have to be really malleable to what's going on. and understand kind of the bigger picture, not really fall into like, oh, the economy sucks, mindset. There's business out there. You just really have to find it. And you have to find which when the economy is down in one area, it means it's up in another. And so really just being insightful to what those areas are and what businesses that you need to be targeting.

That's receiving the funding, government, all that kind of stuff, investments. and what's driving people to spend money and focus your business development on those areas. I would say that can be the downside. The upside is it's super, super rewarding. I mean, you get to talk to all kinds of people from all walks of life. You really get to work with clients. You get to work with candidates. What I find is most people who are doing what we do, they usually find a niche in one side or the other.

They prefer to work with the recruiting side. They prefer to work with the client side. I prefer to work with the client side. Love working with my candidates, but they're not my customer. They're not the one that signs the check. Yeah, I was going to ask you that, who do you work for? So you work more for the client. So you try to go after big clients who are always looking for, you know, for placements

and then try to create a relationship with them. When you're working with these clients, do they have other recruiting agents they work with? Or do they go solely with you once they are kind of, engaged. Yeah, it's a little mix of both. I think that once we start to, once they start to see the value in what they actually need, it tends to dwindle down because working with multiple recruiters can be a bit of a mess. You know, you have candidate crossover, things get lost. People forget to, you know, follow up. And then when you're the one constantly like managing the process, they start to really realize like, oh, I don't deal with this with this other agency. So a lot of times

it starts where they're multiple. We'll also see high volume companies tend to work with multiple agencies just because the speed in which they need to hire people. And it's company by company basis. And how is the hiring process change, just the overall market, people wanting jobs, people getting jobs, staying in jobs? Like, how's that changed, you know, in the last five years? Yeah, it changes, like I said, economically.

driven. And so since COVID, we've really seen a drop-off in the amount of people who are actually leaving their jobs to, especially right now in this year, we've seen a lot of people be more hesitant to leave their jobs and to take another opportunity, especially where they have found security. They've found a place where they feel like they're stable because of the uncertainty in the market. They're not sure they're going to get laid off. I thought, I heard two things there. is they're leaving their job and then they're staying at their job if I heard that right. So

did I hear that right? Maybe I said it wrong. They are looking for they're looking for stability and where they have found it. They're hesitant to leave. Okay, so people are, okay, so from your side,

from a recruiting side, it's more challenging to recruit talent because people who have current job and current stability because of the unknown and the market, they're more, hey, I'm happy here for now. So it sounds like businesses are going to have to work harder to recruit these players. Right.

What are some of the things of business, you know, a typical small business can do to recruit the right talent, to ensure they're getting the right talent? Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is it starts from the interview process. I think something that a lot of people miss when they're in the interview process is treating the candidate like they're already somebody that they want or a respectable person that they're engaging with, right? There's a lot of lack of follow-up. There's a lot of delays, a lot of, I'll send you an email when I have an update, right?

But sometimes a no-up date, update lets that person know, like, hey, they follow up. Like, they like, people want to know that they like, you like them, you know? If they're considering a job with you, they're interviewing you just as much as you're interviewing them. And I think that's a missed point a lot of times. That's interesting. They're out for team lunch, you know, before they get hired. Come meet the team.

Yeah, that's interesting. Hey, come meet. So come play a little bit and see the culture we're in before you. And I thought it was very interesting when you said, hey, treat them like they're already an employee, not like they're in that interview process. I know for me, I left one of the reason I left corporate was that. What was that right there? Like the way they just, I hate HR.

Like I don't else say I hate everything about HR. I hate the people first on my list that I call. I hate the way they ask the stupid questions like to get the answer. Like just ask the goddamn answer like question that you want. Like tell me a time when this and that it drives me nuts. I like I went through two, three corporate jobs and I was like that's it. Like I feel like I was getting interviewed to go back to school again. So I get that.

And I think the I think you're right. The world's changing here and people are being a little bit more cautious. But are you finding that there's maybe a younger generation to that are like not wanting jobs? Like there seems it seems like people are quitting jobs. They're just like it's like we're on, I don't even know what you want to call it. Some people are like vacation mode or something. I don't even know how they're existing, but it's, it's wild to me. Especially in San Diego.

Yeah. So how many about that? Like why, what are you seeing there? How is that affecting, you know, what you're doing, even the economy and whatnot? Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. I think that people realize that there's a lot of opportunities out there. There's a lot of ways to make money and generate income. I mean, social media being a big one, it's not that hard to figure out.

If you've got some personality, you can generate some income. You know, another thing is people are, they're supporting their families and things by these means. They pay really, really well. You know, so the other side of that, though, is that's an isolated environment. You know, there's some people really need culture and community and need to go into an office and want to go into an office. Absolutely. So I think it's just, this is the challenge of recruiting, right? It's like having the right conversations with people to identify, like, where they are at and are they a good fit?

and not wasting your time on the people that really aren't serious, but people don't have time to do my full-time job. They have their own full-time job to do. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you stand out? Like if you're with a client and, you know, because I told you earlier kind of like I'm quasi in the recruiting world, right?

