Before You Automate, Cybersecurity Firm F5 Says You Need THIS Foundation First

What I've been spending a lot of time thinking about is where is the human interaction, the most impactful and the most valuable? So what does it really take for your business to attract world-class talent today? I'm Dave Travers, president of Zipper Cruder, and on talent all stars, we shine a light on the people and the day-to-day processes behind recruitment and retention at some of the world's most influential businesses. Today's talent all star is Valerie Wyngert, the VP of Global Talent Acquisition at F5, a technology company that helps large organizations keep their apps and websites fast, reliable, and secure. Before joining F5, Valerie spent more than 16 years at Salesforce, where she helped scale recruiting while that company was in hyper growth mode. Today she'll talk about why she made the leap to F5. However, her team is using AI to automate repetitive tasks and why she walked away from a future in medicine to jump into the world of recruiting. Valerie Wyngert, welcome to Talent All Stars. Hi, nice to see you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. So excited to have you here. Okay, you've had an amazing journey. I want to go back before you're a talent executive at Salesforce and at F5 and all those things. You started out on a very different career path, you know, doing nursing earlier in your career and then made this big pivot. How did that come about? How did you decide that you were being pulled in this direction and talent was where you wanted to be? Absolutely. There isn't a recruiter that starts out that dreams of being a recruiter as a kid, that's for sure. So no, I started out in that space because I was very interested in energize about being with people and solving problems. And there's nothing more complex than the human body and how it all works, right? So I was very excited about that, but I'll be honest, mounting costs of education and things like that were a big factor in me making a decision to change. And it happened to be at the same time that there was this big startup boom happening in the Bay Area and it was really exciting and it was seeing friends that were at startups and going IPO and seeing how fast things moved and it really intrigued me. So seeing those trade-offs and making those trade-offs early on in my career, you know, I made some decisions to say, hey, wait, maybe I should try this before I go and add more debt to my plate. And boy, was I excited once I got started there. So it was a great opportunity to start in a whole new space that I was not, you know, had no idea what it was about. That's awesome. And so what was it that when you got there, what was it that was like, oh, this feels right to me? Absolutely. You know, the pace, the fast pace every day was a different day when you walked in the door at a startup. I worked at Utility.com right here in the Bay Area. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was super exciting days there. I would walk in one day and we'd be solving a problem about branding. The next day, it would be about office space. And that was super exciting to me. And I had the opportunity there to try many hats of different functions and found that recruiting and HR really fit both my excitement about pace, the complexity of the problems, but also helping people, which kind of went back to those days of nursing and medicine. So it was a good combo. Okay. And then you eventually found your way to Salesforce, a company that everybody knows the name of, and you got there when it was a much smaller company than today. So the company got bigger and your role got bigger as that happened multiple times. So what is that like when you're on a rocket ship like that? And it's just getting bigger and bigger and your responsibilities are growing and growing. What's that like to be a part of that? It's a wild ride. It is definitely a wild ride, but again, you'll see a theme here. I love that pace, love that energy. Very similar to that startup space where every day you come in and there's a different problem to solve being specifically in the recruiting space. It was a master class in always trying to think about what are the problems ahead. And how can I, me personally as a professional, be part of solving those problems? So it was, I can't say I always did it right, but I was there 16 years and definitely rode that way and grew along with the company. And I think part of the reason I was able to do that was I had an opportunity to figure out how to see where the problems are, jump in and help solve them and be part of those solutions and learn, learn along the way. Okay. And then so then after having this incredible run at Salesforce, you take the leap to a new thing. You've got this great thing. What gives you the confidence to when a company's doing great, your trajectory is great. What gives you the confidence to feel like now's the right time. This is the right opportunity for me to take a leap to a company that's transforming from hardware to software in the middle of an AI revolution, in the middle of a cloud revolution. All these things are happening. What gives you the confidence to like, this is the right time. This is the right place for me. I have always been motivated by the problems I'm solving. I've always been motivated by that. So my focus and