Recruiting In Yoga Pants

Dressing up is for suckers

Month: October 2022

Recruiter Accountability! Hiring Manager Edition

October 28, 2022 /

One of the strangest concepts to me is the idea that many non-recruiters have – that recruiters can INTENTIONALLY BE BAD AT THEIR JOB and no one cares.

You know what I’m talking about. According to some, we’re out here willfully ignoring applicants, leaving reqs open for months at a time, and generally sucking at our job.

Y’all. Make it make sense.

I PROMISE you – if a hiring manager is unsatisfied with the level of service they’re receiving from their recruiters, they will speak up. And if they’re not? THEY SHOULD. You may not see all the sausage making but know there is likely way more to the story – either that recruiter is getting an earful, or just maybe that role isn’t the priority some folks think it is.

In a well functioning recruiting team, joint accountability is the key. Recruiters and hiring managers both have certain responsibilities and expectations of each other that should be agreed upon and met.

In the last several years I’ve hit upon a formula that has served me well across multiple business groups in three big tech companies:

PRIORITIZATION

I created a sliding scale based on how critical a role is. Those categories each come with a particular level of service and SLA for both sides. A top priority / hair on fire / must fill req means we’re meeting at least once a week and we’re committing to a certain level of engagement / productivity (X resumes a week, Y HM reach outs, whatever). If a hiring manager does not want to make the investment, we will happily re-prioritize their role closer to the bottom of the list.

CLEAR AGENDA

Based on priority, we will meet on a regular basis. Those update meetings are critical – it’s an opportunity to share specific status updates, clarify any outstanding asks, and clean up our pipeline. If we don’t have enough candidates in process, we can also use that time to do some live sourcing together or further strategize on how to get more folks in process.

Hiring managers are a critical part of the business eco-system. They are empowered to build teams, and that is no small feat! Building a strong partnership based on mutual accountability and trust makes all of us more successful. One of my all time favorite business leaders said it best – if your recruiter isn’t your best friend, you’re doing it wrong.

Check out the accompanying video HERE

Recruiter Accountability! Candidate Edition

October 21, 2022 /

Who’s holding the recruiters accountable?

Everybody. Freaking everybody.

In the first of a 3 part video series, we’re going to dig into how recruiters are held accountable to (and by) CANDIDATES. Please understand we are talking about ACTIVE CANDIDATES here. Recruiters do NOT owe emotional labor to people who are not actively engaged with their clients/active requisitions. We DO owe accountability / closure to anyone we HAVE engaged with, even if it’s a simple “no longer under consideration” email after an application or a phone call after an interview.

So how does that work exactly?

ATS Reminders and SLAs

Many companies have rules around how quickly we need to respond or close out on active candidates. Some systems will have reminders, and some teams pull weekly status reports to make sure activity is progressing. We recruiters have to answer for any missed connections or lack of closure.

Candidate Contact Points

Now this may be an “Amy” thing – but something I have consistently done is made sure my candidates have my personal cell phone number so they can call or text me any time. Now the downside is that eleventy billion people have my number and I have an embarrassing number of unread texts / voicemails but I’m trying y’all!

Surveys

Not every company does this, but many have a post interview survey! This can be a free form text field, or perhaps “rate this process” on a scale of 1-5. Those surveys go to recruiting leadership AND they do get read and discussed! I’ve absolutely had to explain negative feedback or follow up on mistakes I’ve made (I told y’all I wasn’t perfect).

Any time we’re dealing with people (recruiters, candidates, hiring managers alike) there’s always a possibility of making mistakes. The most important thing we can do is try our best, get it “right” more often than not, and be willing to admit when we’ve screwed up / try to make it right if possible.

What would you add to help with accountability?

Networking With Recruiters! 2022 Amy’s Version

October 15, 2022 /

I wrote about this back in 2019 and hahahahaha OMG how things have changed since then.

You can read it here, if you’re curious.

So what’s changed Ames? Well, the SHEER VOLUME of requests I get. Every. Single. Day.

Simmer down haters. I know how y’all like to get confused about how recruiting works. Keep reading.

So let’s start with WHAT recruiters actually do anyway. We are hired by companies (internal or agency) to find, engage, and deliver qualified candidates. As such, our PRIMARY FOCUS is on engaging with people in our specific niche/line of business/talent populations. There are other business facing priorities, but let’s focus on the candidate/applicant/prospect side.

