Appetizers

Starting with some basics.

Fun Starters

Getting to know the human side.

 Main Course

A quick deep dive into the day-to-day job.

Tell us about yourself and your job.

I graduated from UC San Diego in 2017, majoring in Cognitive Science and Communication. I've been in Recruiting for a little over 3 years now and have worked with several companies, hiring for a variety of different positions. I've touched upon multiple areas of recruiting including University Recruiting, G&A, and Technical recruiting. I'm currently working at Facebook, as a Technical Sourcer, hiring mid-senior level Data Scientists to support our Product Analytics team.

How did you end up in your field? What do you like about it?

A lot of people in Recruiting will tell you that they just "fell into recruiting," and that they never saw themselves ending up in their role. However, my story is a bit different, as I've always known, even pre-graduation, that I wanted to build a career in Recruiting. I've always known that I really enjoy making and building relationships, so I knew I wanted to be in a role where I'm able to meet and work with new people every day.

During my sophomore year in college, I was lucky enough to land a Recruiting Internship with Intuit, which introduced and sold me onto the field. Through the opportunity, I learned how meaningful and impactful the job is - given that you really have the chance to connect people to their potential dream job and really shape their careers. Although it's not saving someone's life or building the next software, Recruiting really gives you opportunities to build human connections and really change people's lives.

What does a typical morning look like on the job?

We always kick off our typical day with our team-wide, daily stand-up. We go over any overall team updates, announcements, celebrations, roadblocks, and always leave some room for Q&A. Following the stand-up, I go straight to my inbox and LinkedIn inMails, check on any urgent escalations or action items, clear out the rest of my inbox, then start my day.

Cool, then what does a typical afternoon look like?

The rest of the afternoon is filled with prescreening interviews with candidates, interview preparation calls with candidates, team meetings, sourcing sessions, interview debrief sessions, and working on logistic items to set my candidates up for their upcoming interviews.

What types of projects and meetings are you involved in?

My team recruits for mid-senior level Data Scientists for our Product Analytics team, so we generally recruit in a generalist-pipeline process, with the exception of a couple of specialized pre-allocated roles for specific teams. The work that I'm involved in is not project-based, as we are constantly hiring on a rolling basis for our business. However, we do touch upon certain team-specific projects, as it's always important to identify areas of opportunities to better improve our recruiting process and practices. My meetings throughout the day vary between meeting/interviews with candidates, the internal business, and my recruiting team.

Who do you collaborate with in meetings and projects? Cross-functional teams? What's it like?

There's a lot of XFN collaboration in Recruiting, as it's really important to have a good idea of the talent we want to bring into the company. These meetings could be with other Sourcers on the team, Recruiters on the team, Recruiting leaders, the business you support, or other colleagues from other business areas.

 Dessert

Now for some juicy insights in the tea room.

What's the most challenging thing about your job?

Given the competitive nature of the tech industry, I would say that the most challenging aspect of this role, is to find the many purple squirrels for our ever-growing business. In Recruiting, we call rare top talent that fits our requirements perfectly, "purple squirrels," as they are very hard to come by. Of course, we want to focus on hiring extremely talented individuals to join our team, so the bar is high, and given that our business is always growing, the biggest challenge is to continue to keep our quality high.

What are some characteristics that can help someone succeed in your role?

I think determination, persistence, and the ability to stay positive are extremely important characteristics to have in order to succeed in this role. Given that the volume high and the quality expected is also very high, there are going to be so many times when you fail, need to learn from others, and just have the determination to keep going until you succeed. I think these are important characteristics to have in any job, not just on this specific one.

Any advice on how to stand out and get hired for those just starting off?

Recruiting is a unique career path and one that isn't as popular as Software Engineering or Consulting. Individuals fall into recruiting by either starting out in an agency or jump right into recruiting in-house. If you take the agency route, there are many opportunities for new grads post-graduation to get you started. Agency recruiters spend a couple of years learning the ropes in the agency, and if they are interested, move in-house after 3-5 years. However, note that agency isn't for everyone, as although you get a base salary, the majority of your compensation comes from the commission in that amount of people you can hire for your client.

I knew that agency wasn't for me, given the competitive environment, so I knew that I wanted to jump right into in-house recruiting. Because Recruiting is quite a unique career path, there aren't an abundant amount of internships available for students. However, I do think this is the most beneficial and best way to dive into learning about in-house Recruiting. Given you do well, internships can always lead to a full-time conversion/offer waiting for you post-graduation.

If you're unable to find a Recruiting Internship, you can always start out as an in-house Recruiting Coordinator, learn more about the recruiting world on the job from a coordination perspective, and find opportunities for you to grow into a Sourcer/Recruiter. Coordination is a great start for new grads and gives you a ton of exposure!

What's something that surprised you about your job?

Although I knew that I wanted to get into Recruiting pre-graduation because of the impact of the role, I did not expect it to be this rewarding! The opportunity that the job gives you, to impact people's careers and lives, is so meaningful and rewarding. The feeling of jumping on that first call with your candidate, to the moment you pick up the phone to deliver them the offer, to having your first coffee with them at the company on their first day - that is so rewarding and what keeps me going every day.

Any last thoughts, advice, or recommendations for someone who wants to do what you do?

I might have a lot of bias here, but Recruiting is an amazing and rewarding career path. If you love working with people, I highly recommend doing a bit more research into Recruiting/Talent Acquisition to see if this is the career path for you. Research about the field, network with those in the field, build connections and relationships with those individuals, apply, and be open to all opportunities that can lead you there. If this is really what you want to do- then don't let your dreams be dreams.

 Drinks

Chat more over coffee or tea?