“You are who you are and that’s why we love you. That’s why we hired you. So don’t try to be someone else because we wanted you.” – Omer Molad

Today we’re talking with Omer Molad, the founder and CEO of the recruiting software startup, Vervoe, on how to bring a more human element into the hiring process.

Omer shares an incredibly personal story about how he learned to earn the trust of his team members’ while he was a platoon commander in the Israeli army in his early 20s.

That story alone is enough of a reason to listen to this episode, but Omer also talks about how he overcame the challenges & prejudices that he faced as an outsider to the tech industry in Melbourne, Australia while looking for work, and how that led him to develop a new way to hire that eventually became the heart of Vervoe.

What I loved about speaking with Omer was his complete openness and transparency, his willingness to admit that even as the CEO, he doesn’t have all the answers but is 100% willing to make the effort and find his way.

He’s definitely an inspirational figure, and I hope you get as much value out of listening to him share his stories as I did.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• [00:01:27] What brought Omer to Melbourne, Australia
• [00:02:47] The differences between working in Israel and working in Australia
• [00:04:07] What the experience of trying to find a job in Melbourne was like
• [00:07:13] How Omer landed his first job in Melbourne
• [00:08:21] Omer’s time in the Israeli military
• [00:10:54] What made Omer realize he needed to build trust with his team when he was a platoon commander
• [00:17:41] How Omer’s experiences with the military apply to where he is now
• [00:20:23] How psychological safety and trust can help teams perform better
• [00:24:03] How Vervoe is different from more traditional companies
• [00:27:14] How compartmentalization can take energy away from work
• [00:28:50] How leaders should balance being vulnerable with being a positive and motivating force for the team
• [00:31:35] How Omer’s past experience combined with taking a human-first approach play out at Vervoe
• [00:35:19] Omer’s experiences with hiring people who might otherwise have been screened out
• [00:42:35] What the first stage of Vervoe’s hiring process looks like
• [00:47:05] What happens in the second stage of Vervoe’s hiring process
• [00:49:05] What Vervoe applicants do after completing stage two
• [00:53:44] A resource that Omer recommends
• [00:55:31] What Omer has learned from talking with introverted employees