I Hire Engineers At Google – Here’s What I Look For (And Why)

BY KEAWE BLOCK 08.13.16 | 5:00 AM

The hiring experience for engineers isn’t what it used to be–and that’s partly by design. Here at Google, we’ve intentionally broadened the number of schools where we actively recruit, from 75 a few years ago to 305 today. We’re as interested in English or philosophy majors as we are in computer science degree holders. We don’t really care if you have a 4.0 GPA, and we’re not interested in whether you can figure out how many golf balls fit inside a 747.

But here’s what we do look for in engineering candidates in 2016–and why we look for it.

1. DON’T DISQUALIFY YOURSELF PREEMPTIVELY

Recent experience has taught us that we can find great tech talent in a much wider range of places than previously thought. For one thing, there are far more qualified college applicants than there are spaces for them at top universities. And for another, computer scientists aren’t always aware of their talent for coding by the time they’re 18 and have to declare a major.

Google is also trying to challenge some of the industry’s stubbornest stereotypes about what computer scientists look like and do in their spare time. Our Google in Residence program, for instance, embeds Google engineers at historically black colleges and universities to teach computer science and coach students about how to position themselves for engineering careers. We have similar initiatives in the works aimed at improving Hispanic diversity, too.

It’s important to know this because, too often, the tech sector’s well-documented demographics are enough to discourage some of the best talent from imagining themselves as future Googlers. My job is to help change that; your job is to apply.

More broadly, Google’s CS in Education initiative works to develop programs, resources, tools, and community partnerships to make computer science accessible to more students during their formative educational years. The goal is to make sure tomorrow’s tech industry mirrors the demographics of the people it actually serves.

In the meantime, don’t assume you’re unqualified on the basis of your educational, professional, or personal background and decide against applying (or, for that matter, let self-doubt get the better of you when you do show up for an interview). Trying to land a competitive tech job is daunting, but it’s only impossible if you don’t compete.

2. SHOW US WHAT YOU CAN DO–EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T LEARN IT IN SCHOOL

Yes, engineers need to be able to code. But we’re interested in hiring actual people, not machines. So on your resume, instead of listing your GPA (which we no longer use to determine candidacy), give us details about your experience at hackathons, coding competitions, or programming assignments at work. Just because it isn’t an academic credential doesn’t make it any less relevant. Not only does this create a more textured portrait of your abilities, it’s a great way to prove your engineering chops if you majored in sociology, for instance.

3. GET COMFORTABLE WITH CODING EXERCISES

Now for the obvious part: It goes without saying that engineers need to be able to code, so intensive preparation for the coding exercise–the centerpiece of every Google engineering interview–is a must. Candidates should be able to answer three coding questions from scratch (without the help of a library function) within 45 minutes.

I also suggest practicing with a live person, whether they’re technical or not. And try going analog–use a whiteboard or a blank piece of paper. And focus in particular on algorithms and data structures. There are some great samples in Cracking the Coding Interview, Topcoder, and LeetCode.

4. REMEMBER WHAT GOT YOU NOTICED IN THE FIRST PLACE

It’s equally important is to keep a lookout for “impostor syndrome,” certain high achievers’ tendencies to discount their accomplishments and fear being exposed as a “fraud.”

Some newly hired Googlers experience it when they first step on campus, and sometimes it crops up periodically during their tenures. While this is a completely normal response, it’s a counterproductive mind-set while you’re gunning for a tech position. I’ve seen it get the better of candidates and completely derail an interview.

You might not put relaxation techniques at the top of your checklist for tech-interview prep, but they should be there. Here’s a tip: Consider thinking out loud while you complete the coding exercise. Not only can that help you own the task at hand and stay calm under pressure, but this level of transparency helps your interviewer understand how you think.

And why wouldn’t you want that? After all, if you’ve made it to the interview, you can be confident that someone on staff already believes in your abilities.

Keawe Block is a recruiter at Google.

How much time do recruiters spend NOT filling jobs?

Despite running a successful recruitment agency for over a decade, it never ceased to amaze me the amount of time recruiters wasted on non-essential activities (which I classify as registering jobs and filling them).

As recruitment becomes more competitive, keeping your consultants laser-focused on the activities that lead them to a placement is the holy grail of owning/managing a recruitment agency. It was a constant challenge running Healthcare Recruiters.

In meetings with my team members over the years, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I heard “no one is getting back to me”, yet they’d call the same people over and over! Another classic excuse was “I’m trying to find people to call” or “I’m trying to track down the hiring manager.”