People come to me, but specifically for salespeople. And I've done the, and I've made a run for like the recruits. and I personally did not like it. Myself and maybe you can relate. I'll just say why, because I think it's important, was the too many variables, too many factors that I couldn't control

and they all land on me. Meaning, especially in sales, like commission only job, right? Is the clients expecting me to find them some A level closer, right? Or we call it closure, but salesperson. And then I go do all that work.

find them the A player. The A player goes in and the client can't fulfill. So the client can't get the leads. They can't, they don't have the CRM. They don't actually have the offer they said they had. The culture is actually more of a mess than they said it was. So then they leave.

And then who gets the blame? Who takes the responsibility, right? And then the other side was the same thing was you work really hard with a client. You go out and you get closers that promise you the world, as you know. And then they just screw up or they, you just maybe missed the ball. Like even in my sales process, I was saying earlier, we had a 97.8% efficacy. Meaning if someone got through my process, we had a 97.8% chance that they would be highly successful. And even then we got it wrong.

Obviously, 97%, right? But I just was like, to me, I didn't like that. It just didn't sit well with me. I was like, there's so much variables out of my control. How do you deal with that? interested. Yeah, I think it comes down to transparency and setting expectation and constantly giving feedback and expecting feedback from your client, you know, letting them know, like, hey, we're partners here. Like, I'm not your enemy. I'm not trying to snake a deal, right? Like, it's about like,

you're hiring me. You're paying me money to do what you don't want to do. And the deliverable is being able to, being able to give you that information by the information. information you're able to provide me, right? If you don't help me understand your business and your challenges, I can't vet for those things and I can't give you transparent feedback about the market based on your expectations. Yeah, yeah, I hear that. I hear that. So how are you different? Like, so what is it that, you know, I want to work with Jess Garcia, you know, why, why am I coming to Jess versus, you know, someone else in the, in the same industry, serve in the same market? Yeah. First of all, I think that people work with people.

And so really just being able to identify the connection point, really helping them see that like I do truly care. That's something that is unique to me. Like I really care about the fact that like you, every, I look at every client, like they have a family. They probably have a dog to walk at the end of the night. Like they've got other things that are consuming their space and their time. And I want them to understand that I don't care. sounds harsh. I don't care about all the details, right? Like, I don't need to know your whole life story, but I know about my client's kids and, you know, some of the things that they are also

faced with. I think that makes a huge difference when you're not just another vendor. It builds a lot of trust from the from the get. But from a service perspective, I really focus in on dialing in, what are your absolute must have? What are the things that you just can't live without? Like, Jess, I need to hire somebody who can come in, hit the ground running on these four things. I don't have time to train them. And if you send me people that don't have that experience, you're wasting my time. That's what I want to know. Yeah.

One of the first things I focus on. Yeah. And what, I know we talked a little bit earlier before we got on here. We were talking about you had a 40 or 24 hour, 48 hour promise. Yeah, yeah. So I deliver either candidates or market feedback within 24 to 48 hours. And that basically tells you, hey, this is, sometimes when clients come to me, I'm not familiar with that market yet. Maybe I haven't done a search in that market yet.

Everything changes very rapidly. We're working, our product is our people, right? So that's unpredictable. If I'm not familiar in that space, I'll let them know, hey, if what we've talked about today doesn't align with what the market is demanding. I'm going to let you know within a 48-hour period, especially so we're not sitting on these things, right? Also understanding the client's timeline, is that too quick for them?

Is that not fast enough? And making adjustments based on their priorities. And so, again, really understanding the market, understand the client and finding, like, I mean, the right people. I mean, that's the art of, I guess, what we call us recruiting. Yeah. Where do you see the recruiting going in the future? Like, where do you see this?

And maybe the industry or the way we recruit AI, all of that. Like, how do you see that changing? Yeah, big topic of conversation right now. Obviously, AI is hitting a lot of markets. I think we have a lot of high expectations for AI, but I'm a firm believer in you cannot replace that human element. There are things that you're going to run into and really be challenged with if you rely on AI too heavily, especially when you're looking to build and grow an organization,

your expectations are not going to be met every single time. You know, you can put a prompt into AI as it stands today for something simple. And you still have, oh, that doesn't sound like me. I wouldn't say that. You still have to make tweaks and adjustments. Yeah. Yeah. So, but how do you see it? Do you see it helping with recruiting? Do you see it being able to be leverage kind of how you recruit? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it's a super valuable tool. Even for my process, you know, I, I've helped clients generate and fix job descriptions.

I've helped them evaluate, you know, expectations versus on stats in the market. I think we need to utilize it as a tool, not as the end-all be-all. and, you know, it just in terms of just putting it into a place where you're saying, oh, I'm not going to need a recruiter because AI can do the work. I think in any industry, you're going to fail every time. Yeah, yeah. Well, I hear what you're saying. I don't think AI is going to replace everything.

