A Letter from Max Butler on Joining Ashby

During my first week at Ashby, I had some time to reflect on all the conversations and detailed onboarding sessions I’ve been part of. It’s given me a glimpse of what the next chapter of my career will look like — and got me excited! A number of people have asked “Why did you join Ashby?”

I thought I’d share my answer publicly.

My Entry into Recruiting

To provide some background, I was first introduced to recruiting by my brother and cousin. While still in college, I watched them both start their careers while also encouraging me to explore it. They both seemed pretty happy and (perhaps more importantly at the time) were making money (shoutout to Preston and Tricia). 

A week after graduating, I dove headfirst into recruiting at a large agency. The first half of my career involved a bit of everything — sourcing, coordinating, and recruiting for companies big and small. In 2016, I was given the chance to transition from Tech Recruiting to Recruiting Operations — and I was hooked. 

Over the last eight years, I’ve built and led recruiting ops teams, helping companies hire top talent efficiently. I’ve seen what good looks like… and what bad looks like. I have demoed and/or purchased what feels like every recruiting tool on the market, revamped recruiting processes, and put together awesome (and some not-so-awesome) reports and dashboards. At the end of the day, I love working with teams to elevate their hiring practices and achieve hiring excellence.

Discovering Ashby

In 2022, I started hearing whispers about a new analytics tool that plugged into your ATS called Ashby. Naturally, I was intrigued. But when I finally got to see it in action during my time at CaptivateIQ, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I was blown away by its ability to do what so many ATS and analytics products couldn’t — it was user-friendly, gave me real-time data, and it actually worked.

But as cool as Ashby Analytics was, what really blew me away was the support we got from the Ashby team; whether it was customer success, product, or engineering, every interaction was next level. I was ready to be among them.

Why I Joined Ashby

Three main reasons:

1. The People 

As mentioned, my interactions with Ashby’s team as a customer were always positive. As I’ve gotten to know several more employees over the years, I was blown away by their expertise, kindness, and work ethic. Every single person I’ve met is damn good at their job. It’s rare to find that level of talent and character in one place.  Being here myself I can see that the company really does live by their Operating Principles and  pushes me to be better.

2. The Product 

I’ve come across maybe two or three “holy sh!t” products that I knew had the potential to change the industry. Ashby is one of them. Seeing it spread like wildfire throughout the recruiting world — especially during a time when recruiting was facing some tough challenges — has been inspiring. I’ve watched recruiting teams consolidate their tools and systems into Ashby’s all-in-one ATS, saving money and increasing efficiency.

It’s the kind of solution RecOps leaders dream about. And Ashby doesn’t just stop at efficiency; they’re paving the way for practical use of AI in recruiting and tackling important topics like Quality of Hire. Watching Ashby turn these concepts into game-changing features quickly sealed the deal for me.

3. Prioritization of Recruiting Operations 

Since staking my career in RecOps back in 2016, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is finding tools that not only solve real problems, but can support the overall recruiting strategy and various workflows. Unlike most products, Ashby has Recruiting Operations at its core – whether it’s embedding sourcing to build a powerful CRM and ATS together or effective scheduling for a better experience for all.

This didn’t just mean I’m able to elevate the quality of work I could produce, but it also enables me to have an entirely different type of conversation with leaders across the business. In addition to the product, Benji and the team do a lot to support the community – if you’re in RecOps and not already in the community, apply here (and shoot me a note).

My Role and Vision

I joined Ashby as a Recruiting Operations Consultant, working alongside the talented Olivia Roberts. While this is a big (and maybe uncomfortable) shift as I now become part of a Customer Success team, it’s also a huge opportunity to learn from a ton of talented RecOps folks, recruiters, coordinators, and sourcers across Ashby’s customer base. If I do my job well:

• Customers will not only get the most out of Ashby, but they will have a dedicated thought partner to help with process improvements, develop recruiting strategies, and plan for both long-term and short-term goals.
• Team up with Ashby Customer Success Managers to guide customers through reports and dashboards, use industry benchmarks to assist with goal setting, and educate users on sharing insights with stakeholders.
• Customers will never be left in the dark and will have access to content and ‘pro tips’ on how to setup and scale with Ashby.

I have a lot to learn, but here’s what I know for sure: We will continue to take care of our customers, improve, and push the boundaries of what’s possible in recruiting and HR.