There are a number of other excuses routinely offered by recruiters to avoid their core function: filling jobs. There are absolutely activities that are associated with recruitment that may help in filling jobs, however I believe many recruiters use them as a crutch to avoid getting on the phone and focusing on what will make them money.

Based on my experience, I had a gut feel of the types of activities that recruiters perform that I would deem as an inefficient use of their time. But was I correct?

Armed with a simple survey and phone, I contacted nearly four dozen recruiters (26 junior recruiters, 21 senior ones), asking each “Which tasks take up most of your time, aside from directly registering and filling jobs?”

I also asked them to outline the amount of time per week they spend on these tasks.

The results shocked me.

Junior/Intermediate Recruiters:

27% of time spent researching for new business/client contacts

23% of time spent on searching internal database and reviewing previous candidate activity

20% of time spent on “job chasing” – tracking job boards for new roles to work on

13% of time spent prospecting/cold calling

10% of time spent in meetings/planning tasks for the week

5% of time spent socialising/coffee breaks!

Senior Recruiters

54% of time spent maintaining current client and candidate relationships

15% of time spent searching internal database and reviewing previous candidate activity

15% of time spent prospecting for new business

11% of time spent managing/overseeing/training junior recruiters

4% of time spent on other business development projects

The specific tasks recruiters are spending their time on didn’t surprise me, however the amount of time spent in a week trying to figure out who to call or what to prioritize was staggering!

In a 40-hour work week, junior recruiters are effectively spending half their time (18-23 hours per week) working out who to reach out to. For senior recruiters, the majority of time (estimated at 12-15 hours per week) is spent chasing the same people.

Granted, the sample size is small, and there are nuances that haven’t been covered off. But the brief survey did confirm what I’d known for years – recruiters spend an exorbitant amount of time on activities not directly related to filling jobs.

It’s worth asking the question in your business – how much time do you think your recruiters spend not directly filling jobs, and what’s it costing your business every week?

How to Write Job Ads that Don’t Suck

“Job descriptions suck!”

We’ve heard it a million times. With an abundance of job openings for the exceptional 90th percentile, every ad for tech talent looks and sounds the same: a list of demands sandwiched between flowery sentences describing creative work environments, snazzy perks, and products that will disrupt billion dollar markets.

Since I started recruiting in tech more than 15 years ago, little has changed. To the talented individuals you’re looking to attract, your job ad is nothing but noise. I firmly believe that expecting success from a posting alone is insane, but I’ll save that for another day. Invariably, a job profile of some sort fits into your overall strategy to hire for any role. And a bad one will sabotage all other efforts.

Why do most companies get it so wrong?

Know your audience. Most companies forget that a job description and a job ad are two different things – and are written for 2 different audiences.

Often written by a hiring manager, traditional job descriptions are intended to communicate to the team the specific responsibilities and duties that a new employee will perform. They typically include a list of skills, experience and knowledge required to do the job well.

The job description tells us “what’s in it for the company“:

What will the new employee do for us?
What does the new employee need to know and be really good at in order perform the tasks listed in above.

It’s likely full of technical jargon and obvious catch-alls like “must be a team-player.” In most cases, it’s generic enough that it can be cut and pasted for every similar job opening for the next 3 years.

Often, the writing of a job description is a painful and rushed exercise. The result is something resembling a shopping list or purchase order.

This approach to a job description is actually not wrong. Of course every search for a new teammate starts by identifying what needs to be done and by whom. What is wrong is that companies usually stop here and use this document as an ad.

So, what the heck is a job ad?

A good job ad is a marketing tool. It is designed to attract and engage your ideal candidate. It is honest and inspiring. Most importantly, it focuses on “what’s in it for the candidate”.

Use these questions to get you started:

What exciting project/product/strategy will I be working on?
What will I be working on in the first 60-90 days, and what can I expect to learn?
Is this somewhere I’ll make a big impact on a market/company/technology?
Describe the leaders and teammates I’ll work with, are they smart, fun and inspiring?
What other interesting challenges will I get to tackle?
Describe the market opportunity. How does this role impact business objectives?
Your company is on an exciting path, tell the story of how this role plays a key part in the thrilling adventure.

Think about your dream candidate.

What will make them excited enough to stop what they’re doing and pay attention to you? This is a marketing exercise. It needs to be full of excitement, authenticity and truth— no cheese, no fluff. You need to know your intended audience, and then give them a genuine summary of what you can do for them and how they’ll truly make an impact as a member of your team.

