Category: recruiting (Page 3 of 4)

What to Wear to an Interview

December 2, 2019 / Amy Miller

There sure are a lot of experts out there telling us what we shouldn’t wear to interviews and/or the workplace. One author proposes a no bling rule (check out my response here). Someone else says no yoga pants (thanks for inspiring this blog!). And now we have NO ORANGE CLOTHING.

Yes, I understand that not all companies are the same. While I, in tech, can get away with pink hair and Star Wars t-shirts, I know that this would not fly in a bank in my Midwestern home town. I encourage you to employ some common sense and ask your recruiter / friends / colleagues who are in the know. Besides that, there is one simple rule that everyone – regardless of the position – should follow.

Wear what makes you feel great.

That’s it! That’s the rule. Here’s why. An interview is your one big chance at making an epic impression. You’ve probably already made a positive one – after all, they’re inviting you to meet a bunch of folks and are SERIOUSLY considering you for their open positions. That is a great sign! It means they like you enough to invest hours of employees’ time to get to know you better.

What they are probably NOT doing, is judging you over the color of your sweater.

Hey if orange is your color, ROCK IT. I would look like a washed out pumpkin, but you’ll pry my leopard print scarf out of my cold dead hands. There are certain outfits and accessories that just make me feel like I have my shit together. And when I feel like I have my shit together, I come across as WAY MORE CONFIDENT.

Who doesn’t want to wear confidence to an interview?

Here’s a fun fact about me. Red lipstick is my super power. I have no scientific proof to back this up. I cannot tell you that I’ve received amazing offers because I wore red lipstick. I can neither confirm nor deny that my most popular speaking engagements, webinars and trainings were the ones where I was rocking the red. I can tell you, without hesitation or reservation, that I feel better/smarter/more confident when I have my lippy war paint on.

It’s going to be too much for some people. A company, hiring manager, or recruiter who looks at this shameless selfie and says “oh no she’d NEVER fit HERE” – well, they’re right. And I wouldn’t want to.

I am SO fortunate to be at a place in my career (at least right now 😉 ) where I can carefully pick and choose who I want to work with and where. I know not everyone is this lucky. So recruiters, here’s some unsolicited advice for YOU.

Don’t allow your hiring partners to pull this shady stuff. Just don’t. If you’re unsure how to push back on bad feedback, call me. I’ll walk you through it and give you some ideas on how to re-center the discussion on what matters.

Candidates – send me your super power selfies! Show me what you’re rocking for those important interviews. I’ll draw a name at random and send you a little something to thank you for being a faithful reader and supporter of my little blog. You can always find me at amy@recruitinginyogapants.com, put “SUPER POWER SELFIE” in the subject line so I don’t miss it.

Now go conquer that interview!

There’s a sucker born every minute. Some go into recruiting.

October 5, 2019 / Amy Miller

1997. I was attending a vocational school night classes in Lacey, WA (since bankrupt) in an attempt to learn how to type and be a receptionist. I had two little babies at home and I knew I need to get some training and make some money. Natalie (I can’t remember her last name) was the branch manager of our local Office Team. She came to speak with all of us students about “temping”, why we should consider signing up with Office Team after our training and we knew how to answer phones and file documents. She stood there in her branch manager suit, all polished and professional, and I knew in that moment – I wanted to be Natalie when I grew up.

So began my path to recruiting.

I signed to be a temp for Office Team, and spent several weeks covering the front desk while their receptionist was on parental leave. When I was offered a role as a Staffing Manager, I couldn’t run away fast enough. All the Staffing Managers I worked with went home crying every day – no way in hell I was signing up for that. Fast forward a few more months and I somehow networked my way into a recruiting gig for a local boutique firm hiring truck drivers. Thus began my recruiting career.

Twenty years later, I’m living the good life as a senior recruiter for a well known tech brand. I’ve learned SO much over the years, the most important lesson is that I’m actually really good at this. I often joke that I’ve been in recruiting so long that I literally cannot do anything else. Probably true, but besides the point.

