The Phoenix Files (for IT Employers)
Practical guides to help hiring managers and teams navigate real-world hiring challenges with clarity and confidence.
Explore the Phoenix Files
Effective Soft Skill Interview Questions
Technical skills can always be taught, but soft skills often make the difference when it comes to long-term success. Here are our proven interview questions that uncover how candidates communicate, solve problems, collaborate, and take ownership, helping you assess fit beyond the resume.
Glassdoor Doesn’t Have to Be a Horror Story
Negative reviews don’t have to hurt your hiring efforts. Learn how transparency, honesty, and proactive storytelling can turn a rough employer reputation into a recruiting advantage.
How to Sell Your Company to Candidates
Interviews are a two-way street. This guide shows you how to clearly communicate your mission, culture, growth opportunities, and impact so candidates understand not just the role, but why they would thrive in your organization.
How to Craft a Compelling Job Description
A job description should do more than list tasks. Learn how to write clear, credible, and compelling descriptions that attract the right candidates faster by focusing on impact, outcomes, and what truly matters in the role.
Leading Your Team to Conduct Effective Interviews
Great interviews feel like conversations, not interrogations. This file helps hiring managers structure interviews that build trust, surface deeper insights, and create consistent evaluations without relying on gut instinct alone.
How to Speed Up the Interview Process
Top candidates won’t wait until you “get around” to calling them back. This guide walks through practical ways to streamline hiring decisions so you don’t lose talent to competitors.
How to Work with HR (and Actually Get What You Need)
Struggling to secure headcount or external support? Learn how to align with HR and Finance by framing requests around business impact, cost of delay, and clear role definitions.
How to Work with Recruiters & Agencies
Recruiters work best when you treat them as partners, not vendors. This guide outlines how to set expectations, provide effective feedback, and collaborate productively to avoid wasting each other’s time.
Overcoming the Skills Gap
Hiring for evolving skill sets requires a more adaptable approach than traditional staffing methods. This file shows how to balance must-have skills with trainable ones, assess adaptability, and build teams that can grow alongside changing technologies.
Spotting and Avoiding Fake Candidates
Candidate fraud is on the rise. Learn how to identify red flags across resumes, interviews, LinkedIn profiles, and references, as well as best practices to protect your hiring process and your team.
What to Do When You Can’t Find the Perfect Hire
If you’re stuck waiting for a unicorn, your business is paying the price. This guide shows how to move forward strategically by hiring for impact and potential, plus using tools like contract-to-hire to keep progress moving without lowering standards.
IT Hiring Red Flags
Spotting warning signs early can save you months of frustration and costly mis-hires. This file outlines common resume, interview, and online red flags and how to verify concerns professionally and legally before making a decision.
Salary Negotiation: From Transaction to Collaboration
Salary conversations don’t have to feel adversarial. Learn how to reframe negotiation as a collaborative discussion that builds trust, improves retention, and considers the full value exchange (not just base pay).