Steve Cadigan
Founder & Talent Hacker
Cadigan Talent Ventures
Santa Fe, NM USA
“Your job doesn’t define who you are as a human being—look at your working life as just a journey.”
Videos
By Roadtrip NationSteve Cadigan
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
Growing up, my father was a minister and my mother ran a few daycare centers—watching them ask other people for money throughout their careers, I knew I didn’t want to follow the same path.
In college, I majored in history because I liked the subject, but I had no real ambition about what I was going to do for a living.
During my senior year, a fashion company from San Francisco made me a job offer, so after graduation, I moved from the East Coast to California to work in the company’s credit department.
After about a year and a half in the department, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, so I transferred to human resources to work in recruiting and fell in love with the work.
About a decade into working in human resources for various industries, I decided that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—and I wanted to become great at it, so I got my master’s degree.
I joined the team at LinkedIn in 2009 as vice president of talent, and took the company from a private firm of 400 employees, through an IPO, and helped it become the powerhouse it is today.
I started my own business, Cadigan Talent Ventures, where I do a lot of career coaching and advising for students and professionals.
I’m also a sought-after speaker and advisor—I’ve delivered conferences at Stanford University and the Harvard Business Review Summit, and advised companies like Twitter, Google, and Eventbrite.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Founder & Talent Hacker
I help leaders and organizations build compelling talent solutions for today and tomorrow.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Entrepreneurship
Working with Others
Day to Day
I work with individuals and organizations to forge talent solutions. I help envision creative approaches to help individuals find success. This includes speaking to people and helping them to figure out their skills, interests, and passions and then speaking with companies to determine the type of employees they need to achieve more success. I also present at conferences on a variety of topics, including the future of talent, building high performing organizations, and building culture.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for everyone
I believe that who you know and how they can help you is more important than what you know. There will be times in your life when you need to ask for help, so having a good network of peers that can help and support you is incredibly important. Many people think asking for help is a sign of weakness, but it's actually a sign of strength.
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Myself:
"I can't do this."
Challenges I Overcame
School Stress
Relocation
Career Change
