Beyond the Resume: What Matters Most in Life Sciences Talent Acquisition
As talent markets evolve, successful recruitment requires more than matching experience to job descriptions. Ryan Maglione, Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Talent at Syneos Health, shares his perspective on recognizing potential, creating meaningful candidate experiences and why talent acquisition is a team sport.
The resume has long been the foundation of recruitment. But what if it's no longer the best predictor of who will succeed?
“The resume doesn't tell the whole story,” says Ryan. “We have to leave the resume behind and focus on the person.”
It's a perspective shaped by years of navigating changing labor markets and leading recruitment strategies across the life sciences industry. Recently recognized as Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year at the 2026 HRO Today Awards, alongside his team, which earned Talent Acquisition Team of the Year, Ryan believes the future of recruitment depends on more than technology or speed. It requires a fundamental shift in how organizations recognize potential, engage candidates and collaborate to secure the right talent.
A Changing Labor Market Demands Greater Agility
Over the past several years, recruitment has experienced dramatic shifts. The high turnover and intense competition for candidates following the COVID-19 pandemic have given way to what some call the “Great Stay,” with more employees choosing to remain in their current roles.
For employers, the challenge has shifted from moving quickly enough to secure interested candidates to persuading talented professionals to consider new opportunities.
In life sciences, this challenge is particularly pronounced. Specialized roles in medical affairs, oncology, market access and pharmaceutical sales require capabilities that aren't readily available across the broader labor market.
According to Ryan, organizations must build recruitment strategies that can adapt as quickly as market conditions change. That means developing proactive talent pipelines, anticipating emerging skills needs and considering how existing talent can be developed to meet new demands.
AI Should Strengthen, Not Replace, Human Connection
AI offers significant opportunities to improve recruitment efficiency, but Ryan cautions against treating automation as a substitute for meaningful candidate relationships.
“There's definitely a benefit to technology and AI in our process,” he explains. The priority is determining how these tools can complement recruiters' work while improving the experience for candidates and hiring teams.
At Syneos Health, that includes using AI to help close communication gaps during recruitment, support the development of job descriptions and reduce administrative bottlenecks.
AI-enabled analytics are also helping teams anticipate workforce needs. For example, by analyzing three years of pharmaceutical sales and field medical turnover data, recruitment teams have identified geographic areas and skill sets where vacancies may be more likely, enabling more proactive workforce planning.
For Ryan, the value lies in giving recruiters better information and more time to focus on the interactions that matter.
“We're not using AI to replace the human connection with talent. We're leveraging it to complement our team with an eye toward allowing our talent leaders to drive more strategic and impactful value.”
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Candidate Experience Is a Two-Way Street
Technology can accelerate recruitment, but efficiency alone doesn't guarantee a positive experience.
“Moving too slow and moving too fast are both bad or poor candidate experiences,” Ryan observes.
Finding the right balance requires organizations to evaluate candidates thoroughly while giving those candidates an equally meaningful opportunity to evaluate the employer.
“We assess talent deeply, but we allow them to assess us deeply, as well.”
That philosophy extends to candidates who aren't ultimately selected. Understanding their experiences can reveal opportunities to improve communication, strengthen relationships and build long-term trust.
For organizations competing for specialized talent, every interaction contributes to their reputation as an employer. At Syneos Health, that means giving candidates an authentic sense of a culture where people are valued, collaboration is essential and everyone has an opportunity to contribute to work that can change patients' lives. A thoughtful recruitment experience matters regardless of whether a candidate receives an offer.
Learn more about our culture, our people and career opportunities across Syneos Health.
Why Recruitment Is a Team Sport
While technology and process improvements are essential, Ryan believes successful recruitment ultimately depends on collaboration.
He describes recruiters as the “quarterbacks” of the hiring process, responsible for coordinating the contributions of hiring managers, human resources teams, business leaders and customers.
Rather than defining recruitment strategies independently, effective talent acquisition teams bring stakeholders into the conversation, share talent market insights and develop solutions together.
“Nobody can recruit a great hire by themselves,” Ryan explains.
This collaborative approach also helps candidates experience an organization's culture firsthand through interactions with multiple people and interview environments.
It reinforces a broader shift in the role of talent acquisition: from fulfilling hiring requests to becoming a strategic business partner that uses data, anticipates challenges and recommends solutions.
This is especially important when building the multidisciplinary teams needed to deliver commercial solutions in an increasingly complex market.
Looking Beyond Experience To Recognize Potential
Perhaps Ryan's strongest challenge to conventional recruitment thinking is the industry's continued reliance on resumes and prior experience.
He believes organizations risk overlooking exceptional candidates when they prioritize specific career histories over the qualities that support long-term success.
“Let behavioral competencies, capabilities and motivational fit be the drivers of why you select somebody, not experience alone.”
For specialized life sciences roles, technical experience remains valuable. But Ryan argues that behavioral capabilities, learning agility and motivation drivers deserve greater consideration when evaluating long-term success potential.
This distinction becomes even more important as AI and automated screening technologies influence how organizations identify potential talent.
A resume can document where someone has worked. It cannot fully capture how they think, adapt, collaborate or grow.
As recruitment continues to evolve, Ryan's perspective offers a reminder: The future of talent acquisition isn't simply about finding people faster. It's about understanding people better.
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Contributor
Ryan Maglione | Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Talent
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