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Transcript

Cracking the Code of Job Fit · The Science of Leading

• 0:00
  Okay, Edwin-I wanna start with something we hear all the time: "We found
• 0:03
  someone great, but it just didn't work out." Why is hiring still such
• 0:07
  a guessing game for both sides?
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  I mean, isn't it supposed to be,
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  like...
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  you find the right skills, match them to the job,
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  done?
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  But I keep running into leaders who feel like the whole thing's
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  just, I don't know-luck of the draw.
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  That's a story as old as hiring itself,
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  Claire.
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  And honestly, it's because we've gotten too comfortable with guessing.
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  Employers are often guessing who can truly perform-and candidates are
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  just guessing what the job actually is,
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  beneath the polished titles and "fast-paced team" fluff.
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  So when someone
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  who looked "perfect on paper" checks out after a few months,
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  it's not a shock.
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  It's just a missed alignment.
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  Oh-so it's not that employers are just bad
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  at screening, or candidates are trying to fake it?
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  It's more like...
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  everyone's just missing each other's signals?
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  Exactly.
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  It comes down to measurable alignment.
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  Real fit isn't about who seemed friendly or said the right things in
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  the interview.
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  And it definitely isn't about who shares hobbies with the team.
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  It's about three specific things:Can this person do the work?
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  Will they
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  want to do the work?
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  And-this one's big-will they thrive doing it here,
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  in this exact environment?
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  Alright,
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  so-let's dig into that "fit" idea.
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  I always mix up person-job fit and person-organization fit.
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  One's about skills, one's about culture,
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  right?
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  But I feel like people blur them all the time.
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  Especially on hiring panels-like,
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  how often do they just go with who "feels right" and then get blindsided?
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  It
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  happens all the time.
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  Person-job fit is the hard match-skills,
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  abilities, whether the person can meet the actual demands of the role.
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  Person-organization
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  fit is more about alignment with values,
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  culture, and how someone operates inside your company's real norms-not
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  just the ones on the website.
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  Mix them up,
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  and you get trouble.
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  You might hire someone who's pleasant and easy to work with...
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  but they quietly underperform.
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  Or you hire a technical rockstar who clashes
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  with the team every step of the way.
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  That reminds me-didn't you tell me
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  about that global tech company where this totally backfired?
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  Exactly.
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  They hired for "culture fit" and ended up with a whole team of extroverted,
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  high-energy folks-great offsite energy.
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  But the actual work was brutal.
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  Constant priority shifts, high pressure.
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  And they'd never defined resilience as a success factor.
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  So these friendly,
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  well-liked hires burned out fast.
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  Turnover spiked, and it cost them dearly.
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  So it's the nuance,
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  right?
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  Like, what "fit" actually means for this job-not just,
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  "Would I grab a beer with this person?"Right.
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  That surface-level gut feeling can be costly.
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  But when you define what success actually looks like-before you even
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  post the role-you build toward retention,
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  not just hiring.
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  Let's break down what really makes up "fit."I'll admit-I
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  used to treat job postings like a wish list.
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  Like, "If I hit 80%, maybe I'm good."But early in my career,
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  I took a job based on a super vague description.
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  Seemed fine.
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  But I ended up totally out of my depth.
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  The reality didn't match my strengths-or how I work best.
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  You're not alone
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  in that.
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  Fit is multi-dimensional.
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  There's skills fit-can you actually do the work.
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  Then
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  motivation fit-do you want to do the work,
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  does it energize you.
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  Work style fit-how you plan,
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  communicate, handle chaos.
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  That one gets missed a lot.
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  And finally,
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  values and context-do you align with the pace,
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  structure, remote vs.
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  in-person, things like that.
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  Same person,
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  different environment-and performance flips.
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  I wish I'd asked better questions.
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  I
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  used to think, "Nail the perfect answer,
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  land the job."But honestly?
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  I should've been grilling them.
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  Like-what are the actual priorities for this role?
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  What tends to trip people up here?
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  Even the language in the job ad-"fast-paced,"
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  "independent"-those are giant clues if you know how to read them.
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  Exactly.
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  Interviews aren't auditions-they're investigations.
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  I tell candidates:
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  don't just prep answers.
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  Clarify what you need.
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  Ask: What's non-negotiable here?
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  What skills can be learned?
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  And employers-structure your process.
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  Build a success profile.
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  Focus on outcomes, not buzzwords.
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  Use structured interviews.
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  The research backs this up-Schmidt and Hunter's
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  study found structured interviews predict performance far better than
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  unstructured ones.
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  .51 validity coefficient vs.
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  .38.
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  That's not just statistics-it's fewer bad hires.
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  What about work samples?
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  When
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  I've had to actually do something in an interview-build something,
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  solve a problem-it's so much clearer.
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  For them and for me.
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  It's way less about being charming for 40 minutes.
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  Exactly.
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  Work samples get you out of the theory and into performance.
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  Same with
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  deep reference checks-not just "Were they nice?"Ask: How did they handle
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  pressure?
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  Where did they shine?
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  What kind of support helped them thrive?
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  You're trying to understand patterns,
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  not just anecdotes.
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  It's wild how much gets lost to "gut feel."But when
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  you really interrogate the role-and your own fit-on skills,
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  motivation, work style, pace, all that...You're not just avoiding
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  mismatches.
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  You're saving yourself from rewriting your CV in six months.
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  That's the
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  shift, Claire.
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  It's about moving from instinct to insight.
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  When both sides pursue evidence-based
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  alignment, hiring becomes strategic-not a gamble.
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  Okay,
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  so-once you have this definition of "fit," how do you actually build
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  a hiring process around it?
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  I've heard of success profiles and assessments,
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  but is it really possible to engineer the right match?
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  It is.
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  Smart companies create a blueprint.
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  They define what success looks like-not
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  just in skills, but motivations and traits.
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  Then they layer in assessments,
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  structured interviews, and real-world tasks.
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  I worked with a high-growth
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  startup that used OAD's behavioral tools,
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  skill tests, and deep references.
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  They didn't just reduce churn-they kept people growing.
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  That's so smart.
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  Where
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  do you see the biggest mistakes-especially when the pressure's
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  on to fill
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  a role fast?
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  They confuse speed with strategy.
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  They skip defining fit.
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  Everything downstream stays fuzzy.
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  But when you take the time to define
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  it, your process becomes scalable.
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  It works across departments,
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  even across countries.
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  The structure brings clarity-and fairness.
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  So it's not about taking the
• 7:00
  human out of hiring.
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  It's about using tools to see the human more clearly-skills,
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  drive, style, even what kind of environment they need to thrive.
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  Feels
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  like that's how you build teams that actually stick.
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  Exactly.
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  When you align talent and opportunity deliberately-through data,
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  structure, and smart interviews-you stop filling seats and start building
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  something that lasts.
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  Alright-we're out of time.
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  But next episode...
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  I want to talk about how hiring changes as you scale.
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  Or, like, what happens when AI joins the process.
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  Edwin-this was awesome.
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  Thanks for letting me ask a million questions.
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  Always a pleasure,
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  Claire.
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  Your questions help us rethink what "normal" should look like.
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  Can't wait for the next one.
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  If you're curious how to put this into action,
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  you can actually test OAD's hiring tools-like behavioral assessments-for
• 7:53
  free.
• 7:53
  Just head to o-a-d-dot-a-i.
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  It's a super simple way to get more clarity
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  and better hiring outcomes.
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  Goodbye,
• 8:01
  Claire-goodbye everyone.
• 8:02
  Until next time.