Hiring rarely fails loudly. It fails quietly first.You see it when outcomes don't move after a "strong hire." When alignment meetings create silence. When the team starts protecting themselves instead of shipping.I learned this the hard way. Watched it happen. Now I help leaders avoid it.I'm Jess. I run Nonstop Talent in NZ.I work with leaders hiring for roles where the downside is high and the signal is messy. Engineering. Product. Data. Cyber. The hires that determine whether you ship or stall.My approach is simple:Clarify the outcome the hire must changeIdentify the real risks in your context (team, pace, constraints)Headhunt candidates who have done this kind of work in this kind of environmentIf you're hiring for impact, not activity, message me the role and what "must be different by day 90."

Jessica Dong

I’m an agency recruiter, so I get the version candidates say when they’re trying not to get burnt twice.

Last week, before salary, before benefits, before any of the selling… a senior engineer just went:

“Who’s paying the company right now: customers, or just investors?”

And you could feel why they asked.

They weren’t being difficult.
They were doing self-defence.

Because they’ve watched the movie where the deck is beautiful, the roadmap is loud, everyone’s “moving fast”…

…and then three months later it’s quiet layoffs, quiet rewrites, quiet people disappearing from Slack at 2pm on a Tuesday.

A CTO once said to me, really quietly:
“I didn’t lose my best engineer to more money. I lost them to another five years of untangling someone else’s mess.”

That’s the shift I’m noticing in 2026.

Salary still matters.

But the best people are interviewing for how long they can stay without shrinking.

So if your strongest candidates keep going cold right near the end…

what are they learning about the business in the interview loop that you’re not saying out loud yet?

Jessica Xin Dong

SaaS + Enterprise Digital Hiring | Contract & Perm | Cut cost of delay

Restaurant Brands Ltd NZ

Application Support Analyst

Spark New Zealand

• Responsible for the resolution of 1st and 2nd level ICT user issues through the use of standard Incident management process. 
• Proactive management of incidents/tasks/cases and requests.
• Working to agreed service level regarding supporting the incident process. 
• AD, ServiceNow, Azure Admin Portal and various monitoring tools
• Maintaining the client’s database, logging all incidents P1/P2 and ensuring all updates and relevant information is recorded appropriately and effectively.
• Ensuring all the issues get resolved within SLA.
• Handling calls and tickets for nationwide multiple clients like Westpac, ASB, Spark Retail Stores, Fonterra etc.
• Building up the knowledge database by proactively adding information in and making positive recommendations for future improvement
• Developing and maintaining self-help materials and tools; proactively improving the self-help options
• Monitoring Network Devices & Servers like Routers, Switches, SQL Server etc.
• Service Provider Relationship Management – effectively communicating and managing when handing an incident to a 3rd party
• Determining hardware/software requirements to provide solutions to problems.
• Coordinating with Field Support staff and vendors to justify the root cause, hardware/software faults and eventually to resolve the issues through effective coordination maintaining ITIL framework
• Taking active part in incidence escalation management, intervene and giving inputs to the Major Incident Manager, Delivery Manager for Service Review meetings.
• Responding to inquiries about software and hardware problems of desktop, laptop and printers raised by the end users.

Service Desk Analyst

I have a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from Hyderabad Alumni Association of JNTU College of Engineering, Kakinada, and I am certified in ITIL and Oracle Database SQL. I am currently working as a System Analyst at Restaurant Brands Ltd NZ, where I am responsible for resolving 1st and 2nd level ICT user issues and maintaining the client's database.

In my previous role as a Service Desk Analyst at Spark New Zealand, I proactively managed incidents, tasks, cases, and requests for multiple nationwide clients, using various tools such as AD, ServiceNow, Azure Admin Portal, and more. I ensured that all the issues were resolved within SLA and that all the updates and relevant information were recorded appropriately and effectively. I also contributed to building up the knowledge database by adding new solutions and tips. I value teamwork, customer service, and continuous learning, and I can bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the team, as I have worked with different industries, technologies, and cultures.

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