The Hiring Manager Is Often the Hidden Bottleneck

A treatise on why engineering hiring improves when employers define the real problem before asking a top engineer to solve it.

The meeting was not going well. The role had been open for months. The company had reviewed dozens of resumes, completed several screening calls, and brought a handful of engineers into later stage interviews. Everyone had worked hard. The recruiter had sourced. The talent team had scheduled. The hiring manager had made time. The candidates had shown up. Still, no one had been hired.

By late afternoon, the conversation had started to take on a familiar shape. The market was difficult. The candidates were not strong enough. Compensation might be an issue. The internal process was slow. The job description might need to be reposted. Maybe the search needed to be widened. Maybe the recruiter needed to bring in more people.

Then someone asked a quieter question.