the reason for my switch was really about what are the problems I'm solving? Are they interesting and am I making an impact for this business? And I had an amazing time at Salesforce had an opportunity to do a lot of change. It is a large company. There is a lot of stakeholders to manage and it's a well-oheled machine. I mean, there's plenty to do and there's more runway to go. But I felt like I was, had such a great experience at Salesforce. I wanted to see about going back to basics, back to a company similar size as what where I started at Salesforce. But doing that build all over again, but with AI as a new tool in the toolkit, I was really intrigued by that possibility to start from a ground zero again and do it again, but with this new tool and a whole new complexity of a changing market like cybersecurity. Okay. So now here you are at F5. As you already referenced, you and the rest of us in this world are all in the middle of this AI revolution. There is so much noise, so much talk, so much pressure from different stakeholders, senior people out. Why aren't we doing more? How can we go faster? How do you manage that? How do you choose what to do next on your AI journey versus say, hey, there's 99 other things I could do, but this is the one important one I'm going to push forward today. Well, here at F5, we have gone through a pretty massive transformation from hardware to software now onto this platform space and navigating this changing world of cybersecurity that feels like every day is a little bit different. It's important to start with the basics. You know, again, there are those key pillars that are important. How they're built, it depends on the environments that you're in, but having a really strong foundation and standardized processes, standardized technology across the globe from a TA perspective is super important to make sure that you're ready for that AI automation. I learned that in my previous world at Salesforce. There was lots of times when we thought we had a really standardized process, but when you really dug into it to start automating, the tools may look the same and people may be saying the same words, but the actual processes can vary quite a bit. That does not work in this AI automation space. It only amplifies where those differences are. In my mind, it's very important to build that strong foundation first of common language, common processes and technology. Then what I've been doing a lot of right now is listening both internally within my organization about how people are using AI and thinking about AI automation, but also with my peers in the market. Now, talking to a lot of the TA leaders about how they're starting to think about it because that thought leadership and that conversation is very inspiring, hearing about how others are using it so that I can create the right mix of AI automation for this company. Yes, I think that is so smart listening both internally and externally, getting a sense of what's real out there, what are people really doing, what's just a talking point, etc. But my experience, I don't know about you, when I ask 10 people about AI, I get 27 different opinions about what to do and what I should do or what we should do. How do you build up the confidence in the business intuition to say, I heard everybody, but I'm going to choose this path. I'm a very data driven person, so I start to look at where are their opportunities from a data perspective, where's the big impact? So with everything we're piloting, we pilot pilot pilot, that's a big thing for me is that we're not necessarily going to go all in and not look back, but we need to really try before we do things. But I look at the biggest impact areas first. It's very easy right now with in TA where there is low value work that is happening that are repeatable processes that can be automated and that is where we are starting is, hey, instead of a coordinator, a recruiter, a manager, writing that same email over and over again for every single search. How do we make it easy to connect calendars and things like that? Those are basics that we can start with. Also, then test how far can we push that? So there's lots of things we can do as recruiters with an email, but is a conversation more impactful and will allow for the recruiter to be an advisor to the business and have that conversation versus an email which can be misunderstood or not paid attention to. What I'm focused on. I think that is so right. Is that so much of this idea of that conversations are coded with so much body language, ability to clarify in real time, toneality and things that are beyond just the words on a page and the ones and zeros if you have a large language model writing the words on a page that is such a smart way of thinking about it. That's also if you're trying to convince a group of humans who's afraid of change and things like that saying, hey, rather than start with the part of your job you like the most, why don't we focus this new technology on the part you like? The least is a great way to win people over. Yes, absolutely. And this, I mean, looking back, even it sounds silly, but three years ago I was convincing recruiters to have AI help with resume screening. And that was a very big obstacle at the time. I think it's less so now, but it was a great lesson in making sure to approach AI automation from a place of how it