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The Hiring Edge
Smarter hiring. Stronger teams. Better careers.
Hosted by Josh Matthews — founder of TheSalesforceRecruiter.com — this podcast gives you the real-world edge to grow teams and careers in tech.
Whether you’re a leader trying to build high-performance delivery teams, or a professional navigating the career ladder, Josh delivers no-fluff insights through solo episodes and raw convos with top minds across hiring, leadership, and career growth.
You’ll get:
- Proven frameworks for hiring, scaling, and retention
- Talent trends, AI tools, and recruiting tactics that actually work
- Career advice to help you stand out, level up, and move fast
- Culture and compensation strategies for real growth
Built for founders, tech leads, HR pros, and ambitious professionals — inside and beyond the Salesforce ecosystem.
New episodes every other week.
Watch on https://joshforce.com/YouTube
Subscribe now — and get the edge on both sides of the table.
The Hiring Edge
Certs Didn't Matter - Learn This to Land Your Dream Job
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In this episode of The Hiring Edge, host Josh Matthews brings on Salesforce architect and founder of the People First Method, Jon Cline. This isn’t your typical tech talk — Jon breaks down how soft skills like empathy, communication, and collaboration are the real power plays in the tech world.
He shares a powerful transformation story of Serena, a military spouse who went from jobless and discouraged to landing a major role and leading projects — all by shifting how she showed up in interviews and on teams.
They unpack:
- Why most tech projects fail (and it’s not about the tech).
- The mindset shift that drives career breakthroughs.
- How simple tools like process diagrams can become leadership assets.
- Why “go-givers” win long term over “go-getters.”
🚨 LIMITED OFFER: Use code shared in the podcast at PeopleFirstMethod.com to get 50% OFF the next cohort — only 12 spots available. Starts in September.
Welcome to The Hiring Edge
Speaker 1Welcome to the Hiring Edge , the podcast helping leaders navigate the age of AI , create teams that thrive and build a workplace people never want to leave . I'm your host , josh Matthews . Today we have John Klein . John Klein is a friend . He's also an incredibly gifted Salesforce architect and he is the founder of People First Method , and some of you who've been tracking the show for at least the last eight or nine months will know that we had an amazing giveaway last year . John donated $60,000 worth of free education and leadership training to an entire cohort of what was then called the Salesforce Career Show and what you now know as the Hiring Edge . Why don't you talk for a moment about People First
People First Method Introduction
Speaker 1Method ? What's the 20-second breakdown of what you guys do over there ?
Speaker 2Yeah , thanks so much for the opportunity . It's been such a great experience walking this journey with these 12 people . In a nutshell , we help turn soft skills into hard money for tech professionals . Most people lead with tech certifications . We recognize the top three reasons why projects fail are all non-technical in nature , so we want to help people have more success . More promotions , more growth .
Speaker 1Maybe you can share what were some of the results for this cohort
Diverse Cohort Success Stories
Speaker 1.
Speaker 2What I loved about this cohort and it's really just representative of your audience is it was a really good spectrum , a really diverse set of people , a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different experience . Everything from one to two years experience all the way up to 12 plus years experience . A lot of different backgrounds . We had people from the UK , from Canada , from India , from the US , across all three time zones . Really great to see the level of diversity that's in your audience and that we were able to serve .
Speaker 1Can we talk about our friend who hadn't worked for two years and suddenly found herself in an incredible role with a New York-based company ?
From Struggling to Leadership
Speaker 2Essentially , when we began with Serena at the beginning , she was really struggling with confidence and I'm not saying anything that she wouldn't say herself . If you go to her LinkedIn profile , she's already mentioned all of this . Every week she actually posts . So for her she really had some challenges with confidence because she had applied to many , many I think upwards of 50 different roles over the many months and it's so difficult to be ghosted , to figure out like what am I going to do , how to stay motivated ? And certainly she's also a military family , so she's got other stresses , so she's got other stresses . It was amazing to see her , week after week , just invest and become more and more confident , have poise . And really what she mentioned is , even as she went in to do these interviews on these new positions , the whole vernacular and focus of what it was that she was going to talk about . She wasn't going to go through and mention all of the checklist items from a particular technical project , the things that she highlighted and she said I'm going to go in , I'm going to talk about empathy and I'm going to talk about enlisting others in the solutions that I drive and I'm going to talk about how to resolve conflict and avoid those massive risk factors that impact project success . She had a totally different talk track when she was entering those interviews and it really just reflected in a revised and refined really a vantage point , a whole perspective about what is a project and how do we measure success .