Yellow Pages Limited Announces the Acquisition of JUICE Mobile

MONTREAL, March 15, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ – Yellow Pages Limited (TSX: Y) (“Yellow Pages” or the “Company”) announced today that it will acquire JUICE Mobile (“JUICE”), a premium advertising technology company whose proprietary programmatic platforms facilitate the automatic buying and selling of mobile advertising between brands and publishers. The acquisition will close and take effect on March 17, 2016 and is subject to ordinary closing conditions.

Brands are rapidly adopting programmatic technologies in the deployment of mobile advertising campaigns. As the mobile advertising industry experiences rapid growth, projections indicate that programmatic is set to overtake non-programmatic forms of mobile advertising in Canada in 2016.

“The acquisition of JUICE Mobile positions Yellow Pages as a leader in national advertising, significantly expanding our reach of brands and media publishers and providing us with the technologies required to fulfill mobile advertising on their behalf,” said Julien Billot, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yellow Pages Limited. “New forms of mobile advertising need to also be readily available to small and medium-sized businesses at the local level. By leveraging JUICE Mobile’s technologies, platforms and audiences, Yellow Pages will equip Canadian SMEs with mobile programmatic solutions that are designed with their specific needs in mind and help them compete in the evolving digital marketplace.”

JUICE’s Programmatic Direct and Real-Time Bidding platforms enable advertisers and publishers to buy and sell mobile advertising more efficiently. Its Programmatic Direct platform, Nectar®, is Canada’s largest mobile futures marketplace, helping advertisers purchase brand-safe and guaranteed impressions from a wide network of premium mobile publishers. Via its Real-Time Bidding platform, Swarm®, JUICE facilitates the purchase of mobile advertising in a real-time environment.

Since its inception in 2010, JUICE has successfully leveraged its mobile advertising platforms to build valuable relationships with an extensive network of brands and publishers. JUICE currently services over 300 Fortune 500 customers across North America, while operating a mobile media publisher network garnering 11 billion impressions annually. Revenues at JUICE exceeded $25 million in 2015, having grown organically at a CAGR of 110% over the past three years. In conjunction to growing its already notable market presence in Canada, JUICE is actively developing the US market, which currently represents approximately 15% of its consolidated revenues. As further evidence of its innovative and agile organization, JUICE was named Canada’s 15^th fastest growing company on Deloitte’s 2015 Technology Fast 50™.

“The acquisition of JUICE Mobile is highly complementary to our business,” continued Mr. Billot. “This transaction will allow Mediative and JUICE Mobile to access rich technologies and a growing and unduplicated network of agencies, brands and audiences to buy and sell mobile advertising at scale. The transaction will also accelerate Yellow Pages’ monetization of local mobile audiences, leveraging JUICE Mobile’s publishers and advertising platforms to deliver more targeted hyperlocal mobile advertising campaigns to SMEs nationwide.”

Yellow Pages will acquire JUICE Mobile, a privately held company, for a total purchase price consideration of $35 million. The acquisition will be fully funded with liquidity on hand, and will not impact the Company’s ability to repay approximately $100 million of its Secured Notes in 2016. The Company continues to anticipate returning to consolidated revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth, as well as achieve a debt-free capital structure, by 2018.

DNA Capital acted as exclusive financial advisors to the Company on the acquisition of JUICE Mobile. Telos Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisors to JUICE Mobile on its sale to Yellow Pages.

JUICE Mobile is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and holds additional offices in Montreal, Waterloo, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

About Yellow Pages Limited
Yellow Pages Limited (TSX: Y) is a Canadian digital media and marketing solutions company that supports local economies by helping neighbourhood businesses reach new customers and foster stronger relationships with existing clients through its various media and products. Yellow Pages holds some of Canada’s leading local online properties including YP.ca™, RedFlagDeals.com™, Canada411.ca, Bookenda.com, dine.TO, DuProprio.com, ComFree.com and YP NextHome. The Company also holds the YP, YP Shopwise, YP Dine, RedFlagDeals, Canada411, Bookenda, DuProprio, ComFree and YP NextHome mobile applications and Yellow Pages™ print directories. In addition, Yellow Pages is a leader in national digital advertising through Mediative, a division of Yellow Pages devoted to digital marketing and performance media services for national-scale agencies and customers. More at www.corporate.yp.ca.

SOURCE Yellow Pages Limited

Tech Jobs Will Boom In Canada, But Country Lacks People To Fill Them: Study

Canada’s economy will create at least 218,000 tech jobs between now and 2020, but lacks the people to fill them, says a new report from a not-for-profit think tank.