will change someone's job and elevate them versus allowing people to have that fear of this is going to replace me. And that was a really big, really big lesson learned for me. The other reason I think focusing on those conversations is so important is that when you think about it from the candidate experience standpoint, it's very hard to say, to envision hearing a candidate say, you know, I just chose this company because their drip email campaign leading me through the recruiting process was so clear. You know, like that is a, that is not a sentence like an envision ever here, but it's like I had so many great conversations and implicit in that is that the recruiters had time to have those conversations because they weren't doing meany stuff. They had so many great conversations. This company just immediately popped out to me. That's something I could envision a job seeker saying. Absolutely. And I think where the game changer will be is those companies that can find the ways to use AI to help pinpoint meaningful moments for a candidate and a manager and a leader as to when is the right time to have that conversation. I think back to years ago, there was an amazing recruiter that was trying to recruit me and found that moment when I was ready to have a baby my first child. And we had a great conversation. I said, there's no way I'm leaving about to go on maternity leave. And they called me after that baby was born to congratulate me. They called me right before I was going back what planned to go back on maternity leave to say, you know, you're about to start again and you could start just in a new company. Those were key moments. And I welcomed those conversations because they were at the key moments and not just a random point in time for me. If we can get that right as a TA leadership or a TA role, that's so powerful and we'll pay dividends. Been to agree more. Couldn't agree more. And we'll pay dividends both in terms of the satisfaction of your best recruiters and your job seekers. Yes. Love that. Okay. Valerie, we always end these episodes with a rapid fire section. So I want you to envision you're getting in the elevator or haven't make it a cup of coffee and all of a sudden in walks or up next you walks the CEO of F five and you've got 30 or 60 seconds and the CEO says, Hey, Valerie, I've been thinking, you've been here for a little bit now. Like how should we be measuring the TA team over the coming 12 months? Like how should I even conceptualize that? Revenue impact. That is it. That's what the CEO cares about is what is the revenue impact to the recruiting function? Are we closing? Are we helping with that or are we creating more risk? It's by far it's something that I'm working towards here at a five and that we're getting to. But I think that is by far going to help TA become elevate into that advisor role at that C-suite level. There's so many possible smart answers to that question, but I love that answer because there are zero CEOs in the world who are going to say, yeah, but what about, you know, six month satisfaction? I know revenue, but what about this other thing? Like every CEO is going to be like, wow, here's a business leader who has a very specific functional expertise, but is talking to me in my language rather than giving me a problem of saying, okay, how do I take six month retention and translate that to revenue? You do that translation for them. We are the translators. That's your job. Yes, exactly. I love that. So, similar situation, the CEO walks up to you and says, hey, I'm in the position of interviewing all the time and I'm interviewing board members, I'm interviewing executives, but you're the interviewing expert. Give me your one best tip to be a better interviewer. Prepare. Please prepare and have the two skills or competencies that you want to dig deep on. If you know those skills and you've prepared by looking at that person's resume ahead of time, that will allow you to have a deeper conversation with that candidate and come away with a clear picture if they will be ready for this role. I don't know how many interviewers I know of, including leaders that walk into that interview with the paper in hand that said, okay, so tell me about you. And that was 10, 15 minutes of time when you can get deep into a skill or a competency and really talk about a business problem and how they would solve it. I think it's really smart and I also think, look, just the impression you create for the candidate of saying, hey, Valerie, like, I love and was super interested by your multiple promotions at Salesforce. I really want to dig into that. But first I have this other question. It's like, wow, this person really is interested in me. Exactly. And it's valuable time for the candidate to spend talking to you because it's their time. They're taking time off work or juggling other interviews. You want to make it worthwhile. They're judging you too. Valerie Wengarton, this has been a great conversation and it is very clear why you're a talent-oal start. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much, David. It was great to be here. It's Valerie Wengarton. She's the vice president of Global Talent Acquisition at F5. We'll put her linked in profile in the episode description. And as a reminder, we put the video versions of these conversations on YouTube also on the official, [BLANK_AUDIO]