Calder Talent
is Fraser Rix.

Here's the honest version. The expertise is hiring and the network is marketing, advertising, media, digital, data and tech, close to 20 years of it. But what I actually am is a people person. I like finding out what a business is trying to be, who it needs to get there, and why the last 3 people it hired didn't stick. Industry turns out to matter less than you'd think. Hiring breaks the same way in an agency as it does in a software company, and fixing it looks the same too: work out who you really need, say it plainly, and turn up in the market like a place worth joining.

Book a 30-minute call Free. Bring the role, or the week you're having.

In every field of candidates, one of them is the right one.

The market for any role is hundreds of people who could do it, most of them not looking, a handful who'd move for the right reasons, and one who'd be the hire you're still talking about in 5 years. Finding them is half of it. The other half is what happens to them once you have.

I've watched it from the agency desk and from inside the business, and the fix is nearly always the same: run the process properly, by someone whose job it is.

The map Who's actually out there, including the people who'd never answer an ad. The one is rarely on the shortlist you already have.

The approach Why they pick up: someone who can answer the real questions about the role. The honest version, first time.

The room What they read in the first 10 minutes of the interview. Whether anyone in it knows what good looks like.

The fortnight Between the yes and the start date, where nobody calls. The silence is where the counteroffer lands.

Close to 20 years in hiring, both sides of the table.

The first stretch was on agency desks in the UK and Sydney, finding people for other businesses and learning what a good brief looks like by living with the bad ones. The last 9 years were in-house: building the function, leading the team, training the managers, choosing the tools, and answering for the numbers when a role stayed open.

Candidates have always liked dealing with me because I'm a straight shooter, and that's the same reason clients keep me around. You get a direct answer, including when the answer is that you don't need me yet.

Agency Where you learn that the market knows. A role that's turned over 3 times in 2 years has a reputation before the ad goes up.

In-house Where you learn what it costs when nobody owns it. The function built and run, the managers trained, the tools chosen, and a front-row seat at the same few things deciding every hire.

fraser@caldertalent.com.au · 0421 928 830 · Sydney, working across Australia

By hand, and I'll tell you when you don't need me.

There's nothing automated between you and me. I write the briefs, make the calls, sit in the interviews and send the offers. I work 3 days a week across all my clients, which is a limit I keep on purpose: the work is only good when the person doing it has time to do it properly.

Some things I'll say no to. A role I don't think I can fill, before you've spent a month finding out. A seat that only needs caretaking. A search sold as something it isn't. And an engagement that's really an audition for a permanent job, because that's not what I'm for.

Where I work

Media, advertising, creative, digital and data businesses first, because that's where my network is. Scale-ups, and anyone with a marketing team and a hiring problem, are close enough. Sydney, working across Australia.

Give me 30 minutes, and the role or the week you're having.

You tell me what's open and who owns hiring today. I tell you which shape fits, or that none of them does.