Speaker 2Well , and I think one attribute that she demonstrates well is she's a go-giver . A lot of people they feel that they need to be go-getters , which sometimes can be a net loss to other people , but she's a go-giver Even in our cohorts . Every week she would be the first one to post on Slack to say , hey , here's our reflection questions for the week . Here are my answers . Let's process these together . Let's maximize our benefit from this as a cohort together . On the calls , she's encouraging people . She's creating an environment where people can be vulnerable and transparent about the ruts that are holding them back in their professional careers . So no doubt she would go into this . And now , from what I understand , we just ended our cohort last week and she was highlighted that she's become a leader within her organization . She's now taken on multiple projects and being relied on and depended on in this organization to do really extraordinary things ,
Qualities of Successful Participants
Speaker 2and it's just wonderful to see how she's been able to really stand up firm , strong and confident in this role and really level up in her career .
Speaker 1So I'm kind of curious when you think about the people in the cohort who have achieved the most out of the system , the most out of the program . What are the qualities that people walked in the door with that helped them to be the top two , top three , top four people in the whole cohort or get the most out of it ? Maybe you can share that real quick .
Speaker 2That's a good question . Get the most out of it . Maybe you can share that real quick . That's a good question . First , I think what we highlighted with Serena , that others also exhibited , is that sense of I'm here to make an investment , I'm here to give something that is going to reciprocate and give me something back , that there's not a sense that I'm here to just be a consumer . I'm going to wait until the dish is served to me and then I'll eat it , and if it's late or it's not coming , I'm just going to sit here and wait , but rather I'm going to participate and make sure that my questions get answered , that I'm engaging other people , that I'm doing my best to provide the highest value , the highest presence , the best kind of mindful engagement I can in this process and give it requisite time , because changing our behavior is really hard . It's not like binging trailhead and just having something to memorize or to refer to later .
Speaker 1What level of engagement are people taking from the course and from this training and actually utilizing it and applying it in their regular lives .
Speaker 2They're slowly changing over time in this kind of peer environment , I think very quickly people realized that they were in new territory , that they were in kind of uncharted waters and though they may have heard , for example , some of the terminology that we're talking about for example , who hasn't heard of a process diagram ? But we take something that seems ordinary like a process diagram , and through that people-first vision we turn it into something extraordinary as a recon device , as an ability to align and motivate people towards a particular direction . We show them how to use ordinary tools , much like one is going to use an ordinary pickaxe in the right way to mine gold . It's not the pickaxe that discovers the gold right , it's the person who recognizes how to use a simple tool in an extraordinary way . So they realized this very soon and I think that was very motivating . It created an appetite that they knew , no matter what we were going to discuss .
Speaker 2Something is seemingly mundane , like a test plan , for example , or a deployment plan . We go over these aspects as ways of communicating value and demonstrating it and making it visible to the client right , ensuring that there's no risk if you happen to move away or it can't work on the project next week . You're ensuring that the show will go on . There's all these other benefits that people recognized weren't things that they were thinking of or had actually ever heard about .
Special Course Discount Offer
Speaker 1So everybody , john has a code for you If you want to get 50% off of the People First Method for the next cohort it starts in September . That's $2,400 off the entire course . This is only available to the first 12 people who sign up . That sign up code is HiringEdge , so you'll see on PeopleFirstMethodcom when you go to register you can just enter in HiringEdge . You'll get half off and some incredible results . You've had 12 , 14 people go through the last cohort . I was able to place two of them and I didn't even know that they were part of the cohort at the time because I'm terrible with names , as most of you guys know . John , I can't thank you enough for being on the show . You're always welcome here . What you do over at People First Method is nothing short of absolutely incredible . You are one of the most unique , high EQ people I've ever met in my life . You are so appreciated in this ecosystem and certainly appreciated by me and by my audience . Thanks so much for being here .
Speaker 2My pleasure , so glad to help , and thanks for the opportunity .
