John Vlastelica

CEO | Founder

John Vlastelica draws from over 20 years of recruiting experience, including almost 10 years as a corporate recruiting leader. He was the Head of Recruiting for Expedia, Head of Tech Recruiting for Amazon.com, and a hands on recruiter and engineering recruiting leader for two start-up divisions of McCaw/AT&T Wireless. In 2005, he started Recruiting Toolbox to help other companies improve their in-house recruiting capabilities.

John and his team have provided training and recruitment management consulting services to companies of all shapes and sizes, including leading organizations in high-tech, bio-tech, healthcare, financial services, and retail.  John has been hired by companies like PepsiCo, Disney, Adidas, Bloomberg, Google, Slack, Peloton, Target, Booking, SAP, Salesforce, EA, and Starbucks. He’s trained hiring teams all over the world – from Moscow, Russia to Minneapolis, Beijing to Boston, Amsterdam to Atlanta, Sydney to San Francisco. And top companies develop their recruiting managers through the recruiting leadership labs he teaches, including Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Microsoft.

John has shared his expertise with colleagues as an entertaining and credible repeat presenter at top recruiting conferences around the world, earning a #1 speaker rating at conferences like LinkedIn Talent Connect, ERE, SourceCon, and RecFest.  He’s also a popular webinar presenter, earning the highest ever recorded NPS rating for LinkedIn’s webinars.  Tens of thousands of talent professionals from around the world have watched his recorded presentations and online training, listened to his podcast interviews, and read his guides on recruiting best practices.

John has also helped to bring expert voices to the talent community as a four-term President of the non-profit Seattle Staffing Management Association and co-founder and MC of Talent42, the national tech recruiting conference (which he sold to ERE/SourceCon in 2018).   He and his team give back through work with regional non-profits that support under-represented groups and no-fee speaking engagements.

In 2021, he more formally began advising Social Talent, the online hiring training platform company based in Dublin, Ireland.  John began partnering with them in 2016, as a training content provider, and has expanded the relationship since then, to help with content roadmap and market positioning as an advisor to the founders.

John is based in the Seattle, Washington area, has traveled to over 30 countries, is married to his high school sweetheart, is the proud Dad of two kids, and prefers kebab shops, taco trucks, and Coke Zero over fancy restaurants and wine.  He was one of those kids that everyone knew would be an entrepreneur someday – he loved the world of business from a young age, read business magazines for fun, and even placed 3rd in a US national entrepreneurship competition his senior year in high school.  John went on to graduate first in his class from Western Washington University with a degree in business, and fell in love with tech when working for Steve Job’s NeXT Computer right after graduation.

John Vlastelica Picture

Areas of Expertise

  • Defining and scaling a high, inclusive hiring bar

  • Creating a culture of recruiting

  • Leadership Development and Coaching for Recruiting Leaders

  • Recruiting Strategies and Business Case Development
  • Train-the-Trainer for Recruiter and Hiring Manager Training

  • Elevating recruiters to Talent Advisors

  • Process Improvement and Recruiter Productivity
  • EVP and Employment Branding

Connect with John

Speaking Engagements

  • Keynote – SourceCon – Seattle, Orlando

  • Keynote – Recfest – London

  • Keynote – Australasian Talent – Sydney
  • Keynote – iRecruit (Now called Unleash) – Amsterdam, Paris

  • Keynote – ERE – San Diego

  • LinkedIn Talent Connect – every year since 2013

Sample Projects

  • Amazon – Bar Raiser Training

  • Disney – Recruiting Leadership Training

  • Google – Recruiter Competency Model and Training Curriculum

  • Target – Tech Hiring Bar and Interviewing Process Development
  • Uber – Hiring Standards Development and Interview Guides

  • PepsiCo – Hiring Manager Training

  • Nike – Talent Advisor Training

  • Hulu – Strategic Diversity Recruiting Training

  • Columbia Sportswear – Talent Acquisition Function Strategy/Process/Org Model Development

  • Ferrero – Interviewing Playbook and Competency Development