In all my years I’ve seen disruptive new models come and go. There was the company that offered to pay you to speak to recruiters (it’s ok they’re working on a relaunch). The latest is a firm that is going to do some cool stuff with blockchain and prepaid visas. I listened to the amazing Chad and Cheese Podcast about this today and there was a reference to “Equifax for Resumes” which frankly freaked me the hell out.

Am I in a Black Mirror episode??

Y’all can read the posts and listen to the podcasts yourselves, but let me just say this – ALL of this seems to hinge on the willingness of job seekers to be, well, seeking a job. There’s also apparently a claim that the 5% fee received by the JOB SEEKER is enough for a so called passive individual to make a change. There’s also some discussion about how staffing agencies can actual leverage this tool – which is FASCINATING since the early premise seemed to be that staffing agencies suck or something (my words not theirs, simmer down internet folk).

Alrighty. All that, leading up to THIS – Turn Recruitment Into a Second Income.

I’m CRYING, y’all.

So the basic premise (maybe?) is that you can do this really hard work on the side and by leveraging the fine folks behind this shiny new tool, make some side money. After all, You go and get a job requirement from a company, agree to your terms with them at a 20% fee.

That’s all! Just go get a job requirement. From a company. Get them to agree to your terms at 20% fee.

Easy peasy.

Sure, working with this outfit reduces your fee, but they also remove all the risk and challenges recruiters face and skip right to the money making part (absolutely THEIR words this time, y’all. You can’t make this shit up).

I gotta tell you my emotions are all over the place with this. I went from being mildly amused to pissed off to confused and now am squarely in the sit back and pop some popcorn camp. I think recruiting is BIG ENOUGH for all kinds of people to try all sorts of neat things and make great money doing it. What I DON’T like is anyone reducing my hard work to a simple transaction.

In a phrase, F*CK OFF.

I work REALLY hard to engage people who otherwise wouldn’t consider a job change. I consult all the time with managers, convincing them to take chances on people who may not look “right” on paper. I constantly peel back the layers to understand the emotional currency of my candidates, and try to help them navigate the really hard, complex interview process at my company. I GIVE A SHIT about my clients and candidates. I did at my last several companies. I’ll do it again at the next one.

If you think you can distill all that hard emotional heavy lifting into signing up for a f*cking job board you don’t know recruitment.

Now – if your premise (which is what I took away from the podcast) is that you’re a supplement to recruiting firms / TA teams, that’s cool. But that’s not your premise, right…? You LITERALLY POSTED that recruiting is basically driving around and picking people up in your car.

To the founders, executives, writers, anyone involved that wants to discuss – let’s do it. Amy@recruitinginyogapants.com. I’m open to a conversation – I’ll give you my personal cell phone and we can talk all about it. We could even meet on the Recruiting Animal Show. Let’s talk about how I can make great money with no qualification. Surely you didn’t mean it to come across the way it did…

Right?

Applicants, Bikinis and Instagram – OH MY!

October 4, 2019 / Amy Miller

EVERYBODY is talking about the latest kerfuffle between aspiring marketer Emily Clow and some salty chicks over at Kickass Masterminds, who have since taken down all their social real estate (THAT HASHTAG THO).

If you’ve been living under a rock or maybe just haven’t paid much attention (someday I’ll learn this) there’s tons of articles, but I’m digging the write up HERE. Another not so flattering spin found over THERE. The founder (as of this writing) still had her old YouTube channel up – in this video she gives advice on how to lose weight, including the reason “I want to wear a bathing suit to the beach without being embarrassed”. The internet citizens are NOT KIND, y’all.

SO ANYWAY – in case you’re not keen on clicking away and really dying to know what I think of this situation, here ya go – young woman applies for a marketing job with kick ass company. Kick ass company tells her follow them on Instagram to be considered a top candidate or some such shit. Candidate does. Company finds candidate’s insta feed full of bikini, vacay, and food photos. Absolutely horrible decision making ensues.