The report from the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) calls for reforms to Canada’s education and economic policies, including starting computer science education in kindergarten and offering tax credits to small businesses to hire IT people.

Canadian businesses, particularly small and medium sized ones, are falling behind in adopting new technologies, mainly because they can’t find the people they would need to implement the changes, the report says. And that could have negative consequences.

“If Canada does not address the talent and skills gap, it could cost the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity, tax revenues, and gross domestic product,” the report states.

Out of 527,000 students who graduated in Canada in 2015, only 6 per cent — 29,000 — graduated from an IT field, the report found. Canada would have to graduate around 43,000 IT students per year to keep up with job growth.

The lack of interest in tech jobs is despite the fact that the field is growing at a pace that’s four times as fast as overall job growth in Canada.

it jobs canada
Job growth in Canada, Feb. 2015 to Jan. 2016. IT jobs grew more than four times as quickly as other jobs. (Chart: ICTC)

The problem isn’t limited to Canada. The U.S. Department of Labor forecasts the country will create some 1.4 million IT jobs by 2020, but schools will barely be able to fill a third of them, the ICTC study says. The European Union will be short 825,000 IT workers by 2020.

But other countries are out ahead of Canada in addressing the issue. U.S. President Barack Obama in January pledged $4 billion to bring computer science classes to the nation’s schools.

In Britain, computer coding classes are now mandatory for all students from the age of five to the end of high school.

“If Canada does not address the talent and skills gap, it could cost the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity, tax revenues, and gross domestic product.”

The ICTC report also urges Canadian governments to “remove barriers to the full participation in the IT field by women, immigrants, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and visible minorities.”

Doing this “will be critical in mitigating the talent shortage,” the report says.

It calls for an increased focus on research and development, and programs to help people transition to jobs in the IT economy.

6 Ways to Show Off Your Company Culture to Applicants

Gone are the days when companies looking to hire held all the cards. In today’s hiring market, great talent is more in demand than ever before, and companies need to do all they can to attract the top individuals. This is true even more true in supply chain management and its related disciplines (areas in which we at Argentus specialize), where a combination of rapidly changing market forces and business requirements, as well as a looming shortage of talent, means that supply chain professionals are becoming both scarcer and more valued.

As a result of these changes in the hiring market, company culture has gained prominence. In the 21st century, companies need to offer more than competitive compensation rates and career growth opportunities if they are to attract the most skilled and high-potential workers.

Furthermore, new surveys come out all the time about how the ascendant millennial workforce values culture, flexibility, and a shared sense of mission in the workplace more than previous generations did.

Workplace culture is a hot topic, and you can see the effect it has had on job descriptions – most of which now try to sell open roles to candidates by describing the organizational’s culture (with a healthy smattering of buzzwords) in addition to providing information about responsibilities and growth potential.

We all know that culture is about more than foosball tables or casual Fridays. Flexibility, work-life balance, and neat perks are all great, but many candidates now take these to be given. They are no longer the same differentiators they used to be. The question for recruiters, then, is how do you convey your company’s actual culture in a meaningful way at every step of the hiring process?

1. Show, Don’t Tell

The old writer’s adage is also a good rule of thumb for hiring. It’s one thing to state your core values in a job description or during an interview, but it’s a different and altogether more effective thing to demonstrate those values throughout the hiring process, from interview to feedback to onboarding. Is yours a fast-paced, highly entrepreneurial work culture? Or is this a highly collaborative, team-oriented organization? Do you have a social mission underlying your product? Instead of telling candidates about these things, you should work to show these aspects of your culture, rather than just discussing them.

And how, exactly, do you show off a culture instead of simply telling about it? The next five tips should answer that question.

2. In the Interview, Show Candidates How Your Organization Engages With the Role

A new candidate’s first interview is typically takes place with the human resources department. During this interview, the HR manager needs to show the candidate that they truly understand the role’s scope and potential. They cannot simply discuss generalities. An interview that gets into the meat of the role will help establish that the company takes the function of the role seriously and that the company is agile without being siloed off.

3. Show Off the Company’s Recent Accomplishments

Sun At Argentus, we always council candidates to prepare accomplishment-based resumes that go beyond explaining their simple duties and responsibilities. Companies should do the same thing to get candidates excited about a role. A company that is able to prepare a compelling picture of where the organization is going and what its biggest accomplishments are (with quantitative data and specifics) will showcase its culture in action – which is much more compelling than simply describing the culture.

