A thoughtful exploration of recruitment beyond metrics, revealing how connecting talented professionals with purposeful opportunities creates meaningful impact for organizations, individuals, and those they serve.
Her Story
About Amy
Amy Hernandez is a Senior Recruiter specializing in healthcare and Applied Behavior Analysis recruitment, with nearly a decade of experience connecting talented professionals with opportunities where they can make a meaningful impact.
Today, Amy serves with Lighthouse Autism Center, where she plays a key role in recruiting clinical and leadership talent while supporting the organization’s continued growth and expansion. Her work goes far beyond filling positions. She builds relationships, understands what matters most to healthcare professionals, advocates for candidates, and helps organizations find the people they need to make a difference in the communities they serve. She brings a people-centered approach to recruitment, grounded in accountability, determination, communication, and a commitment to helping candidates find meaningful opportunities. She believes the best hires happen when recruitment is built on genuine connection rather than simply matching a résumé to a job description.
Amy's career in recruitment spans nearly a decade and includes experience across healthcare staffing, clinical and physician recruitment, executive and administrative hiring, and high-volume recruiting. Prior to joining Lighthouse Autism Center, she served as Talent Acquisition Manager at Broadlawns Medical Center and as a Talent Acquisition Specialist at Urgent Care 24/7 & Affiliates. Earlier, she worked as a Senior Recruiter with All About People.
What makes Amy’s professional journey particularly unique is where it began. Her professional journey began after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Phoenix before making the decision to transition into recruiting. Rather than allowing a change in direction to define what she could or could not accomplish, Amy used it as an opportunity to build something new. Through persistence, mentorship, and a commitment to lifelong learning, she developed a successful career in talent acquisition and continued to grow into leadership-focused recruitment.
Amy credits strong mentorship, especially from accomplished women, and her commitment to lifelong learning as key factors in her success. She encourages young women to take opportunities before they feel completely ready, speak up, advocate for themselves, and support others along the way. She places integrity, personability, and empathy at the center of her professional philosophy and believes that meaningful recruitment begins with genuine human connection.
Beyond her professional work, Amy is passionate about giving back. She supports veterans through the American Legion Auxiliary and contributes to organizations focused on autism and veterans’ cause areas that reflect her belief that a career should be about more than professional success; it should also be about purpose and service.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Amy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the great mentors I have had throughout my career, particularly the amazing women who have guided and supported me. I am also a lifelong learner, and I try to approach every meeting and professional interaction as an opportunity to learn something from someone else. The combination of mentorship, curiosity, and continuous learning has helped me grow throughout my career.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I have received is to never stop learning, because the ceiling does not stop. I believe there is always another skill to develop, another perspective to understand, and another opportunity to grow, regardless of where you are in your career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women is not to wait until they feel 100% ready. Speak up, ask questions, and advocate for yourself. Be kind while remaining ambitious, and support other women as you grow. You do not have to know everything before taking the next step; growth comes from being willing to participate, learn, and challenge yourself.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest opportunities in recruiting and talent acquisition is that there are many different avenues and positions through which professionals can enter the field and grow their careers. At the same time, finding your own professional voice can be difficult, particularly early in your career. I believe meaningful growth comes from taking chances, learning through experience, and being willing to step outside your comfort zone.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is everything to me. I also place a high value on being personable and empathetic when connecting with people. Recruitment is ultimately about people, so understanding others, listening to their needs, and creating genuine connections are essential to how I approach both my work and my relationships.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Amy
We Don't Just Fill Positions. We Change Trajectories
Why the best recruitment is about connecting talent with purpose, not just filling positions.
Recruitment is often viewed from the outside as a numbers game. Open positions. Candidates. Interviews. Offers. Starts.
But anyone who has spent enough time on the other side of that equation knows there is a much more complicated story happening underneath the numbers.
There is a person sitting across from you—or on the other end of a phone call—trying to decide what comes next. And that decision can carry far more weight than a recruiter's metrics will ever capture.
I know because I've spent my career in the middle of those conversations.
Today, I've helped recruit and hire 32 BCBAs, and while I'm proud of that number, I've come to understand that the number itself is only the surface of the work.
What happens after the hire is where the real story begins.
