Caffeinated Careers Volume 3: Big Tech insider tips for job seekers!

There is a lot of debate literally everywhere on how hiring managers and recruiters process candidates! Some say one thing, someone else says another thing. 

I can tell you that the person you’ll find the most accurate information from are the people you’re interviewing with! 

However, this series is aimed to find out what different hiring managers and recruiters look for in different industries! Today we talk about tech. Specifically Big Tech. I interviewed Andy Bowden and Amy Miller, Yes that Amy Miller to get in depth insights on how recruiting in Big Tech works!

Some advice is going to be generic when we look for candidates and some things are very specific. So today we're going to focus more on the overarching generic advice that we can give job seekers that are in tech that are looking for new jobs, that are looking for career development. I ask them a few questions that have been asked to me!

Let’s start with the basics about the job postings, job descriptions. Who writes them? What should job seekers look out for? 

Andy Bowden: Most of the time hiring managers are writing the core of the job description. What the needs of the team are, what level of experience the team needs. If the team is top heavy, then we’d look for someone who’s a bit junior. If the team has more junior and/or mid-career professionals that would need mentoring or coaching then we open a role for a senior person. But most of the time, as a hiring manager, I have written the core of the job and then HR or Talent Acquisition comes and fills in the rest that’s needed. 

What about how to read job descriptions? What if the job descriptions don’t specifically say ‘Basic requirements’? 

Andy Bowden: When there is no classification of Basic qualifications, I recommend networking and researching the organization. Try to get informational interviews with folks in your division. Try to understand what the team is working on and what they are looking for. 

Amy Miller: If you can’t make a reasonable assumption if the company is an OFCCP compliant organization then look at measurable requirements. We all see poorly written job descriptions that list things like, “must be a team player”, or “must like IPA’s” and whatnot. That stuff doesn't matter. It's not measurable. So you can kind of ignore those. When reading the job description, look for measurable job duties and that’s what you’ll need to determine whether you’re a fit or not. Are these measurable duties on your resume. Can a reasonable person look at your resume and job description and determine whether you’re a fit. Have a friend or mentor look at your resume. 

What about Entry level jobs that require 5-7 years of experience? 

Andy Bowden: Job seekers should look at where they are viewing this posting. Third party sites are notorious for this kind of error. And it’s the algorithm that makes the error. Go directly to the company website and try to identify whether it’s really asking for 5-7 years and look for the years of experience on the posting rather than what the categories say! 

Amy Miller: Look at whether the job title mentions entry-level. Most big companies have college/university recruiting programs that need 0-2 years of experience. If you don’t see the number of years of experience then you should network to identify what the jobs they’re looking for. Most big companies’ entry-level roles are going to be around University recruiting, not all but most! When you get to the first phone interview, that’s the perfect time to ask questions about the requirements. 

How do we feel about reaching out directly to hiring managers? There’s a lot of talk about reaching out to hiring managers and whether recruiters and hiring managers like that or not? 

Andy Bowden: There is nothing wrong with reaching out to the hiring manager. It’s not a turn off to me as a hiring manager! However, there’s a right way to do it. Make sure your message is clear about why you’re reaching out. Is it about an open role? Are you trying to set up an informational call? If you just send me your resume that’s not going to yield a response. 

Amy Miller: To me as a corporate recruiter there is nothing wrong with you reaching out to my hiring manager. I encourage my hiring managers to be active on LinkedIn, share open roles, and take informational calls. If the hiring manager knows a candidate is a fit, then it makes my job that much easier. And it’s not just about current open roles either, they might have other roles that could be down the line that I don’t know about, so yes candidates should reach out to the hiring managers, but like Andy said, be intentional. A good outreach message will take you a long way. 

What are your thoughts on the hidden job market? Is there such a thing? 

Amy Miller:  Most of my career, I have posted my open positions including when I was working for an agency. It’s best practice as a recruiter to do this, as we can receive candidates who might not be a fit for the current role but could be a good fit for a different role. This is especially true for OFCCP companies because we’re required to post all open roles. The hiddenness might come from the fact that the candidate has networked proactively and been told about the role before it’s posted externally. However, it’s still posted internally. 

Best Practices for Candidates to reach out:

Amy Miller: Reach out to the right recruiter. I get messages a few times a day about AWS. I know nothing about AWS. It’s just not in my wheelhouse. Most recruiters will put out what kind of roles they’re recruiting for. Reaching out to recruiters with the job ID, your resume, and why you’re a good fit is the best practice. Sending a message that says, “Hey, here’s my resume, help me find a job” is not going to yield a lot of results. 

Andy Bowden: Giving enough information is crucial. Reach out with information so the other party can take action. Sending resumes without context isn’t fruitful or productive. 

Does it matter whether candidate’s apply first or network first? Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Andy Bowden: In big companies, tech or not, you need to be in the system. Because that’s where the process comes in. If you aren’t in the system then it’s hard for companies to follow proper process and give you proper experience. You can network first, however you will still need to apply once the hiring team is ready to interview you. 

Amy Miller:  I think there's also a distinction that job seekers should draw between what I would call and I feel like I heard this first from Glenn Cathy: just in time networking versus long term networking. Does the recruiter or hiring manager have an open role right now? That’s just in time networking. We have the longer term play, which is where I'm engaging with people in my industry. I'm making friends and connections at target companies, and that can be months and months and months in the works. I've been referred to nearly every position I've held as a recruiter. Not all, but almost all and never from someone I just met. These are lifelong relationships that I've built over years and years and years. And people have called me and said, oh, hey, I know we haven't talked for a couple of years. We work together at this agency. Hey, my company is hiring. Either way, you don’t have to rely on just one. You’ll most likely do both and find that you’re seeing more success than you’d otherwise.

This is a series aimed to bring transparency. What question do you have for recruiters and hiring managers that I should ask?

Stay tuned for the next episode!

What do you need to caffeinate your career that I can address?

Until next time,

Stay Caffeinated!