“Hands-down one of the best recruiters I've ever worked with. He stayed on top of candidates, was very responsive, and worked hard to gain the trust of the people we interviewed. I hired more people under his recruiting leadership than at any other point in my career.”
Ross Harmes | Head of Core Product Engineering | Slack
One of the most professionally astute recruiters I worked with whose repertoire ranges from executive recruiting, to engineering, product management, sales and marketing. One of the remarkable traits he has is being able to very staunchly represent both the candidate and the company. It would be hard to get a more respected and seasoned recruiter than Derek in the Valley with such a well-balanced view. I strongly recommend Derek for recruiting gigs at companies of any size ranging from 0 and beyond.
Vineet Kumar | VP Engineering | Genome Medical
Derek is one of those rare breed of talent acquisition consultants you want working with you whether as a candidate or a company. Recruiters abound, and I get a lot of cold calls from people who just don’t get it when it comes to my profession. Derek goes above and beyond, looking holistically at the client company’s needs and offering advice on how to fill roles with the right candidate through a rigorous scientific method. If you are a company looking to hire the right technical talent for your needs, I would advise listening to Derek’s recommendations. If you are a candidate, definitely sit down and hear what this professional has to say.
Sam Caldwell | Sr. Site Reliability Engineer | Invitae
Derek is an exceptional thought leader in the talent and people operations space. He truly cares about people, and works collaboratively to build environments that attract, support and retain top talent. While I was at Genome Medical, he partnered with me and the team to develop recruiting processes, to create our compensation philosophy and benchmarks and to hire and onboard several key members of our team. He helped set us up for success, and continues to serve as a key guide and advisor every step of the way.
Romy Saloner | Head of Operations | Emilio Health
He's passionate about helping people finding their true potential, excelling at their career, and finding the right fit for them. It’s rare that you come across standout talent like Derek.
Moustafa ElBialy | VP Technology | Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
Within two months, he closed 4 offers for my team and brought in amazing talents which helped my team to accelerate in speed. He has showed me
by example what an outstanding recruiter is capable of and what a people leader is like.
Xiao Dan W. | Principal Design Lead | Didi Chuxing Labs
Derek Ling was the key to our ability to rapidly hire in the high-demand market of Bay Area engineering candidates. As a recruiter, Derek cares deeply about culture. His insightful approach to talent identification matches candidates and companies based on skills, experience, motivations, and values. More importantly, Derek is a recruiting coach: He teaches teams how to frame the entire process, including facilitating internal alignment about roles, refining job descriptions, gathering structured feedback from interviews, and presenting thoughtful offers that speak to the candidate's motivations. The result is an intense, nimble, and efficient pipeline of high-quality candidates.
Reece Hart | Former CTO | Genome Medical