With the conclusion of my Code Fellows Cyber Ops boot camp at the end of June, I found myself shifting from graduate to job-seeker. Code Fellows has a good understanding of the hiring process and their program includes a career-side curriculum to power us with knowledge of what to expect and how to prepare. We practiced a variety of aspects relevant to hiring today such as STAR interview styling and the “tech demo,” depending on the space you eventually target. My passion is for helping people, and learning how to protect assets, APIs, and other data in the cloud is clearly essential moving forward the post-remote-work-works moment. So far, I have had three conversations with recruiters for cloud engineering positions.
Code Fellows has a Career Accelerator Program that provides extended assistance after graduation, but there are basic things anyone could (should do) to improve their visibility: engage with LinkedIn daily. This is the most understated resource for career-changers or those new to the industry as an engaged profile increases visibility to recruiters. My former teacher, David Lee was indispensable for sprucing up the look of my profile. I have tried to post news articles I think are informative to show I am staying current (it’s actually a news-junkie habit that I can’t break); I repurposed my blog to be about anything–not just music–and I have connected my posts to my LinkedIn profile as well. Applying for jobs may be a numbers game, but what an easy game to play: “Easy Apply” gets a bad wrap, but I have found it to be responsive. I went from no responses, to majority rejection, and then I started to see a sea change, and August has been a month of high visibility for me. Having said that, only one of these is from the Easy Apply button. The Tribe of Hackers books say Twitter is the place to go for InfoSec, and while there are great conversations there, I have found LinkedIn to be teeming with more mentor-ready folk, and they are cheering newbies on!
Recruiter #1
Found their initial contact e-mail in the PROMOTIONS folder of my g-mail account. Wow, how about that?! But I keep a super-clean e-mail house, and thankfully, I didn’t lose any time to respond. All of the questions focused on getting to know me and what I knew of the job. The specifics of my knowledge was queried, but not probed. They managed our time together really well, and when I didn’t have any more follow-up questions, the recruiter kindly volunteered information such as the budget for the position! I felt good about the talk. I was told to expect to hear back that Friday. And when Friday came and went, I thought: “oh, ok guess they’re moving on…” only to begin moving on mentally prematurely. This has been the slowest of the processes, having begun in the middle of July; my talk with the hiring manager was August 9th, and I am in Schrödinger’s cat-position: both dead and alive until I hear more.
Recruiter #2
This time the contact came to my regular inbox last week and I had my conversation with their recruiter on Monday. The application and conversation was unlike anything mentioned by Code Fellows. When I applied I had to submit a brief assessment based on 50 questions with 15 minutes to get as many correct as possible. The questions were logic-based in both words and symbols, leaving the numbers to arithmetic one might need a pencil and paper to complete. I was asked about my salary requirements, and I overstated based on my first conversation. To be fair, the first position requested more experience than this one, so that’s reasonable. To be sure, the budget for the position isn’t as generous as the first position, but I do think there is a more entry-level aspect to this role. Could be a matter of size as company 1 is much bigger than this one. I got really good clues that I would move forward as my conversation included a lot of affirmations that I would probably get along great with the hiring manager.
Recruiter #3
The questions asked of me were much more “what have I done/can I do” instead of “who is Tom Esch?” First question I had was less about who I and more about why I thought I was right for the position. To answer this, I connected my skillset to the job I applied to in this case. Fortunately, I like preparing by printing out the job description. I go over the required skills and verify what I have and what I do not. For the things I do not have, I discuss what I know of it. I find knowing 75% of the bullet points and then honestly speaking to a lack of exposure to the practical to enhance the theoretical will be taken in stride. Unlike my conversations with the first two recruiters, I felt this one was the most one-sided. There was a pleasant enough beginning, but I felt like the recruiter might be interested in a different line of work since once the questions kicked in, it was all about getting it done. I didn’t really enjoy answering questions at that point.
Take-Aways:
- Keep track of where these folks attempt to reach you and don’t let the spam folder hide opportunity!
- While there is variation on the theme, do what you can to recognize when you’re in a good conversation vs. a not-so-good conversation. My hiring manager conversations accentuate this point, but I’ll write about that in a future post. A good conversation indicates a good culture-fit, regardless of categorical knowledge.
- The pace of growth for many companies mean they do not have time for “bucketing,” applications. For example, when I was in academia and one of my schools posted a position, I had zero priority, no advantage simply because I was already in the system. The posting would be listed for months until I would find out whether or not I would be a part of the pool they would subsequently whittle down. In fast-growing industries? Apply to job posting from companies you are targeting as soon as you see them. If you are what they are looking for, they will move quickly: two of these companies made it clear that they pace all potential hires individually–or when they applied–and move them at their own pace. This is important, because it means being proactive reveals a hidden bonus.
- Another way of thinking about #3: Ever get the response “we really liked you, blah blah blah, but found someone else?” –Check how long the posting was open compared to when you applied, and my bet is you (and I) simply applied too late and they were about to offer it to someone whilst having a back-up hanging out in a limbo round. I may be in this position with the first company whose slowness may be because someone else is moving fast, and maybe they can say no to me then. But this is pure speculation for this last point.
Hopefully this will help someone with the recruiter round. Apparently, this kid’s yuck face drives recruiters crazy, so don’t do it!