Remember: Top candidates are evaluating the role just as much as the organization is evaluating them. It takes a lot to get star performers away from their desks and to the hiring table. They have to see that an organization is growing and maturing and that they’ll have the opportunity to be truly strategic partners in this growth and maturation.

4. Show the Candidate How They Can Make an Impact

This tip rolls from the previous one. What will the candidate’s career trajectory look like? You should demonstrate to the candidate the kinds of initiatives they will take on and the ways in which they will have room to grow.

Ask them for their opinions on recent initiatives. Ask them how they’d contribute and provide a road map for what their deliverables will be in the first few months of the role. Think about what your approach to these questions implies about your company culture. Is the culture fast-paced? Is it informal? Is it full of passionate individuals? Is it the type of company where you’re not afraid of having fun once in a while? Your interview style should be as close to your working style as possible.

5. Show the Candidate Around. Get Them Involved

After or during an interview, you should take the candidate on a tour around the office and facility. Introduce them to the team they’ll be working with, and let the team participate in the interview process. This is your best chance to show off your organization’s culture. It’s the moment when an exceptional candidate truly decides whether or not this is the kind of place they’d like to work.

What’s more, this presents a further opportunity for a candidate to show off their own ideas. For example, if you’re hiring for a supply chain or logistics role, show the candidate the warehouse and get their feedback.

6. Show the Candidate That You Are Committed to the Hire

How many candidates have applied to companies touting their “fast-paced” work cultures only to wait weeks for feedback? Companies should aim to respond to candidates as soon as possible. This applies if you’re looking to schedule another interview, if you’re looking to make an offer, and even if the candidate is not right for the role. After all, if a candidate isn’t right for this job, there’s still a chance they’ll be a perfect fit for a new role down the line.

Man Building an employer brand is about maintaining candidates’ interest in your company over the course of their careers, not just at a specific moment. The manner and speed with which you provide feedback after an interview speaks volumes about your company’s culture.

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Many companies we work with at Argentus attract top-performing, ambitious individuals with great people skills because they’re able to nail all these aspects of the hiring process. These are just a few tips, but hopefully they are enough to get companies thinking about how every moment in the hiring process is an opportunity to show off the company’s culture.

A version of this article originally appeared on the Argentus blog.

TED Talk

Given the choice between a job candidate with a perfect resume and one who has fought through difficulty, human resources executive Regina Hartley always gives the “Scrapper” a chance. As someone who grew up with adversity, Hartley knows that those who flourish in the darkest of spaces are empowered with the grit to persist in an ever-changing workplace. “Choose the underestimated contender, whose secret weapons are passion and purpose,” she says. “Hire the Scrapper.”

Why Women (And Men) Should Learn To Code

Did you know that the person who first proposed programming for an analytical machine, known today as computer programming, was a woman? Her name was Ada Byron Lovelace. In 1843, she articulated the concept that would lead to modern computer programming, and which would only be fully realized a century after her death.

Last month marked the 200th birthday of Lovelace. It also witnessed the Hour of Code, a global event where children and adults in more than 80 countries around the world attend facilitated workshops and tutorials to learn how to code. Within the Faculty of Science at Ryerson University, our Office of Outreach and the Department of Computer Science organized an Hour of Code event on campus.

As Dean of the Faculty of Science, I sent out a Dean’s challenge to my fellow academic administrators to join me as I learned to code. We were joined by students and teachers from our local community in Toronto and by students, faculty and staff from our university community. So I completed my first Hour of Code and achieved a major life goal. Yes, I wrote code! Despite my initial anxieties, I found the atmosphere fun and supportive and worked steadily with increasing confidence. I also watched as those around me learned to code with the help of computer science students, who acted as peer mentors or who reverse-mentored those of us of a “certain age.” My colleague Dorothy Byers, head of school at St. Mildred’s-Lightbourn School, discovered that as a right-brained person it was possible to learn how to code and enjoy it as well.

Unfortunately, women remain underrepresented in the tech sector. Research shows that women make up only between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of tech-related jobs at tech companies. As Adriana Gascoigne, CEO and founder of Girls in Tech, explains, this gender gap starts at the university level. In 2000, nearly 28 per cent of women attending university were majoring in computer science or information sciences but a decade later that number dropped to 17.6 per cent.

Why should women and girls learn to code? Here are a few reasons.

