Fonzi AI

This morning’s AI & OJ breakfast made it clear that, across very different companies, teams are running into the same hiring patterns. Here are some of the tactics discussed to keep searches moving: A lot of the discussion centered on alignment. Teams are seeing better outcomes when they create clear hiring rubrics, use structured scorecards and consistent ATS feedback, test case studies with their internal engineering team to make sure the level is right, and train interviewers so everyone is evaluating the same signals. Teams also shared how useful it is to show leadership the full funnel. That includes how many candidates enter, how many are qualified, where drop-offs happen, and what candidates are saying. And when interviewed candidates consistently fall short of the criteria, it is a sign the requirements need to be revisited. Big thanks to everyone who joined: Czar Yarcia (Drivemode) Isabella Cardoso Madruga (Pump.co) Joyce Yu, PHR, SHRM-CP (Hanwha AI Center) My Luu (LifeSpark Labs) Steven Parker ⇄(Critical Control) Subhashini Rajagopal (Turing) Join the conversation at our upcoming sessions: NY · December 9th https://lnkd.in/eNGAmY2d SF · January 7th https://lnkd.in/eP6fpm92

Finding elite engineering talent is a challenge. It gets easier when you’re plugged into a group facing the same hurdles. That’s why we’re hosting AI & OJ: The HR & TA Leaders Breakfast in New York, a small, invite-only gathering where People and Talent leaders trade real tactics, compare notes, and skip the fluff. 🗓 December 9th 📍 New York City 👉 RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/eNGAmY2d

Join me at our next AI & OJ breakfast in NYC on December 9th!! I’m genuinely excited to be back with my NY Talent community for this one ❤️. These breakfasts have added so much value and always renew my recruiting energy — they’ve been a great place to step out of the day-to-day and talk honestly with other TA leaders about what’s actually working (and not) for us. One of my favorite conversations last month was about how teams are navigating the growing wave of AI-generated sourcing spam. We shared strategies for cutting through the noise — from more intentional personalization to involving the right people at the right moments — all with the goal of creating real signal early instead of more inbox clutter. Hearing how different teams are approaching the same challenge was incredibly energizing. If you want to join these kinds of conversations, join me on December 9th in NYC. Would love to see you there! ☕ RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gxHgxmSC

Our next SF TA and HR Leaders Breakfast is December 3rd, below is the scoop on how last week's went! RSVP to join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/eWnDFvGs Curiosity was a major through line at last week’s SF AI and OJ Breakfast. Our discussion focused on how curious engineers stay on top of new developments in AI, test fresh tools against their current prompts, and notice subtle differences in how models behave. Engineers who understand older systems as well as modern ones, who know when an LLM is not the right approach for a traditional data question, and who think about the business impact behind a technical choice. The hiring leaders in the room highlighted how curiosity in junior engineers is the main signal they look for, since early career candidates will not have years of hands on experience. They talked about using that curiosity as a lever in long term team planning, building junior pipelines that let early talent take on structured, repeatable work so senior engineers can stay focused on strategy and higher impact problems. #AI #HR #SF

This week’s SF AI & OJ Breakfast pulled together a sharp group of TA and People leaders comparing notes on what actually works when hiring for AI roles. A theme that came up again and again was curiosity. The engineers who rise to the top have a real hunger for new AI tools. They’re constantly testing fresh releases against their current model prompts, stress-testing assumptions, and figuring out how to get more leverage from what already exists. And they pair all of that with real business judgment, not just what to build, but why. Our next SF session is on December 3rd. Join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/gHH95USQ

We had another strong SF AI Engineers Tech Talk this week, and we’re already gearing up for the next one on December 3rd, which will double as our holiday party. Real engineering talks followed by a relaxed holiday hang with pizza and cocktails to wrap up the year! This week’s speakers brought serious range: Joye Shonubi Software Engineer at Fable Security walked through how AI is reshaping human-risk in security and how his team builds real-time phishing generation systems that stay ahead of emerging threats that make humans better at spotting issues. Amy Wang, Staff Software Engineer at Parable, dug into agentic AI workflows and why MCP-style architectures matter for data isolation, zero trust, and keeping LLMs on a tight leash. Suman Debnath, Technical Lead for ML at Anyscale, showed how Ray, a lightweight framework for scaling AI workloads across clusters, simplifies the heavy lifting behind distributed training and compute. Join us next time with speakers from Google and Nexla. https://lnkd.in/eyYksUh4