Employee Spotlight: Getting to Know Julie Westhoff, Senior IT Recruiter at iSphere
Great companies are more than flashy benefits and catchy slogans. They’re built by people (not AI) who show up every day, care deeply about others, and do the right thing even when no one’s watching.
Julie Westhoff, Senior IT Recruiter at iSphere, is one of those people.
She’s a relationship builder and a problem solver who guides professionals through the often-stressful world of job searching. In this iSphere Employee Spotlight, Julie shares how she approaches recruiting, why trust matters more than transactions, and what keeps her showing up every day.
Our Conversation with Julie Westhoff, Senior IT Recruiter
Q: What do you do to help your candidates thrive?
Julie: I like to build relationships with my candidates. When I started off in recruiting after changing careers from nursing, there was a trend for recruiters to take a transactional approach and lean on digital-only interactions, but I found those weren’t my strengths or what made me happy. I enjoy talking to candidates and building trust with them, so I worked on developing my ability to build that trust quickly.
I learned early on in my training to let candidates know that I take my direction from them and I really do mean that. At the end of the day, they’re in charge. Sometimes recruiters will tell people where to apply, what to apply for, and when they should quit jobs. There’s lots of pushing. So, I peel those expectations away, and just say, “I’m going to allow my candidates to be in charge,” reminding them that I’m walking through the process with them.
I get the interview—that’s my part in all this—but my candidates are responsible for getting the job. I’m just really there for support. That’s what I do.
Q: Do you feel like most recruiters are trying to fit candidates into roles rather than trying to find roles that fit candidates?
Julie: Yes. That transactional recruiting is still an issue. iSphere is a boutique company and I feel like I’m a boutique recruiter. I had to tell someone today, “It’s great reconnecting with you, but this is not the job for you. You would lose $12,000 and there’s nothing that compensates for that loss based on what we’ve discussed.”
When you’re honest with them, you recreate trust in recruiters and the recruiting process. Maybe six months down the road, I might find something for them if they’re in the market.
Q: What qualities make you a great recruiter?
Julie: There are several factors that all come together. There’s the relationship building I mentioned, but there’s also the ability to figure out puzzles. I don’t do puzzles at home, but I do complete them all day long in my job. Will this person fit, or won’t they?
Early on, I would notice George Walker, Managing Partner at iSphere, would see someone and say, “That’s the guy, I just know it.” That’s intuition gained from reviewing hundreds of positions and thousands of candidates. Now, I feel like I’ve gained that skill.
Much of that comes from what you could call “elbow-to-elbow education,” where I use portions of my relationship-building calls to ask questions to better flesh out my knowledge about different IT disciplines and client industries. Because of this experience, I was able to have confident conversations with an ERP expert, a data scientist, and a specialist in Epic Systems EMR solutions just this morning.
The other thing is developing a firm grasp on how to use emerging technology like AI. George has been great at staying ahead of the curve, adopting software and tools before we even know we need it. In 2007, George gave me an iPhone before I even knew what it was, and now I try to be one of our team members who embraces new tech for recruiting.
Back to AI: it can help me solve the puzzle faster, but it doesn’t have a sense of what the end product should look like and it can get confused. So, AI isn’t going to take my job as a recruiter, but it can help me in other areas to catch up.
For example, I was talking to a candidate today and his resume screamed, “I need help!” So, I gave his resume to our generative AI tool, asking it to expand on certain skills, remove others, and evaluate the big picture. Some changes I kept, others, I didn’t, and through some back and forth so I can help him market himself, whether we find him a job or not.
Last but not least, I know how to be emotionally available without getting overwhelmed or taking it personally when a candidate doesn’t get a job. It’s something I learned from being a nurse. All I can do is emotionally show up every day and work hard to connect people. But the candidate needs to win the job. I stay invested enough to give them the support they need, but like your own kids, they need to do the work to graduate.
Q: How do you juggle all your candidates and keep the right person front of mind for the right moment?
Julie: Well sometimes, juggling all these people makes you feel like you’re scattered, but I use some systems and software like JobDiva to help keep candidates front of mind. There’s also Brian Martin, Consultant Care Director at iSphere, and he’s in a very important position for that. I always tell people he wakes up every day to see what the consultants need, and I love that.
Q: What about your proudest moment as a recruiter? What’s a moment that made you think, “This is why I love my job?”
Julie: There are quite a few of them and they change depending on which phase of my career I’m in. Right now, I really appreciate the chance to give people a leg up.
There was a guy working locally in Houston who was driving one hour each day for a lower-paying IT job who I wanted to help get new work. He was a recent dad and it would be nice if we could get him better work/life balance. We marketed him with an established client and helped him get a job, which, after a series of promotions, now earns over three times his original wage and gets Fridays off. He needed someone to care enough about his career and we did that.
Then there’s the guy we helped secure his first IT job. He started his career as a youth minister, but he had both a great work ethic and a growing list of IT certifications. I worked with George and Cathy Ball, Director of Sales – Public Sector at iSphere, to find him a help desk role with one of our independent school districts clients. That only took two weeks. Eventually, he grew into a data management role when no one else could figure it out and is now the director of IT at a Texas School District. He just figured it out, which is what America is about There are quite a few of them, and we started him on that path.
Final Thoughts
Julie’s approach is straightforward, but not something everyone can do consistently: show up consistently, lead with integrity, and care about people without overthinking it. Her people-focused style is what makes iSphere stronger, one conversation at a time.
Want to learn more about Julie Westhoff and other members of the iSphere team? Stay tuned to our blog for more stories about the people fueling our success.
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