Women are “naturals” at coding

Computer science pioneer and advocate for diversity Grace Hopper knew that women were “naturals” at computer programming,” as she told Cosmopolitan magazine in 1967. To Hopper’s point, research suggests that girls are better at making story-based computer games than boys. When researchers at the University of Sussex asked students at a secondary school to design and program their own computer game, they found that girls wrote more complex programs and learned more about coding than the boys. “Given that girls’ attainment in literacy is higher than boys across all stages of the primary and secondary school curriculum, it may be that explicitly tying programming to an activity that they tend to do well in leads to a commensurate gain in their programming skills.”

Coders are in demand

When women learn to code, they are gaining one of the most in-demand skills in the job market. A list prepared by LinkedIn shows that seven of the top 10 most in-demand skills have to do with programming or digital media. Mobile app development tops the list.

In Canada, a serious skills’ gap in the technology sector is forecast to grow to 71,000 jobs by 2017, says IDC Canada. Learning to code is almost guaranteed to secure one a job.

Catch them when they’re young

The stereotype about programming as something that nerdy boys do still lingers. Girls are not typically attracted to programming, especially in their teenage years when they’re more concerned about building social capital and fitting in. Change may require that we teach girls coding when they’re young, according to an article in the Guardian. “We need to start teaching digital literacy and coding as a part of the curriculum in year five, when most children’s math is strong enough.”

Many great organizations are supporting and encouraging young women to code, including Ladies Learning to Code, Girls Crack the Code and hEr VOLUTION in Toronto. More work by these groups and by educational institutions, including Ryerson’s Faculty of Science, to support accessibility, diversity and inclusivity in coding, technology, science and other STEM-related disciplines will provide opportunities for young women and also contribute to our economic development. We should all learn to code.

This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post.

Why Bother With Recruiters?

Recruitment for most is a necessary evil. Typically you can’t find what you’re looking for. Hiring a new resource is time consuming and there is no guarantee that things will work out. Building a business case to justify a recruitment effort is difficult. Risk management such as references and psychometric assessments can be subjective. Dealing with incompetent internal/external recruiters can be a nightmare and at the end of the day humans can be unpredictable.

It’s in our nature to avoid telling people the ugly truth, deflect blame, avoid conflict and to take the path of least resistance. Over the years this behavior has negatively impacted the entire recruitment industry. Upon reflection I thought it would be useful to highlight a few key points to help people better understand recruitment.

First, find the right recruiter. Just like anything in life, shop around, ask for referrals and compare your options. Avoid going to generalist recruiters when looking for someone very specialised and be prepared to spend some quality time with shortlisted recruiters. Once you find the right one it is best to be blunt, honest and open with expectations. Forming a solid business partnership overtime will save you the hassle of bringing new recruiters up to speed.

Second, understand the recruitment process. The right recruiter should be able to simply explain the recruitment journey. Typically this would include a discussion around position requirements/logistics, recruitment options (temp, contract or perm), preferred methodology (interviews, assessments etc.), recruitment challenges, time frames and terms of business.

Third, finding the right candidate. An experienced recruiter should spend a vast amount of time networking with candidates. After asking the right questions and understanding your requirements they should be able to leverage their network and provide you with one to three qualified options relatively quickly. A good network is developed over time and built on the recruiter’s personal brand. This includes networking events, industry community involvement, referrals and other typical recruitment portals (LinkedIn).

Fourth, understanding the effort that goes into recruitment. I find that this is commonly overlooked. There have been numerous occasions when the right candidate is quickly introduced to a client and they can’t seem to reconcile the associated recruitment fee. The right recruiter has invested the time to make your search easier. This includes telephone screening, face-to-face meetings and on-going communications. Once the introduction has been made interviews, assessment tests and references need to be organised and completed. This process can be drawn out and typically all this is done on a contingent basis. No one candidate is the same, competition is fierce and their employment situation is constantly evolving. Therefore it is important to know available candidates in advance and actively present them to potential employers.

Recruitment is not an exact science and people are going to get into the business for the wrong reasons. Understanding the recruitment industry can help you spot the liars and thieves. Of course complications are unavoidable. Competition, budget adjustments, delayed projects and people can simply change their mind at any stage of the process. I have found it very rewarding to build my knowledge around the Salesforce platform. This has allowed me to partner with many clients through each stage of their Salesforce journey. Being an active part of the Salesforce ecosystem has introduced me to some fantastic people and has helped me become a better recruiter. If you would like to learn more about the Sydney Salesforce User Group or Talentforce please feel free to contact me.