This interview is with Milos Eric, Co-Founder, OysterLink.
Milos, as Co-Founder and General Manager of OysterLink in hospitality, how do you describe your platform’s mission and your role in advancing careers across the industry?
OysterLink‘s mission is to bridge the gap between employers and hospitality professionals. We’re a hospitality job platform—yes, but that’s only scratching the surface of what we are.
OysterLink was built on the premise of being the primary hub for everything related to hospitality jobs. You don’t visit OysterLink just to post a job or to find one. You visit because we provide salary calculators, job descriptions, salary guides for roles and locations, interviews with established hospitality professionals, and so much more.
You also visit OysterLink to learn and, in doing so, improve your hospitality career.
Looking back, what experiences in growth, operations, and product leadership led you from roles at DesignRush, Digital Silk, and Sportifico to founding OysterLink?
Sportifico is where I learned to understand user needs. We were trying to solve the challenge of making networking easier between coaches and aspiring athletes through a social platform.
Although our team already had decades of experience in sports, we knew that wasn’t enough. We constantly engaged with users, tested ideas, and incorporated feedback into the product, which made Sportifico quite successful during its time.
At DesignRush and Digital Silk, I applied those lessons beyond product development. Listening, gathering feedback, and applying those insights proved just as valuable for growth and operations. This is also where I met my co-founder at OysterLink.
I believe these ventures prepared me well for this newest journey I’ve taken on.
From your earliest customer interviews and MVP tests, what product decision most clearly validated that OysterLink was solving a core hiring pain in hospitality?
Time is money, especially in hospitality. Employers are constantly under pressure to fill open positions, so we focused on helping them find qualified candidates more efficiently.
That’s why we emphasized candidate quality and hands-on support from the beginning. The positive response reinforced that we were addressing a genuine market need: employers often struggle to find qualified candidates on generic job boards, and personalized customer service is hard to come by.
For an operator hiring this quarter, what is one process change you recommend to reduce time-to-hire while maintaining quality of hire?
I recommend finding the right balance between technology and personal interaction throughout the hiring process.
Technology allows employers to quickly handle administrative tasks, while personal interaction helps evaluate qualities that are difficult to assess through automation alone.
This is especially important in hospitality, where soft skills such as communication, professionalism, and attitude are just as important as experience when determining whether a candidate is the right fit.
On pay transparency, what step-by-step rollout have you seen work best for hospitality employers to improve applicant quality and retention?
Start by knowing where you stand. Compare your current compensation structure with what competitors in your market are offering.
Once you have your numbers and are confident that they are competitive and reasonable, create a career progression map that outlines the different roles within your organization and the corresponding salary ranges for each.
Then, reference this career progression map in your job descriptions. For example, in the company overview section you can include a link to your website that shows the progression map.
As highlighted in our guide to restaurant staff retention, combining competitive pay transparency with clear opportunities for promotion is one of the most effective ways to build employee loyalty.
Using this information in your hiring strategy can help attract more qualified applicants while improving retention over the long term.
With OysterLink’s 400,000-strong community, how do you design features and content that turn job searches into long-term employer–talent relationships?
Even before we started sharing jobs on our website, we had already been building our content library with valuable resources for both employers and hospitality professionals.
So it’s true when I say that we’re more than a job board. We’re invested in sharing insights, whether it’s salary information, interview questions, job descriptions, or reports on industry trends.
We also share lists of certification programs, schools, and industry events that hospitality professionals can attend.
The goal is to help job seekers continue growing throughout their careers, not just find their next job.
By helping professionals develop their skills and stay informed about the industry, we’re creating a stronger talent pool for employers while fostering long-term relationships between both sides of the hospitality community.
For candidates using free job platforms like OysterLink, what single profile or application tweak most reliably moves them from apply to interview?
A simple tweak I highly recommend is proofreading your application before submitting it. I see this all the time: extra spaces, improper capitalization, and spelling mistakes.
You’re competing against thousands of people vying for the same job. We already have AI to expedite this process, so make use of it.
To highlight the cutthroat state of employment in hospitality today, according to a recent BLS news release, employment in the hospitality sector has plateaued this year; June reflected weaker-than-usual seasonal hiring.
So, every detail matters. When employers have a large pool of applicants to choose from, small mistakes can be enough to move your application to the bottom of the pile.
From your data analysis perspective, which two or three hiring metrics should hospitality leaders track weekly to spot turnover risk early and act on it?
I’d say hiring manager satisfaction and time to productivity.
- Hiring manager satisfaction: As the name suggests, this measures how pleased the manager is with the candidate.
It’s important because a strong score often indicates that the new hire is a good fit for the role and the team. In turn, that can help reduce turnover risk and save on recruitment costs, since you’re less likely to have to restart the hiring process.
- Time to productivity: This measures how quickly a new hire becomes effective in their role.
The sooner they integrate into the team and perform at the expected level, the more likely it is that there’s alignment between job expectations and reality.
When both metrics are trending positively, it’s often a sign that the hiring and onboarding process is working. When they aren’t, they can serve as early warning signs that additional support or intervention may be needed to improve retention.
Looking 12–24 months ahead, which single industry trend will most reshape hospitality careers, and why?
Referring to the BLS news release, I believe employers will increasingly favor generalists over specialists.
They will look for employees who can contribute across multiple areas of the operation rather than focus on a single function. Those who can wear multiple hats and adapt to different responsibilities will likely have a competitive advantage in the job market.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for the opportunity.
Given everything we’ve discussed here, I think the biggest takeaway is that change is inevitable.
Whether you’re an employer refining your hiring strategy to keep up with the market or a hospitality professional investing in new skills to advance your career, staying adaptable is key.
The industry is constantly evolving, and those who embrace change are usually the ones best positioned to succeed.