I think they say AI is going to replace humans. I disagree. I think AI, humans who use AI are going to replace humans who don't. Eric Hoffer has this great. I love this quote. I always butcher it, but I love it. And he says, the learners will inherit the earth,

while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. And we are like literally. I was getting trouble for using the word literally, but we are literally in that right now. There is a divide happening where people like, that understand AI, I understand the power of AI and are adopting it, utilizing, leveraging it to the max.

And then there's the ones that are fighting it. And it's very interesting to see the difference. I was at home with my niece 20 years old. And I was telling her, I'm like, tell me you using AI and her face lit up red. No, why would you? That's plagiarism. And I just said to myself, that's what they're teaching in school. that's how they keep them down in school that's how they keep them control it's wild to me and i was

like and i try to explain to her you're going to be on two sides of the war like two sides of this coin i'm telling you you would rather be on the ai side of the coin so i agree with you i think i think i think i mean today gpts launch in gpt5 it's huge announcement crazy what's what's next uh and uh i do believe it's going to affect everything we do but i believe if you know how to to utilize it and leverage it, you'll be a okay. So for anybody listening, you know, give me a business owners listening and they're saying this is all great, but like I, in my hiring process and or I'm looking for two or three candidates, what are like the two or three things I should be looking at just watching out for so I know

that I'm hiring the best, you know, the best person for me. Yeah, I think really being clear about your expectations and what. you really need out of somebody. What are the things that are really going to drive your business forward? What are the gaps that you need to fill? And what are the things that really don't matter? I mean, I think we all look for the perfect fit, the perfect person. We call it the purple squirrel. Like, not, there's going to be maybe one person out there that's got what you want. And you're going to have to pay a hell of a price to get them. You're going to have to have to have all the bells and whistles because it's a competitive market out there.

So I think that's probably one of the number one things that I face when I talk to clients is just really getting an understanding of what the expectation is and not making them feel like they're crazy for having that expectation. I mean, that's a completely normal thing. But I think when they're more in tune with some of the challenges, which is where I bring the value and educating them and kind of bringing the stats, we do. a weekly market analysis on all different types of topics within our industry, letting clients know what's going on with their competitors, letting them know statistics of, you know, the rate

at which people are quitting is, you know, 50% less than what they were at in the last five years. Now I got it. It took me, now I hear you're saying, so people are quitting, quitting 50% less than they were. I thought you were saying at first they were quick like 50% more. It's actually less. They're staying because they're, it makes sense because they were scared. So if people are like,

so again, the reality is the good players have jobs. I just want to say that. And the A players, they have jobs. They're not always looking. And then the fact is that those A players, 50% of them are stained,

like the rate of which they're leaving is dropped by 50% 50%. That's right. That means it's harder than ever to acquire an A player. It means you need to do more things. You need to have the knowledge. You need to have the unique mechanism. And most importantly, you need to have the right talent working for you every single day trying to find that right player. And that's what you do, I assume.

Yeah. Yeah. So where can people find you? They can find me at Jessica. Ramirez Garcia on LinkedIn. And I am also, the company that I work for is Simply Biotech. So we can Google Simply Biotech, give us a call, ask for me. And do you have any last words for anybody that's listening about recruiting, hiring,

training, culture? I mean, this is a people business. People hire people, people, people work with people. We're not in a stuffy corporate environment anymore. And that's not what people are looking for. And I would encourage teams, hiring managers, business owners to look at what is out there about their company, educate themselves on what public information is being posted on Yelp, on Glass Store, on Google, being aware of how their company is perceived, especially when they're trying to sell somebody on something. and if it's not favorable, take the action to fix it.

You know, find out what's driving that with your current staff. Have transparent conversations. Be honest with your people and make changes actively and show your people that you care about that kind of stuff. So what I'm hearing is reputation management is everything. We're in a more of a scarce market of people leave, not leaving their jobs. And for businesses of all types,

biotech and other, to acquire new employees or, you know, whatever my executives, you're going to have to work harder, smarter, and be more favorable and have a culture that they want to be part of.

Yeah, definitely. And be, if you're on the job market, be somebody that wants to contribute to that. So up in a way that is going to add value to the company and the direction that if you owned a business, you would want your company to go.

I love that. That is, wow, I'm going to leave it at this because I think this is the most important lesson of all. If you're looking for a job, in that process of that job, you are not thinking about how can I get paid and how can I make money. You need to be thinking about how can I make the business money and what value can I bring. And when you come from that perspective, things change immediately. 100%. It gives you more opportunity if you're contributing to growing a company, management opportunities are going to open, doors are going to open, it's going to generate revenue. You're going to be able to ask for merit increases, raises, make change in the company that you're a part of.

There you have it. And that was another episode of the Vault Unlocked, where Proven Builders, real strategies, and Unstoppable Growth happens. Subscribe now. The next Unlock could be your success. The code is cracked. The vault is open.