Okay we have another winner, and when no one else even has a person to interview! Kinda snarky and I really don't care. I have been working my rear off on networking and it shows.
I went to a 3 day training event and made some awesome connections in my work world. In the middle of day 2 I got an email that my great candidate took a different job. So bummed, like seriously bummed. I just added a family of 4 kids and the one kid has some significant behavioral needs that are challenging us, being tight on staffing is extra hard. So I met a young lady at the training who I clicked with, she works as a chef instructor for afterschool programming and I hire her company so she was kinda known to me. In any case she both asked if I would adopt her, of course I would , and then sent me a resume. I interviewed this person today and am really happy to go forward with her.
Part of the reason I got this candidate is because of the consistent work I have been doing over the years, my reputation and my connections. Apparently introverts can network! At the end of the interview she said that one of her friends was encouraging her to apply at a different one of our sites but she felt that their communication was not very good there. We have our issues but I am able to sit down and have those conversations as needed. It just felt very good because I had a pretty crappy couple of days already with work issues.