The company posted a cropped photo of Ms. Clow showing her in a bikini and with the caption that basically said they’re not hiring a bikini model and stop putting these pictures on the internet if you want a real job. One has to wonder if the same person behind that update ever told their founder to take down the photo her herself in a tank top that said “Feisty As F*ck”. Y’all know I love a good snarky t-shirt but that might be a bridge to far even for ME.

Sigh. the irony of this blowing up on #MeanGirlsDay is not lost on me.

Here’s the BIGGER QUESTION –

What right / expectation / understanding should exist between employers and candidates with regards to Social Media? I gotta be honest – I’m pretty dang open on social media, and I’m sure if you looked really hard, you’d find some less than flattering stuff (please Lord don’t ever let me go viral). I ALSO stand by the crap I say and even when it’s less than popular, well, I own my opinions. I’m not for everybody, but I sure hope my current employer doesn’t tire of my shenanigans any time soon. I digress. Here’s what I REALLY THINK.

As a recruiter / company representative, it’s none of my damn business.

There I said it. I can already here the chorus of “but Amy what about (insert awful thing here)” but the reality is, my job is to vet your ability and interest. CAN you do the job. Do you WANT to do the job here. I have absolutely zero right to go looking for trouble. You being a vegetarian, a Republican, a Zoroastrian, or hot girl in a bikini has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to write solid code.

The issue is NOT that during the course of an interview process / background check unsavory information came to light. I get that can happen. I’m not even as concerned about the company searching the applicant’s IG feed (ok I don’t LOVE that, but again, they’re hiring a marketer – I see the relevance). It was the extra intentional step to shame a girl rocking a bikini. Would a male applicant in a tank top or better yet, shirtless, have received the same shitty treatment? Some have defended the company, saying the job seeker should have kept it private, or that since her head was cropped out, they didn’t call HER out. Oh BS. She quickly identified her photo (with captions!) and asked them to take it down. Nicely. This was a HORRIBLE decision on the company’s part, and quite frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves.

So what’s a job seeker to do? Look, I can’t change the rules of the game for you, but I can try to help you win. Lock down your profiles (or at least sanity check what can/can’t be publicly seen). If you’re active in your job search, ask professional pals to take a look and give real, honest feedback on how your social footprint shows up. Take a look at the profiles of people who work for your target company. Are they fairly free-wheeling with what they share? Might be a great fit for you! Are they more reserved? Now’s the time to make a decision on how hard you want to pursue a role with them.

How about my recruiting brothers and sisters? Do you really think you’re the social media police and you should go LOOKING for something to be mad about? Here’s my advice to YOU – if your client / employer has a specific social media policy – then YES. Give your prospects a heads up. Again – we can’t change the rules of the game, but don’t we owe it to our candidates to help them win? If we KNOW that companies are going to react badly to a bikini photo (still think that’s dumb, but – whatever) shouldn’t we clue our candidates in? I vote yes.

What say you?

Actually, You DON’T Want To Hire “The Best”

July 2, 2019 / Amy Miller

Of all the lies recruiters tell themselves this might be one of my faves. We only hire “the best”. We only engage with “the best” talent on behalf of our clients. We won’t consider less than “the best” for our open roles. In fact, someone looking to hire a recruiter recently told me “decent is a bad word to me”, as he only hires “the best”.

As I’m thinking about this post, I’m wracking my brain trying to remember a time a hiring manager said those words to me. “ONLY BRING ME THE BEST! NOTHING ELSE WILL DO!” I gotta tell you guys, I’m drawing a blank here. This is not to say leaders get it right all the time – but generally they know to caveat their requests with some specifics. In all my years of tech recruiting, we are usually looking for someone who –

writes clean code
has been part of or possibly led a team
solved large scale problems
has a relatively provable track record of success

Can I with any confidence say I’m going to find “the best” developer and convince them to take this role? Or “the best” manager to lead that team? What the hell does it even mean? Is it all just meaningless buzzwords we use to feel superior? If I let myself fall too far down the rabbit hole I have to wonder just who is holding the measuring stick for all this best-i-ness!! HOW CAN I KNOW???