For many recruiters, our priorities are as follows:

  • Applicants (folks who applied directly to our open roles)
  • Employee Referrals
  • Sourced prospects

My personal policy and what I encourage my team to do, is to check the applicant buckets first thing every morning. Yes, some roles get hundreds of applicants, but rarely overnight. Even in those cases it’s still a good practice to quickly review/forward/disposition on a daily basis. Over the last few years direct applicants have been my personal best source of hire! Sourced candidates (found by me / my team) and formal employee referrals (via my company’s internal career site) round out our list.

OK Ames, we get it – but what about people who want to approach you?

Let me clear up one ridiculous misconception RIGHT NOW – I LOVE interested, qualified prospects sliding into my DMs. Love it. Absolutely love it. You think I dress up in silly costumes every week and come up with funny ways to bring attention to my open roles for the hell of it?

Y’all – I WANT people who could fit my roles to find me and talk to me.

Those folks are my SECOND priority, after direct qualified applicants. I try to quickly scan my various inboxes daily to make sure I’m not missing any hot prospects or urgent requests. I also share contact info for our entire recruiting team, which is the single best way (AFTER applying directly) to get in touch with us about roles we’re hiring for.

But what about everyone else? Job seekers need help!

Y’all have to understand that my day job is what allows me to create all the other content for folks I will never hire. That means my day job HAS to be my priority. I started this blog and later YouTube channel BECAUSE I was no longer able to keep up with all the one to one requests. I have no special skills. I was not born into privilege, nor was I handed any opportunity. I had to figure out the hard way what worked for me, how to network effectively, and what a proper job search strategy (FOR ME) looked like. My primary goal with this “side hustle” is to help the average, every day job seeker who does NOT have certain privileges navigate all this better. My content is FREE, no strings attached, and available to anyone who wants it.

I sincerely welcome any and all messages from anyone who wants to get in touch – I’m merely asking for a little grace and understanding if I can’t respond right away, or worse – completely miss your message and fail to respond at all. I will never – EVER – be mad that someone reached out to me.

Now there are SOME individuals who think I could provide more value by responding to hundreds of people every week with “sorry can’t help you” instead of “making videos every day”. (Once a week, sparky. I make videos once a week. Math is hard I know).

Now that we have a bit more CONTEXT, let’s dig into what job seekers CAN do to stand out and get helpful responses!

Get clear on your ask

If you just want to network or add someone to your LinkedIn connections, that’s totally ok! You can say that! Unfortunately I’m at the max LI allows, but I encourage folks to follow me to stay connected. Feel free to engage in comments, tag me in posts, I’m cool with that! If you want to DM me, please tell me EXACTLY what it is I can help with. If I see the message (and honestly, I get SO MANY I know I miss a bunch) I’ll do my best to answer quickly – even if it’s redirecting you back to a video or post I already made.

Do your homework!

I cannot stress this part enough – contacting the RIGHT recruiter(s) is such an important first step. Most of us are pretty good at highlighting our industries, the company we recruit for, and the kinds of roles we’re looking to fill. Simply targeting your message to the RIGHT kind of recruiter is already a game changer, and fairly low lift.

Connect with / Follow industry pros

So many job seekers default to RECRUITERS, which is fine! Most of us really do want to help and it’s like Christmas when qualified folks land in our inboxes. However, those messages can be accidentally missed in a sea of other requests. Don’t sleep on networking with fellow (insert title here) and their leaders! If I was looking for a new recruiting job, you better believe I’m hitting up RECRUITERS and recruiting MANAGERS at companies I want to work for.

OK Ames you’ve convinced me – now what do I SAY?

I got you! I’ve written targeted networking templates you can access HERE. These templates are intended to give you a framework you can personalize to your specific requests and target audience. I have lots of other content like Salary FAQs, Recruiting FAQs, all kinds of stuff to help you navigate this all more effectively. If you like videos, I’ve curated a whole playlist you might want to start with. – Job Seeker Survival Guide

To sum it up –

Friends, let me be vulnerable with you for a moment. While 90% or more of the reactions I get to my content is positive, I get my share of very loud haters. I’ve had people tag CEOs of three major tech companies (my employers) trying to get me fired. I’ve been insulted, threatened, and accused of all kinds of nefarious nonsense. I refuse to share my family on social media (rarely even pictures) because my KIDS have been targeted by strangers angry that I didn’t give them something they demanded of me.