The Recruiting Landscape Has Changed
Recruitment, particularly in healthcare and Applied Behavior Analysis, has become increasingly complex.
Qualified professionals are in demand. Candidates are more informed. They have more options and, appropriately, more questions.
They want to know about compensation, flexibility, and benefits, but those are no longer the only deciding factors.
- They want to know whether an organization will invest in them.
- Whether leadership will support them.
- Whether there is room to grow.
- Whether the culture described during an interview actually exists once they walk through the door.
- And perhaps most importantly, whether the work they are being asked to do will matter.
The recruiter has become part of that conversation.
That means the job is no longer simply about presenting an opportunity. It is about understanding what a person values, understanding what an organization truly offers, and determining whether those two things belong together.
That requires much more than a job description. It requires listening.
Behind Every Hire Is a Story
One of the things I've come to appreciate most about recruitment is how personal it is.
A candidate may tell you they are looking for a new position, but there is almost always a bigger story underneath that decision.
- Sometimes they want growth.
- Sometimes they want stability.
- Sometimes they are burned out and looking for a different kind of environment.
- Sometimes they have spent years questioning whether they are valued where they are.
- And sometimes they simply know they are ready for something more.
Those conversations have changed the way I think about recruiting.
A successful recruiter isn't simply trying to get someone to say yes. They are trying to understand why someone might say yes—and whether that yes will still feel right six months or a year later.
That distinction matters.
Because a placement is only successful if the person, the organization, and ultimately the people being served all benefit from it.
The Ripple Effect of One Decision
This is particularly evident in healthcare.
When I recruit a BCBA, I'm not simply filling a clinical vacancy. I'm helping an organization put another qualified professional in a position to serve learners and families who need them.
- That one hire can influence a team.
- That team can influence the quality of care.
- The quality of care can influence a learner's progress and a family's experience.
The ripple effect continues far beyond the moment an offer is accepted.
That is what makes recruitment so rewarding—and why I believe it deserves to be viewed as more than an administrative function.
The right hire can change an organization. And the right opportunity can change a person's life.
The Challenge Is Staying Human
Technology has transformed recruiting.
We have better sourcing tools, more data, more ways to communicate, and more ways to measure performance than ever before.
But there is one thing technology can't replace: human connection.
- Candidates can tell when a message was copied and pasted.
- They can tell when a recruiter is simply trying to hit a number.
- And they can absolutely tell when someone is genuinely invested in their decision.
The most effective recruiting, in my experience, still comes down to something remarkably simple: listen to people, tell them the truth, and treat their career decision with the importance it deserves.
That doesn't mean every candidate will say yes. It shouldn't.
Sometimes the best recruiting conversation ends with realizing that an opportunity isn't the right fit. That isn't failure. That is good recruiting.
What Recruitment Has Taught Me
Recruitment has taught me as much about leadership as it has about hiring.
- It has taught me how to advocate for candidates, for organizations, and, importantly, for myself.
- It has taught me to have uncomfortable conversations rather than avoid them.
- It has taught me that resilience matters because not every search ends with an offer, and not every offer ends with a start.
Most of all, it has taught me that people remember how you made them feel.
- They remember the recruiter who followed up.
- The recruiter who listened.
- The recruiter who told them the truth.
- The recruiter who believed they were capable of more.
Those moments may never appear on a recruiting report. But they matter.
The Part of Recruiting I'll Always Believe In
After all the changing markets, difficult searches, competing offers, and constantly evolving expectations, I still believe deeply in what recruitment can accomplish.
Because at its best, recruitment is not about putting a person in a vacant seat.
- It is about creating a connection between talent and purpose.
- It is about recognizing potential.
- It is about opening doors.
- It is about helping people find the next chapter when they may not know exactly what that chapter looks like yet.
I'm proud of the 32 BCBAs I've helped bring into my organization. But I'm even more proud of what those hires represent.
- They represent people who took a chance on something new.
- Professionals who are now making an impact of their own.
- Learners and families who are benefiting from their expertise.
- And a reminder that sometimes the most significant impact of our work happens long after we have moved on to the next candidate.
That is the part of recruitment that doesn't show up in the numbers.
We don't just fill positions.
We help people find where they can make a difference.
And sometimes, that changes everything.
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