Fun Fact – I can’t. And neither can you. There are certain things we can and should vet as part of the recruiting process. Can the person accomplish this thing? Check. Are they interested in doing said thing for my client? Check. Will they actually leave the current place they’re doing the thing and come do the thing here for the amount of money I can pay them? CHECK CHECK CHECK.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you might have yourself a hire! Now congratulate yourself on being a master of the recruiting universe and stop wondering if someone “better” is out there. Because they are. You will drive yourself absolutely bat shit crazy if you focus on only “the best” however you choose to define it. I guarantee someone else involved in the process will have a whole ‘nother way to measure “best”.

How about we look at this a little differently, hmm? Start asking yourselves these questions –

is my prospect QUALIFIED (they can do the thing)
are they INTERESTED (willing to talk about doing the thing here)
can I AFFORD them (I can pay what it will cost for them to do the thing)

This is obviously the BARE MINIMUM of what we should be thinking about / discussing – but how differently does our recruiting approach look when we stop caring about subjective, silly qualifiers like “best” and focus on things we can actually measure? A simple change in mindset is so freeing. All of a sudden I can start focusing on what MATTERS and forget about pipeline that won’t fit my criteria, no matter how great. This is often a discussion when it comes to remote work – you can’t really say you want “the best” when you’re not willing to let people work from home. Or bring their cats to work. Or wear yoga pants. Someone, somewhere, is doing an AMAZING job at the thing, and you won’t hire them because you have this or that rule. You can have those rules. Within reason and the law, you can have just about any old rule you want. So throw out “the best” and focus on what works for the team AND the candidate. In other words, “the best for this specific role, at this specific time, under these specific circumstances”.

You can have a high bar. You can expect BIG THINGS from people (even more so if you give them something juicy in return – be it money, culture, growth, whatever). Just keep it real. Your clients and candidates will love you for it.

Sincerely,

Not the best – but definitely sometimes really great 🙂

Beware the Idiot Lights

June 18, 2019 / Amy Miller

Y’all I’m still geeking out over the Talent42 Fireside Chat last week. For those who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, check out the live stream (thank you Ninh!) HERE.

Long story short (hahahahaha as if) I had the privilege of hosting a group of talented Google engineers (including 2 who lead teams) and ask them anything about recruiters. And boy did we hear it. I learned a few things, had a myth or two busted, and found myself amazed at the “yeah buts” we got. There were a few takeaways I found particularly interesting –

– On average, my panelists aren’t getting hit on THAT MUCH. I think we agreed it was roughly 1-2 times a week. Some days you’d get 10 contacts, then radio silence for 2 weeks. There is literally no rhyme or reason that I can see. Just…. random.

– Approximately 1 in 10 outreaches are worth responding to. Now this is not license to fire off 10 shit messages and say “OK NOW YOU HAVE TO RESPOND TO ONE OF THEM!” No, in a sea of mediocrity, ONE IN TEN (again, averages) is worth a acknowledging.

(side note – if you’re looking for 10 connections a week, and say to yourself “great, I need to email 100 people to hit my number!” you’re doing it so wrong that I could throw up right now)

– Interruption communication is the WORST. Phone calls in the middle of the day, that kind of thing. Emails / inmails (inmauls) are “meh”, but better than startling someone or causing them to momentarily think something horrible has happened because really who even uses the phone anymore. Oh pipe down agency/retained/gazillion dollar billers. I know you’re all K I L L I N G it by smiling and dialing. Why are you reading this anyway? Point is, scheduled communication is key. And appreciated.

So what’s a recruiter to do? There are a seemingly infinite number of ways to source someone, so instead of leaving an exhaustive list, how about this –

Ask.

Ask your damn targets what they want to hear from you. Ask what kind of opportunity they want to hear about. Ask how often they want to be contacted and how. Pay attention to bread crumbs they’re leaving you on their social real estate. If someone blatantly calls out I’m never ever EVER going to leave Seattle, why are you pitching a role in NYC? If someone has been leading a team for the last 10 years, why would they answer your call for a junior engineer? (yes this has happened, REPEATEDLY, to one of my panelists)

In other words, stop tripping the idiot lights.

