Principle
Research before outreach
Every candidate is found and read before they are contacted. If there is no real reason to reach out, no message goes out.
About
13+ years of finding engineers the hard way
Michael Halsey is an Austin-based senior technical recruiter and sourcer who pairs manual research and human judgment with tools he builds himself.
Background
Full-cycle, across four fields
I have spent more than 13 years in full-cycle technical recruiting, working across engineering, semiconductor, construction-tech and healthcare hiring. That covers the whole job: understanding the role, finding the people, talking with them, and seeing the hire through.
The roles I am usually asked about are senior and principal-level, the ones that job boards and generalist agencies tend to miss. Those candidates are rarely looking, so finding them takes research and a reason to reach out that is worth their time.
Along the way I started building my own tools for Boolean search and for analytics. They make the search sharper. They do not replace talking to people.
How I work
Human-first, tool-assisted
Principle
Tools support, people decide
Search strings, dashboards and drafting tools make the work faster and more precise. Fit, motivation and timing are human judgments.
Principle
Plain talk on both sides
Hiring teams get an honest read on whether a role is findable. Candidates get a straight account of the role and the company.
Next step
Have a hard role to fill?
Send the role, the team and what has already been tried. I read every message and reply personally.