Leigh Rodriguez

The Instinct for a Great Conversation

Looking back, Rodriguez understands exactly what that recruiter saw in her from across a crowded room. "It's this deep, innate ability to have a great conversation with somebody," she says. Curiosity and the ability to ask questions, those were the qualities that stood out in a 19-year-old who had never heard the word recruiting used as a job title.

They are also, not coincidentally, the same qualities Rodriguez now looks for when she hires recruiters and sourcers herself.

Learning From the Right Personalities

Asked about the people who shaped her career, Rodriguez doesn't reach for a list of names. She talks instead about a personality type: leaders who challenge your thinking and push you to operate outside the box, people who see your value but refuse to let you settle for it. "They really want to push you into a place where you're kind of operating in your best self," she explains.

She has since surrounded herself deliberately with friends and colleagues who challenge her mindset. But the most important lesson they taught her was never about being right. It was about learning that it's okay to have a different mindset about something, and about understanding why you need that different perspective in the first place. That understanding, more than any single piece of advice, is what shaped who she is.

The AI Hangover

Rodriguez freely admits she has a hangover from AI. Every conference she has attended in recent months has been dominated by the topic, AI this and AI that, until the conversation itself became exhausting. She acknowledges the technology has its place in recruiting. She is equally adamant about what it cannot replace. "It cannot take the place of the human connection," Rodriguez says.

Her case is built on the small signals that only a person can catch. When you have a candidate on the phone, you hear the inflection in their voice as they describe a project they led. You can feel the shakiness when they talk about a bad leader and how they don't want to lead that way. AI cannot capture those moments. So even when she is speaking on conference stages about technology, Rodriguez brings to life the need for human connection: tactical tasks can be automated, but the conversations that matter require depth, and they require keeping the human in the loop.

She also expects the industry's mood to change. "I think in the next eight to twelve months, we are going to really desire a deeper connection with humans," she says. The pendulum, she believes, is already beginning to swing back.