Text Recruiting Done Okay-ish

May 2, 2019 / Amy Miller

My husband HATES texting. Really, any form of electronic communication is beyond him. Or beneath him. Thank goodness we’ve been friends since high school (read: pre-internet) or Lord knows we’d never have gotten together.

Recruiting, on the other hand, LOVES this shit. We can’t get enough of emails, inmails (INMAULS), tweets and Facebook messages. There’s a lot of noise being made about texting candidates as well. For, against, you name it.

Just today, in fact, I was treated to a text recruiting message of my very own!

There you have it, kids. The entire exchange took 2 minutes. Perfectly pleasant conversation, we QUICKLY ruled me out (y’all know my list of demands for contract work) and it highlighted an email I would have otherwise missed.

If I’m being really honest, I wouldn’t have replied to the email. It was a copy/paste of the job description with no real hook. Plus, that whole contract thing… but at least he was up front about it.

I’ve never used TextUs. I hadn’t even heard of it until today. Is it really a game changer? Maybe. Was this one of the more reasonable and pleasant recruiting conversations I’ve had in a while? Yup.

I’m not sure that says a lot… no knock at all on the agency recruiter who sent this – like I said totally pleasant and I’d be open to hearing from him again if he had something relevant / up my alley. Of course I can’t claim he did any real research on me… but keeping it short and sweet is ok in my book. Maybe it’s the novelty of it. If I start getting 10-15 random texts a day I suppose I’d bitch about that like I do shitty inmails.

What Prospects REALLY Think of Your Inmail (and how to be better)

April 29, 2019 / Amy Miller

Or better said, InMAUL (thank you Uncle Steve).

Y’all I just CAN’T with this today. I blame this nasty cold I’ve been fighting for nearly a week, it’s made me crankier than usual. I was feeling almost human today, so thought I’d respond to an otherwise “meh” inmail (inmaul!) I got last week. Here goes –

Hi Amy,

I had reached out to you via InMail a few weeks ago and I am just touching base to make sure you received my message! I am currently looking for Recruiters for a few exciting positions at [COMPANY] and I am writing to gauge your interest. I would love to further our conversation if you are interested in recruiting opportunities at [COMPANY] 🙂 Let’s connect and see if we can collaborate either now or in the future. Happy connecting!

Ok so this was the 2nd message in a week. Totally fine. The first message was more general networking, nothing exceptional either way. I had every intention of sending a nice “thanks but no thanks” – however being curled up in a miserable ball of sickness derailed that plan. I digress.

I decide to write back this morning – I like to be SUPER transparent and make sure I’m leaving no room for guesswork. Most of the time these responses knock me right out of consideration, which is fair, given that it would take something truly spectacular to pull me away –

hi [AGENCY RECRUITER], happy to chat, but I do want to be clear on where I am in my career / what it would take to pry me away 🙂

I’m full time at Google – Since I’ve been here less than a year I’d have a significant clawback if leaving any time soon. This would obviously need to be accounted for in any potential offers. (I know it may seem premature to mention, we’ve only just met! But I just want to be extra transparent).

I’m also connected to a couple of leaders at [COMPANY ([SPECIFIC TEAMS])] and am having long term chats about future potential. Since you’re representing an agency, I just want to be up front on that, as I may not be a “fee-worthy” candidate. Also, not interested in contract unless it pays VERY well, 100% remote and allows me to finally relocate to Hawaii. 😉

How do you define “exciting positions” at [COMPANY]? I have my own thoughts on what makes a role epic, but curious what that means to you.

Happy hunting!

Amy

Here’s the thing y’all – I’m 9 months into my role. I’m having some growing pains like anyone else. I’m CONSTANTLY engaging with / networking with recruiting leaders as you just never know where your career will take you. I’m not actively looking to leave (I JUST FREAKING GOT HERE) but I wanted this recruiter to know that I already know people at your client. You are probably not getting a fee for me.

