Guillermina Cabello has spent more than 30 years recruiting IT talent across Mexico, Latin America, and the US, building her own agency from scratch and developing a proprietary screening method along the way. In this episode, she talks with Colleen about what nearshore recruiting really requires, from correcting cultural assumptions about salary bands to navigating TN1 visas and the accent bias that gets mistaken for a language problem. Guillermina also shares why she conducts nearly every interview by phone instead of video to strip out bias, how she coaches candidates even when they're not a fit for the role, and what it's like calling out ageism in an industry that treats her three decades of experience as both an asset and, in some rooms, a liability.
Takeaways:
- Put the candidate's life ahead of your fee. Guillermina says thinking about the long-term impact of a placement on a candidate, not just closing the role, is what builds the kind of trust that keeps opportunities coming back around.
- Give candidates something useful even when they don't get the job. Guillermina flags resume tweaks or has candidates read English aloud to build fluency before an interview, because recruiters who help regardless of outcome are the ones candidates remember.
- Nearshore recruiting takes cultural translation, not just a second language. Understanding realities like candidates who worked through school, or an accent that has nothing to do with fluency, keeps good people from getting screened out for the wrong reasons.
- Roll AI out in small, measurable steps instead of cutting headcount upfront. Guillermina has watched companies rush to replace workers with AI only to end up rehiring, so she recommends testing tools in select areas and reviewing the return on investment before expanding.
- Market experience as an asset instead of hiding it. Guillermina compares her decades in the industry to wine, something that only gets more valuable with age, even in a market that still treats tenured candidates as a risk instead of a resource.
Quote of the Show:
"We recruiters are like professional Cupids. You have two individuals, and you have to see if they actually match." - Guillermina Cabello
