{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Talent Bar","title":"The Long Game with Dana Neiger","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2750,"description":"\nDana Neiger spent eight years running her own recruiting firm focused on transportation engineering before stepping into talent acquisition leadership at Barge Design Solutions, a 70-year-old, employee-owned AEC firm with plans to grow from 700 to 1,000 employees in under two years. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about why relationship-based recruiting is non-negotiable in a talent pool small enough that everyone knows everyone, how she built new metrics like the recruiter maintenance ratio to tell the TA value story to leadership, and why AI has made tailoring a resume, not outsourcing it, more important than ever. Dana also shares how she coaches new recruiters through what she calls a three-year relationship-building runway, and why being willing to say no to a hiring manager, with real reasons behind it, is one of the most valuable things a recruiter can do.\n\nTakeaways:\nRelationships you build today aren't for today. In niche, tight-knit industries especially, the person you meet now may become the hire, the referral, or the open door two or three years from now. Treat every relationship like it's for the future, not just the immediate need.\nBuilding trust with hiring managers means being willing to say no. Dana coaches her team to decline candidates when there's a real risk, backed by facts instead of emotion. That confidence is what turns a recruiter into a strategic advisor hiring managers keep coming back to.\nNew industries take time to master, so plan for it. Dana tells recruiters entering AEC to expect roughly three years before they can tap their own network instead of starting from scratch. Setting that expectation upfront keeps people from getting discouraged early.\nSeparate your metrics to find the real story. When Dana split time to fill into average and median, she found a handful of highly technical, senior roles were skewing the numbers while most positions were actually performing at or better than benchmark. Look past the headline...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/F2yVdKrkCUZrR-ybGSBeUdjaba8Kts3CZlzRLXc46Qw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8wYTY3/NjAwYTNiNzNjMzdj/ZDdmNTZiYThiZGI5/ZjFkOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}