Here’s the response I got – approximately 5 minutes later –

Hi Amy,

Thank you for the information! I have many roles across different recruiting teams at [COMPANY]. I work with the direct managers at [TEAM, TEAM, TEAM I ALREADY MENTIONED, and TEAM]. I hire all levels of Technical Recruiters to these teams. Dependant on your skill set I would present you to one or multiple of these teams. The roles are primarily sourcing roles. Let me know if you would be interested in continuing the conversation!

I am curious, are you full time or contract at the moment?

Cheers,

[AGENCY RECRUITER]

Please take a moment and see if you can point out the mistakes.

Ok, have your list? I have one too. But first, my snarky response back because I JUST F%&$ING CAN’T TODAY.

full time

my super power is recruiting strategy and client engagement. I helped build the Business AI team at Microsoft while I was there. I currently manage all senior hiring (engineering managers) across YouTube with a team of 3 (2 sourcers and another recruiter)

I’ve spoken at tons of conferences, conducted lots of trainings, webinars and written many recruiting articles – lots out there that speaks to my skill set and expertise 🙂 If you still think you can charge a fee for me after learning more about me, happy to chat.

I won’t consider contract unless it’s breathtakingly better than what I’m currently doing (and pays like, $100 an hour or more depending on cost of benefits, etc)

YOU DIDN’T READ MY RESPONSE

I am clearly full time. I said that. Like clearly stated I’m full time and not interested contract. Yet you still asked if I was full time or contract. Is this real life?

YOU DID ZERO HOMEWORK

Don’t bullshit me on this. If you’d done even a cursory scan of my LinkedIn profile (let alone the rest of my social footprint) you’d know a few things about me. You could have cracked a joke about yoga pants. You could have said “great job on last week’s webinar” (even though you clearly didn’t listen to it) you could have said SOMETHING, ANYTHING, that would have indicated I was more than just another target on your inmaul list.

YOU DIDN’T ADDRESS MY QUESTION

I gave you an opening. I asked you why your roles were exciting (YOUR WORDS). You could have given me any kind of pitch that maybe JUST MAYBE would have gotten my attention or possibly given me a reason to refer someone your way.

Y’all I’m nobody special. I’m just another recruiter in a sea of AMAZING professionals trying to do my best and feed my kids. I work for a high profile brand, I have a bit of name recognition because I verbally vomit all over the internet. I’m not the only one, and don’t think I’m any more qualified than the next guy on your list.

The next guy deserves better. So did I.

So does the Engineering Manager I’m about to contact out of the blue. They guy or gal who’s happily leading a team building the next epic thing at a cool company. The leader who’s INUNDATED with inmails (INMAULS) from recruiters like me. The manager who’s more concerned about getting the next feature shipped and NOT their next job.

I have a new rule for any outgoing message I send. How would this MAKE ME FEEL if I was on the receiving end? If the answer is “like a number”, then I should probably rethink before I hit send.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the response I got to my final message?

Hi Amy,

Thank you for letting me know! At this time that is higher than I would be able to pay. If that changes I will be sure to reach out!

Cheers,

[Agency Recruiter]

Hawaii, here I come!

How to tell if a recruiter is full of shit (and what to do about it).

January 10, 2019 / Amy Miller

A recruiter called with a job just PERFECT FOR YOU! Great news, right….? I mean, recruiters are AWESOME! Recruiters connect people with jobs! Recruiters are the happy go lucky bridges between workers and managers making dreams come true! Recruiters are….

Oh.

Here’s the real deal y’all – recruiting is a game of rejection, unfortunately. As much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, we have to tell a lot of people NO. Whether it’s narrowing down our short list with hiring managers, or following up after interviews, there are all sorts of opportunities for us to anger people. Sure, there’s lots of advice on the best way to have that conversation, but this is not that blog post. This is for the passive target just minding her own business AND the active applicant who both desperately want to know – just what the hell is wrong with this recruiter and WHY should I trust them with my career?

First Contact
So you get a call from a recruiter. Or an email, tweet, inmail (shudder) or some version of outreach. This recruiter has NEVER SPOKEN TO YOU BEFORE. Should you respond? If yes, how?

