Ask a Recruiter: Aaron Mullenix

In this interview series, we’ll feature recruiters sharing highlights from their recruiting journeys – from the aspects of the job they love to the trusted tech tools they rely on to guide them through the workweek.

If you ask Aaron Mullenix what his nine to five would be if he weren’t recruiting, you may be surprised at his answer.

Aaron, who launched his recruiting career at Riot Games, is currently embracing the newness of life – both as a first-time dad and as a new recruiter for a leading provider of cloud-based construction applications.

His knack for developing creative strategies to strengthen candidate pipelines coupled with his systems expertise make Aaron a well-rounded Recruiter, highly respected by his peers.

Read on to learn more about Aaron’s adventures in song and dance and his thoughts on the future of recruiting.

What is your current position?

I am a contract Senior Recruiter currently working for Procore Technologies.

Tell us about your path to recruiting starting with your first job.

My first job was as a “Party Host” at Chuck-E-Cheese which was basically just a fancy way of saying “a waiter who is also forced to sing and dance.” Thankfully I was too tall to wear the mouse suit!

After college, I got a job with Enterprise Rent-A-Car which required heavy customer service. A friend suggested I try recruiting since I enjoyed building relationships. I found a job as a recruiting coordinator at Riot Games and continued to work my way up from there.

What aspects of your work fuel you during the day and keep you up at night?

I’m fueled by the unique opportunity that I have to change someone’s life!

At night, I’m strategizing about tomorrow’s tasks – calls that need to be made, offers I’m preparing, or how I can optimize my day.

What is your recruiting superpower?

Systems and organization. I have a huge affinity for clean data. Clean data makes it easy to analyze my work, make improvements, and track my successes.

What personal passion projects are you working on?

Learning to be a better parent. My wife and I have an 18-month old daughter and there’s so much to learn.

Magically, you have been granted an extra hour in your day. How would you spend it?

Taking a long walk with my family. There are tons of hiking and walking trails around where we live, and we love to go exploring.

Tell me about three tech tools that have been game changers for you.

Gem (formerly ZenSourcer)

I started using Gem when I joined Procore earlier this year and it’s completely changed the way that I source and message.

Before Gem, I was using my own system in Google Calendar and Google Sheets to remind myself when to follow up with candidates.

Now with Gem, I have automated follow-up emails and the ability to streamline my LinkedIn messaging. It has been a game changer!

TextExpander

I started using TextExpander a couple of years ago and it totally changed the way that I message both candidates and hiring managers.

It even affects how I fill in feedback for interviews. I save all of my interview templates into TextExpander so that whether I’m in Greenhouse, Word, or Drive, I can always have my interview questions on hand.

ActiveInbox

ActiveInbox overlays Gmail and adds features like sending later, adding notes to emails, and bouncing messages back to the inbox. It helps me keep track of the most important things and ultimately just keeps my inbox really clean.

“Inbox zero” achieved!

What will the future of recruiting look like?

Most likely it will be filled with more artificial intelligence.

LinkedIn Recruiter and tools like it will get smarter, especially with search algorithms.

This will evolve into fully automated systems that will find, message, and interact with candidates for you. I don’t think this will fully replace recruiters, but the recruiter’s role will evolve.

If the bots take over and you are forced to leave recruiting, what will you do?

If I could get paid to play video games, that would be amazing. I’d become a full-time video game streamer.

What are your predictions on the future of recruiting? Share your thoughts with Aaron on LinkedIn .