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Published on August 1st, 2022 | by Charles Myambo

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Being The Leader of Microsoft & Netflix Talent Sourcing Teams, Tiffany Ballve

Talent Sourcing has become such an important prerequisite in every successful industry. A rudimentary but accurate assumption is that the discovery of most mainstream musicians and actors can be credited to talent sourcing. Names like Lil Wayne, Vin Diesel, Taylor Swift, Brad Pitt, Beyonce and Rihanna are just a few of the examples of celebrities who were discovered through talent sourcing. To further appreciate the importance of talent sourcing, we will analyze the life of one of the foremost icons in the industry, TIFFANY BALLVE. She is a highly touted and internationally decorated talent sourcing leader. She has worked in partnership with large conglomerates such as Netflix, Microsoft and LinkedIn to name a few. At present, she is the talent sourcing leader at streaming giant, Netflix. As a Sourcecon Grandmaster finalist and Hackathon semifinalist, Tiffany has also established herself as one of the biggest tech experts worldwide. Additionally, she has a background in anthropology which is the study of human societies, cultures and their development.

Tiffany first fell in love with anthropology during her junior year in high school. Little did she know that her love for anthropology would push her to such great heights. She combined her anthropology background with her inherent technological acumen to establish some of the best talent sourcing teams in the world today. Initially, Tiffany was drawn to the autonomy associated with the industry of talent sourcing. She started out as a government contracted administrator. It was back in 2006, that she decided to delve in the talent sourcing world while at Freddie Mac. At first, just like many others, she did not fully understand the difference between acquisition and sourcing. That said, Tiffany had always loved spreadsheets and loved data analysis which made for a seamless transition into talent sourcing. At Freddie Mac, she was a solitary sourcer which forced her to multitask, rapidly adapt, conduct extensive research and learn on the go. Since this was a relatively uncharted industry in the early 2000s, it was not that easy to research work done by talent sourcing predecessors or peers. As such, some of her projects were far from easy, but she was devoutly passionate, nonetheless. This passion and commitment culminated in the position Tiffany finds herself in today among the world’s best talent sourcing leaders.

Netflix Talent Sourcing Leader – “Tiffany Ballve”[/caption]

Today, Tiffany is a highly relied upon expert who leads a plethora of talent sourcing teams. One of the largest teams Tiffany is currently spearheading is tasked with developing large scale “finals” interview events. These interview events are coordinated by a section of her engineering team. Typically, they preselect about 50 strongly qualified candidates provided by their talent sourcing department to participate in a day’s interviewing process. A pass or fail verdict is swiftly disclosed to the participants within 1 to 2 days of the interview. Once they have identified the desired candidate, they hand it over to the relevant company recruiters who will usually enroll such expertly vetted candidates. This is something she has done countless times for both Microsoft and Netflix. The interview events her teams host are conducted about 20 to 25 times every month. It’s also important to note that Tiffany’s teams typically do the handover to company recruiters at the offer stage which is the penultimate stage. Since her teams do the majority of the work for a recruiter, it is not a surprise that most companies in the world love working with Tiffany and her talent sourcing teams. The diligence exhibited by Tiffany’s talent sourcing teams has resulted in establishing her teams as arguably the best worldwide. Tiffany’s biggest message to all of her subordinates is that “DATA IS KEY”! Talent sourcing tasks can often be fickle and unpredictable. Tiffany usually states that it is important for talent sourcing teams to understand why undesired search results may populate their feed and how to subsequently rectify the matter. Any data typically tends to be good data whether it is desired or undesired. According to Tiffany, the keywords and key identifiers such as location along with common trends and any breadcrumb trails can all be leveraged to enhance the desired targeted search. Tiffany desires to continue to utilize her expertise to equip talent sourcing prospects. It is actually a bucket list item for Tiffany to build up her own internal talent sourcing academy which would offer concise tutelage to junior talent sourcing personnel.

Tiffany is a purist who truly loves analytical work. Her talent sourcing teams are constantly encouraged to search “smarter” not “harder”. Their goal is to achieve the desired result in the least amount of time possible so as to adhere to the recruiter’s time constraints. Due to the sheer size of her brand, Tiffany’s teams often have a lot of inbound applications. These inbound applications come through applicant tracking systems which typically tend to be difficult to assess in a timely fashion. As such, Tiffany apportioned a significant responsibility to the bulk of her talent sourcing team to conduct a process known as scrapping in order to qualify talent that way. Their task is to establish what the right search is within their applicant tracking system. Once this has been executed, it makes it more feasible to perform successful targeted search and selection processes. Her teams predominantly consist of junior to mid-career level talent sourcing personnel. She also has retained the services of a few senior talent sourcing personnel who through their expertise can provide experience and tutelage to the junior staff. Additionally, she has a number of specialists in talent sourcing who are highly skilled in specific branches of talent sourcing. These types of specialist personnel typically comprise the team leaders of her numerous talent sourcing teams. There is a large emphasis on collaborative work and cross referencing within Tiffany’s different sourcing teams. They also have a strong mindset of growth because her teams are often tasked with spearheading a plethora of pilot projects. Tiffany understands that “FAILURE” is prevalent when it comes to most pilot projects. As such, she has a wholesome ethos that encourages her staff to work without the fear of failure. To her, it’s important for her staff to always avoid being timid or apprehensive towards the possibility of failure because true growth cannot occur in the absence of failure.

 


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About the Author

(@BigChaz14 on Twitter) is a columnist and correspondent for industry leader, The Hype Magazine. He is also well known for being a multiple genre #1 Amazon best selling author. In addition to that, Charles is a credentialed journalist as seen in Muck Rack & Press Reader and he is also a highly touted celebrity news correspondent. Moreover, Charles is an international celebrity host and interviewer who has been covered by some of the world's biggest publications. At present, his interviews have been covered by credible journalistic outlets such as Medium, Flipboard, Press Reader, Muck Rack and many others. He is also a columnist for huge African newspapers such as NewsDay, Daily News, iHarare, ZiFM Stereo (radio station), H-Metro, The Financial Gazette as well as several other European and American publications. (@charlesmyambo on Instagram)


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