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Melissa Dobbins
- a day ago
- 4 min
Great processes require great feedback
Superstar athletes were not amazing the first time they walked onto the field. A-list actors did not draw tears the first time the took to the stage. And fortune 500 CEOs were not effective leaders in their first leadership jobs. No matter how strong the raw talent and gifted the individual, greatness comes with practice and experience driven by a constant stream of feedback from coaches, teachers, mentors, peers, audiences, and customers. TA processes are no different. A gre

Melissa Dobbins
- Feb 24
- 3 min
Inclusion tips for the first steps of the candidate journey
Candidate experience starts long before the first interview or resume review or the moment the candidate clicks on the big ‘apply now’ button. It begins the first time the candidate becomes aware of your organization and has the thought, ‘could I work there?’. That moment could be triggered by a job description they stumble across on a job board or it could be a news article or networking event or that catchy commercial they still remember from childhood. From that moment, th

Melissa Dobbins
- Feb 17
- 3 min
The Age-old story of ageism
Last night I jumped on Hulu and streamed an episode of the 90's sitcom Golden Girls, seeking a comforting laugh after a long day. The episode started with Rose (Betty White’s character) receiving a letter from her late husband’s company – the company went bankrupt and she lost her husband’s pension. Without that pension, Rose was not making enough money at her current job to pay her bills. She had to find a new job. Rose scoured the classified in the paper, clipping every int

Melissa Dobbins
- Feb 10
- 3 min
Tricks to creating effective job titles
Before candidates decide if they are going to click apply, before they grow excited reading the job description, before their interest is sparked with that fantastic opening paragraph, they first glance at the job title. The job title is what draws candidates in. It’s what makes the job stand out among the crowd as something worth investigating or not. It’s what’s used to determine if the candidate ever sees the job in a search result or receives it in an email or gets an exp

Gabe Gurman
- Feb 9
- 1 min
𝗨𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗔 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵
Listen as Melissa Dobbins, CEO of Career.Place, talks with Sara Dalsfelt, Senior Advisor at Adway AI, about how technology "uplevels" the human aspect in hiring. Excited to listen? Click here. #NoBias #diversityandinclusion #saradalsfelt

Melissa Dobbins
- Feb 3
- 7 min
“I’m Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” revisited: Navigating the dangers of technology
Science fiction has been trying to warn us for years that we are heading down a dangerous path. 2001, a Space Odyssey, The Matrix, I Robot, The Terminator, WALL-E... and the list goes on and on and on. Our culture is full of stories where tech is not always working in our best interest. To be fair, it is not the technology’s fault – humans created the technology, programmed the algorithms (or AI), and set it loose on the world. They just failed to see the consequences of thei

Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 27
- 5 min
Metrics beyond the numbers – the power of change
Does this sound familiar? You spend hours gathering information from various places to report on your key metrics (data, key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboard, or whatever else it’s called). You clean them up, put them in a nice, pretty format, perhaps even do a little investigation to understand why one of the numbers seem off. Or, if you’re lucky, a tool does this all for you, so all you have to do is grab the results. You then turn the metrics in or present them to

Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 20
- 5 min
How to prioritize what really matters when hiring
Prioritization – it’s one of those terms that is often seen as synonymous with ‘compromise’. And when you hear ‘prioritize’ you may think – “no! It’s a waste of time to prioritize as I need it all, so I will hold out until I find it all.” That car, that computer, that perfect vacation package, that candidate… I can have it all – I just have to look harder. And that could work… sometimes. But many times, reality eventually sets in. There is no option for ‘everything’ given bud

Gabe Gurman
- Jan 14
- 1 min
Shop Talk: Defining DEI and Talking Things That Lead To #NoBias with Melissa Dobbins
Listen as Melissa Dobbins, CEO of Career.Place, talks about about diversity, inclusion and life's adventures. A fun and real conversation with the HR Twins, Carla & Camille. Excited to listen? Click here. #NoBias #diversityandinclusion #hrtwins #thecareersalon

Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 13
- 4 min
The trick to achieving New Year resolutions and DEI initiatives
“This year will be different! I will get in better shape, be healthier, more organized, more productive, and I will achieve all my goals. … Pay no attention to the last 10, 20, 30 times I have made these resolutions because this year will be different.” And so, it begins. And, after a few weeks… and so, it ends. Previous habits settle in, and the lofty goals get quickly replaced by the normal (or not so normal) demands of the day. Pretty soon those fantastic goals are shelved

Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 6
- 7 min
How to measure for future potential when hiring
Future potential. How often have you been asked to search for it and prize it in future employees? How often has it made it into mantras and best practices of talent organizations? How often is it seen as some key ingredient to the future dominance of a team, department, or organization? And yet, how often has it crossed the boundary from a lofty construct defined only by a feeling (i.e. “I’ll know it when I see it”) to a detectible, measurable attribute of candidates? Future

Melissa Dobbins
- Dec 9, 2020
- 3 min
Tis the season – gifts, appreciation, and inclusion
For many organizations and managers, this is the season to show appreciation. With the spirit of the holidays, under the distracting buzz of a year coming to a close, holiday planning, general festivities, bonuses, gifts and other friendly gestures choke the real and virtual halls of organizations to celebrate the employees that made the achievements of the year possible. Over many years, I have partaken in this ritual both as a giver and receiver of these appreciations. Some

Melissa Dobbins
- Dec 2, 2020
- 5 min
Inclusion Tips for Candidate Interactions
Every interaction throughout the hiring process is watched, scrutinized, and evaluated. How was the first impression, were the answers to questions correct and compelling, is there a good fit? The thing is – it’s not just you and your hiring team evaluating the candidates, the candidates are also evaluating you and your organization. What are all the interactions between your organization and the candidates saying about the organization? Are they painting an inclusive and wel

Melissa Dobbins
- Nov 11, 2020
- 5 min
Finding the talent gold – The three factors of effective candidate interviews
Competition is all about finding the best – those that earn their place at the top of the podium clasping gold. Great competitions are engaging and effective at evaluating talent and are grounded in fairness so that greatness succeeds. From cooking competitions to competitive scholarships to the Olympics, great competitions have three things in common: 1) Definition of competition “To compete, you must submit an essay between 500 and 1,000 words that addresses one of the foll

Melissa Dobbins
- Nov 4, 2020
- 6 min
The secret to optimizing candidate screening
One of life’s most consistent, persistent, and common lessons is a variation of ‘practice makes perfect.’ From the time we are children getting frustrated over coloring outside the lines, or not understanding the lesson, or stumbling over a new word, we are told “practice.” We must try, learn from the mistakes we make, and then try again – over and over until we get it right. From endless hours of math homework to reading book after book to years of music lessons, we do, lear

Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 28, 2020
- 4 min
Recipe for Proof Pudding – measuring candidate requirements
Minimal ‘must have’ requirements – the gates to the job. These requirements separate true job candidates from the rest of the population. Without them, the organization will not consider evaluating the individual for the job. If meeting the requirements are the key to get past the gates, then it stands to reason that organizations would be really good at defining those gates and verifying their candidates hold those keys – right? Not so much. Many requirements are vague or su

Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 21, 2020
- 4 min
Using panels to remove bias from the hiring process
Career.Place was hiring. We wanted someone who was passionate about our mission of promoting and creating equitable hiring practices. Someone who was able to embrace our values of respect, integrity, and genuinely good intentions, was creative with approach, not afraid of risks, thrived with discovery and change, had an eye toward detail and the discipline to complete tasks, and a small collection of knowledge and abilities. So naturally, we used our own candidate screening p

Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 14, 2020
- 3 min
Tackling D&I initiatives with D&I
Whatever your D&I initiative, the more diversity and inclusion within your initiative, the better you are setting it up for success. Initiatives designed to increase diversity and inclusion benefit greatly from multiple perspectives that diversity will bring. It also brings in the opportunity to lead by example and practice what is preached through inclusive practices. Therefore, before getting very far, look around at your leaders, stakeholders, team members, and other membe

Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 7, 2020
- 2 min
Politics – personalities, theatrics, and a desperate need for anonymous evaluation
The 2020 presidential debate… It has been described in many colorful ways by many people across the political spectrum and beyond. However, ‘insightful’ is not one of them, at least not when it comes to policies, plans, and approaches. Unfortunately, while this gives us quite a lot to talk about during zoom calls, it is not empowering us to make the most informed choices. As voters, we have a responsibility to look behind the strong personalities, colorful language, and enter

Melissa Dobbins
- Sep 30, 2020
- 7 min
Driving DEI support through ROI – how to measure success
Return on Investment, or ROI, is one of the most fundamental calculations behind business decisions. Often times, ROI dictates which initiatives get investment and support, and which end up on the edit room floor. Mastering the ROI calculation is critical for gaining support and funding for your programs. Of course, this begs the question – what is this powerful ROI calculation? Like with so many great questions, the answer is, unfortunately, “it depends”. ROI calculations de
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