Insights from the Hiring Trenches
How Hiring Decisions are Really Made Today
Welcome to a paid member-only edition of Level Up: Your source for career growth solutions & community by retired Amazon Vice President, Ethan Evans. If you’d like to become a paid member, see the benefits here, and feel free to use this expense template to ask your manager.
Today, my co-author is a hiring manager in tech sales from the Level Up Newsletter community (who will remain unnamed).
We have collaborated on this issue to offer candid advice on how the hiring process really works in today’s market.
What makes this worth reading is that we do not completely agree - you learn more from hearing two voices!
You will see my comments interspersed with our guest’s writing.
Here is our guest:
Managers today have the luxury of many qualified candidates both internally and externally, particularly in big tech after multiple years of layoffs and slow growth.
As a hiring manager, I want to share how I go about interviewing candidates: my thought process, what was important to me, and my biases.
I will also include my 6 key actions you can take to get a job today!
Case Study:
An employee resigned at the end of July. I had a chance to bring in new talent to the team, growing an anchor account, reviving a secondary account, and breaking new ground.
My options were:
Promote from the existing internal sales community.
Transfer internally from my network of friends who’ve wanted to join my team.
Hire externally.
Ethan’s comment: These are always the choices. Promote, recruit internally, or recruit externally.
Promotion rewards and encourages your team.
Internal transfers retain talent that is already up-to-speed and proven.
External hires build the company (internal transfers retain but do not build) and introduce fresh perspectives.
If you want to be chosen in any circumstance, the key is still to be the best. I might want to promote a rising star, but if I am aware of an amazing external hire, I may risk losing the person I do not promote anyway.
I chose to hire externally in order to bring someone with competitive intelligence and domain expertise onto the team. I also knew I’d be acquiring this person “on-sale” because of the state of the market and would have more negotiating power. Yes, they might leave, but after the labor market picks up, I can just hire internally to finish what this person started.
So, I worked with my recruiter to set very specific criteria for the skills and experiences I needed. Before we even posted the role, she presented 6 candidates from previous openings at the company. This recruiter keeps a large “bench”- a set of applicants who may want to work here.
I agreed to screen 1 from the pool who had everything I wanted, while we opened the role. Within 3 days, we had 15 more qualified applicants, so we removed the requisition.
While sifting through the applicants, I took note of my thoughts.
How did I decide?
I had one friend apply as a referral, so I started with him and the rehires - those who worked for my company in the last 10 years. Why the rehires? Because they know our history and complex systems - important in explaining our transformation to our suspicious prospective and existing customers. Note that all referrals are tagged differently in our system and they’re reviewed first.
Did my friend get the job?
I gave my friend (an older African American male) a huge advantage over everyone else. I provided him with my list of accounts and asked him to not work too hard on preparing as I wasn’t sure he’d be a fit. But he produced significant research and in spite of it, he didn’t meet one of the key requirements: experience working for a competitor. I had to let him know he wouldn’t move forward.
Ethan’s comment: Notice our author’s words, a “huge advantage.” This is the power of a network. This job was the friend’s to lose. He did lose it, which shows that you have a chance without a network, but wouldn’t you rather be first in line? Build your network now, before you need it.
What about the others?
Of the list of 15+ applicants, I chose the first 2 rehires and the first outsider (as backup). This was enough for me to have at least 1 finalist. They were the first 3 who met all my stated criteria and who screened well with me. I didn’t look at anyone else as I didn’t have time.
Ethan’s comment: The author told me 15 applicants came in within 3 days. You have to move fast. Ideally you hear about a position from a friend who is keeping an eye out for you, so that you can be first.
What’s the process?
One of the rehires had been through an interview loop with another team, so we didn’t have him do another loop with me. The other received excellent reviews from the panelists. He accepted the verbal and I’m proceeding with the offer paperwork. What about the third applicant? He waited several weeks to meet with me and I don’t wait.
Besides, there’s a large pool available already and I’ll see those applicants if I reopen the req.
Right or wrong, I perceive him to want this job less.
Ethan’s comment: I do not always trust other interview loops. I want to talk to the person myself. If I know the group that evaluated them, I might trust them, but if not, I will do the loop over again. Why? Because a fit with another group and manager may not be a fit with our team.
6 key takeaways from this situation (where the hiring pool is larger due to sales layoffs in big tech):
1. Obtain a referral and apply right away, especially if you’re a minority as recruiting isn’t always sourcing women or minorities. There are too many qualified white males who apply quickly.
Ethan’s comment: We know men apply much more quickly and with fewer concerns that they do not match all the listed criteria than women worry about. But that said, “speed matters in business.” The hiring manager needs people right now. While an ideal “fair” process will avoid looking at candidates until a long period has elapsed, many people start making choices and decisions the minute the first resume is available.