Way Too Much: Rethinking the Modern Interview Process with Jessica Kalinowski of Beacon Biosignals

Jessica Kalinowski, Head of Reliability and Security of Beacon Biosignals, joins us to unpack how she took an engineering org from one or two releases a month to 130, all without a single AI adoption mandate. Her path runs through McKesson and connectRN, where she most recently served as Vice President of DevOps and Corporate IT. Jessica also makes the case that most hiring processes have grown bloated rather than accurate, and shares why she leads every team with a psychology degree instead of a computer science one. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 A hiring philosophy built on trusting skill first, and managing what comes after. 02:13 A surprise career pivot revealed right before the interview begins. 05:16 One online certification course was the entire path into technology. 13:03 Release frequency climbs from twice a month to 130 times, almost by accident. 21:48 A governance lesson borrowed directly from the early cloud migration years. 26:55 A blunt opinion on why eight rounds of interviews backfires. 45:45 The single instruction worth giving a 20-year-old just starting out. Thank you for listening to "Hire Learning with Oz Rashid." Don't forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid. To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com. RESOURCES MENTIONED Beacon Biosignals, the AI-powered EEG platform Jessica now leads reliability and security for: https://beacon.bio WHOOP, the wearable device Oz references while asking about Jessica's sleep tracking: https://www.whoop.com Disruptive Innovators, the podcast Jessica cites as a source of stories on leading organizational change: https://www.disruptiveinnovatorspodcast.com “The Phoenix Project” by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford, the narrative-style DevOps book Jessica and Oz discuss without naming on record: https://itrevolution.com/book/the-phoenix-project/ #HiringStrategy #TalentAcquisition #AIinHR