Not every message deserves a response. There I said it. While it is KIND to reply to everyone, you and I both know it’s not REALISTIC. If I responded to every single form of outreach I ever received, I’d get hardly any real work done. So no – you don’t HAVE to respond, but you might want to. Questions to ask yourself –

Does this recruiter work for / represent a company I’m interested in learning about?
Does the job (assuming they’ve given you some context) sound intriguing?
Am I at a point in my career where I MIGHT be willing to make a change for something AMAZING?
Did the recruiter write a relevant, targeted message that clearly indicates they have a clue and did their homework on ME?

If the answer is YES to any of these, a response is warranted. Even if it’s a “no thanks not now” response, that’s ok! I know I would appreciate it.

The Call

So you respond. Recruiter wants to talk, promises to share comp info, company detail, more about the role once they get you on the phone. THIS IS A TACTIC. Of course it is, we’re trained to plant the seed to get you on the phone. This is not wrong, necessarily… but it can feel a little gross so it’s totally fine to be blunt here. It’s ABSOLUTELY acceptable to tell the recruiter you can spare 15 minutes, are willing to provide a brief overview of your background and lay out your expectations. A good recruiter would be all over that. A GREAT recruiter will do more listening than talking in this first conversation. What we want to know –

Are you open to making a job change?
Are you skills and abilities a fit for my hiring need(s)?
Do you have reasonable expectations?

Now you’re wondering what’s reasonable… great question, and a recruiter should be able to tell you. Whether it’s average comp for your industry / expertise, appropriate level / chance of getting to the next step in the hiring process, timing… all of this can and should be readily answered by the recruiter. It’s worth mentioning that in the course of this quick chat, one of both of you may decide it’s not the right time/opportunity. THAT IS OK. You can agree to follow up in 6 months. The recruiter can offer to connect you to other teams / colleagues. You can agree to never speak again. There are no wrong outcomes, but CLEAR outcomes with specific next steps are the best.

Pro Tip – if you’re not comfortable getting on the phone, lay that out in your email response! I have literally done this as a prospect myself. I am interested in chatting IF (insert laundry list here). A smart recruiter knows better than to waste your time and will be thankful. If we can hit those hot buttons, AWESOME! We’ll tell you that and set up a call from there. If we can’t… well, in my experience recruiters just go away never to be heard from again. It happens. 😉

Red Flags
Full disclosure – this is MY perspective as a candidate / prospect who gets hit up all the time. I try really really hard to NEVER be this recruiter. I fail at this. A lot. But know it’s not who I want to be.

Can’t or won’t disclose any details about the company / job / team. We’re not holding the nuclear codes here, people. If the recruiter doesn’t KNOW, then the recruiter is not truly a strategic adviser to their client and knowledgeable about what they’re recruiting for. Proceed with caution.
Talks WAY TOO MUCH. Well shit. I’m guilty of this. I get excited, probably over share, so… the previous bullet isn’t really a problem 🙂 BUT – recruiters should be making it about YOU the candidate and taking lots of notes. If you have to remind your recruiter repeatedly that no you absolutely CAN NOT RELOCATE then it’s a good indicator they’re not listening. And that’s bad.
Pretends to know more than they do. I don’t know shit about coding. I often joke about being the least technical tech recruiter on the planet. I won’t ask you a bunch of questions about latency or distributed systems or the difference between Java and JavaScript because frankly I’m not keen on embarrassing myself (much). I’ll ask you for a high level overview and understand enough to know what you want to do and where you could potentially do it (in my company). Equally important – I will be the absolute EXPERT on RECRUITING, what it takes to get from point A to offer, and how to help YOU navigate the tricky tricky process that is interviewing and negotiating. That’s MY super power. What’s yours?

Winning Friends and Influencing Recruiters

December 27, 2018 / Amy Miller

Y’all – I got my feelings hurt on the internet.

I know I know… you’re thinking “what, is she new to the web?” or maybe “wait a minute she has FEELINGS??”. No and YES. LOTS OF THEM. But I digress.