There is NO profession – including recruiters – that deserves the vitriol certain folks lob our way. The fact that recruiters remain accessible after what we go through should be celebrated! I know my content (let alone my style) is not for everyone, and that is OK! My only ask is if you HAVE benefited from anything I’ve shared, please pay it forward. Share with your friends. I don’t want lifelong followers – my hope is that folks leverage my insights, get the role(s) they want and help the next group of job seekers.

I never want to shame anyone for seeking help. EVER. Asking for help is a sign strength, in my opinion. Recognizing your gaps, or where you need a lift, is a wonderful thing. I sincerely want to be that lift to as many people as I can, as effectively as possible.

Recruiters are human too – don’t forget that when asking us to put the HUMAN back in Human Resources.

P.S. – for the salty little potatoes in recruiting who think I owe literally every single person who contacts me a response – please leave your contact information below. I will add it to my auto-responder so that these folks can go to YOU for the direct, one on one assistance I am unable to provide. We thank you for your service. Alternatively, you can see if shutting up is right for you.

Applying Through 3rd Party Sites!

October 14, 2022 /

We love an easy button don’t we?

Applying through a one-click / easy apply / mass application type site may SEEM like a good idea, but what happens on the backend of that process?

So for me, I’m ALWAYS going to go straight to the company’s careers page. Sorry LinkedIn – love ya but not going to apply through ya. I want to go STRAIGHT to the hiring company, carefully upload my information, make sure my resume parsed correctly. You’re going to see EXACTLY what I want you to see from me and I’m taking NO chances!

But I am crazy suspicious like that. If you’re not, and you want to take your chances with one of these sites, read on!

I investigated LinkedIn, Zip Recruiter, and Indeed to better understand HOW those applications are managed. The results, NOT surprising in the least! In fact, these sites operate exactly how I had hoped.

All three sites allow the job poster (typically a recruiter) to set up specific criteria in order to be moved through the process. This can your typical Yes/No decision tree type questions, or even assessments! Based on the job seeker’s response to those questions, an applicant can be “automatically” dispositioned. So what does THAT mean?!

For Indeed, your application is “Rejected”. In Zip Recruiter, it’s “Hidden”. LinkedIn? You’ve been “Archived”.

Do you know what all three of those statuses have in common?

The list of applicants is still READILY AVAILABLE AND VIEWABLE to the employer! Many recruiters will go back into those lists and double check candidates for mistakes or even fit for other roles.

Just like we do in traditional ATSs. It’s even possible to “unhide” or whatever to bring that candidate back to the main workflow.

These sites can be particularly useful for small companies that can’t afford a big box ATS, or don’t hire often enough to set up their own. Once again, the SYSTEM being used to TRACK APPLICANTS functions exactly as expected. It’s a digital filing cabinet, following the instructions given to it by the user – typically a recruiter.

Don’t let yourself get weirded out or scared by these scam artists masquerading as “job search coaches”. You don’t need to pull the tiny white font crap, no need to “bypass” applications, or throw yourself on the mercy of your network. Targeted, relevant applications coupled with strategic networking is your best bet.

For more on this topic, watch the video HERE

No Feedback? No Problem!

October 7, 2022 /

Ultimately, feedback doesn’t REALLY matter.

Ok maybe that’s some crazy thing I made up to protect my own sanity. Recruiters have been candidates too, you know. And I’ve certainly had my share of failed interviews.

As a recruiter, there are THREE THINGS I know for sure when it comes to feedback. That feedback is HIGHLY DEPENDENT on the following:

  • Company norms/expectations
  • Team needs
  • Role specifics

We know that interviewing is a data collection exercise that tells us if we do or do not have a fit for those three things – does the person fit the org (culture fit…?) does the person add needed skills / experience to the team, and will the person be successful in this role / level. Now these expectations should be laid out during interview prep and such, but the interview is an opportunity for decision makers to learn enough about you to say “yes” or “no” to these decision points.

Sometimes, the answer is no.

That does NOT mean you’re not a great (insert title here) – it simply means you weren’t the right fit for that specific company/team/role. Sometimes one of these topics, sometimes all of them. Sometimes, it’s literally timing.

The only thing that matters is does this impact your ability to apply or interview again.

Follow me through on this – just because THIS role on THAT day isn’t right, can I still apply in the future? Can I be considered for a different role or team? Should I wait a year or more?

THAT is the only kind of feedback I personally care about. I know that what Company A thinks or me (good or bad) is not in any way related to or shared with Company B, which may think I’m great.

Don’t let a lack of feedback hold YOU back from moving forward. We’re not going to change a decision that’s already made, but we can definitely spend that emotional energy on future opportunities.

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