I get on average about 18.6 million pings a day from prospective candidates or other like-minded folk who want to do business with me/my company (that’s only a little hyperbole – it’s truly LOTS of pings). A lot of these emails / tweets / inmails / connection requests come from people who want to work for my company. 0.0001% of them are likely qualified to do the actual roles I’m recruiting for.

These are NOT “bad” candidates. They are, for the most part, people who are highly skilled or qualified in something I am personally not involved in. I don’t recruit accountants. Or sales people. Or university grads. I work on a small yet critical piece of the Company family – engineering managers for a specific product area.

If you’re looking for a job as a database administrator, I am not your girl.

That said, I know what it’s like to be staring down an online application wishing just someone, anyone, a REAL PERSON would throw me a bone. When I’m asked, I do my best to not only respond, but also respond with some sort of valuable tidbit that allows the person asking to walk away from our interaction feeling just a little better.

It doesn’t always work.

A few weeks ago a job seeker we’ll call “LinkedIn Member” contacted me. This person has a background I know NOTHING about. I explained my role, also adding that I’m relatively new to my company and not sure how to best help, but encouraged the messenger to apply online and offered to give feedback on their resume.

I did exactly what I said I would do. We had a bit of back and forth ending with me encouraging this person to find a recruiter who focused on their particular skillset and have that recruiter (or more than one!) also review the resume and provide additional advice and even better, vet MY advice. Talk to an expert in YOUR field who just might poke holes in what I’ve told you to do. I left the conversation feeling kinda warm and fuzzy about my “good deed” only to get this shortly after –

DID. NOT. WANT. TO. HELP?

Look I’m not saving lives here, ok? I get it. I spent probably and hour, in total, back and forth with this job seeker and reviewing the resume / drafting my advice. Maybe that doesn’t feel all that significant or helpful. But dammit I TRIED. Not just tried to be nice, or respond to every single message like some think recruiters should do, but I tried to HELP. I gave this person not only a recruiter’s insight but also SPECIFIC ADVICE on what to do next.

It stung, y’all. My logical mind knows this says more about the job seeker than it does about me. I have been doing this long enough to know that someone, somewhere, is going to not like you no matter what. While I’m using this specific instance as an example, don’t be fooled. I get this kind of shit day in and out. This particular unhappy person could be any number of people I’ve interacted with over the years. And it ain’t fun.

So the next time a recruiter is snarky or unhelpful or simply just doesn’t respond, give them just a wee little benefit of the doubt, please? Maybe they just got their feelings hurt too.

Yoga Pants of the Day – Work From Home Edition

December 22, 2018 / Amy Miller

Admittedly I don’t work from home as often as I would like… my employer embraces face time as a valuable opportunity to get to know and work more closely with your colleagues. Of course they are perfectly fine with you showing up in yoga pants, and the food is pretty good, so it’s all good from my perspective.

I know a lot of people swear by the whole getting up / getting ready routine. I totally understand and I wholeheartedly embrace the idea that everyone should do what works for them. Just because I’m ok rolling out of bed right to the (home) office doesn’t mean everyone else should do it.

Today is one of those rare “no meeting” days – a bunch of emails to catch up on, a few post-interview loose ends to tie up, some candidate updates to share by phone, but NO ONE has to actually see me today. It’s a GREAT DAY to embrace the messy bun, no makeup, yoga pants look my husband claims to love.

After all, he took this picture.

These yoga pants though? These are my LUCKY yoga pants. I was wearing them when I accepted the offer to join Google. I didn’t wear them during my interview of course, even I’m not that brave. That day I wore my “dressy but still really yoga pants even though no one can tell” pants. 🙂

Category: recruiting (Page 3 of 4)

What to Wear to an Interview

Actually, You DON’T Want To Hire “The Best”

Beware the Idiot Lights

Text Recruiting Done Okay-ish

What Prospects REALLY Think of Your Inmail (and how to be better)

How to tell if a recruiter is full of shit (and what to do about it).

Winning Friends and Influencing Recruiters

Yoga Pants of the Day – Work From Home Edition

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