So, You're Thinking About Becoming a Recruiter?

Hi friends! I know I've been a little MIA on the blog. Ever since coming home from fall travels, I've gone full on hermit mode to get shit done. I get a surprising number of inquiries about my job, so I thought I should lay it all out in a blog post for those that want to be in the know. This an interesting time for me to write a post like this because  this is when my job is its hardest. It's for the best though- you're going to get the real real from me on this one.

This post is super specific to recruiting software engineers currently enrolled in universities for opportunities at Microsoft. You should be aware that recruiting experiences are really going to vary depending on which company you're recruiting for, the roles you're recruiting for, the type of candidates you're recruiting (industry vs. college). One of my favorite things about recruiting is that each recruiter has their own distinct style and you can really bring your individuality to the job. This post isn't going to be able to tell you exactly what recruiting will look like for you, but it will hopefully give you a few examples of what you may be in for if you choose to pursue a similar career.

TLDR summary of my job: I am assigned a set of schools to recruit at (this year it's 5, last year it was 4). At each school, I am given a goal for full time hires and a goal for intern hires (currently, exclusively for software engineering roles). I'm assigned a budget for each of my schools, which is pretty generous. I do whatever the eff I need to do to find my hires and stay within budget.

University recruiting has a very specific cadence: Let's start with fall (right now), when we're operating at 1000% (AHHHHHH). My job requires a healthy amount of travel, typically 6 - 8 weeks per year, averaging 2 weeks per school. In the fall (September and October), my schedule revolves around career fairs. In between the career fairs, I fill my schedule with various events like office hours, presentations, sell dinners, coffee chats and coding competitions. I try my best to make it easy for students to meet Microsoft while we're on campus. My goal is to make as many face to face connections as possible and forge meaningful relationships with top candidates. I take every opportunity to share what Microsoft is all about and educate students about our recruiting process. I have 4 - 7 engineers (aka soldiers #teamkim #loveyouforever) out on the road with me to help evaluate candidates, share their experiences, keep me sane and when they're feeling incredibly generous, stay up with me until 2 AM to complete ridiculous "bitch work" endeavors like sorting through hundreds of resumes and hand typing information into our database. You can't do this job alone, y'all and I am unbelievably lucky to have the best people willing to take time out of their lives help me recruit the best and the brightest. Actually, the best part of being on the road for me is spending time with my coworkers friends and working together to get shit done. Teamwork makes the dream work, y'all! During fall travel, I'm going pretty hard, spending every waking moment working in order to be responsive to the flood of emails and keep up with deadlines (ie. Submitting 50-100 candidates for interview scheduling several times throughout the season) .

When I return home, I'm still going hard but I get to do it from the comfort of my own home and office. During this time, volume management is what is up. For each school, I go through hundreds of resumes to give about 100 students a shot at first round interviews with us. From there, typically 30-50 kill it and we bring them home for final round interviews. Through October, November and December, I'm overseeing 150ish or so candidates as they come to Redmond. I have a TON of help along the way from teammates who are helping with scheduling and travel arrangements. A lot of 1-off situations come up on the daily so I bunker down and set myself up for rapid response firefighting. There's a beautiful period between Thanksgiving and New Year's where things pleasantly slow down a bit. In January and February, I'm back out on the road but by this time, I will have (hopefully) finished all of my intern hiring and will be close to meeting my fulltime goals. By the time I get to winter recruiting, I'm thinking about recruiting for the next year and working on those long term relationships #thelonggame and hanging out with the kids that we've hired so far #DISNEYLAND and getting them hyped for dat techie good life.

In the early spring, I hit a conference or two (NSBE National two years running! See you in Boston?!) and spend time with my team (#SXSW2016). I mastermind summer plans for my kiddies and devote time internet stalking all the other kiddies that decided go to Facebook, Google and Amazon for the upcoming summer. When the interns arrive, it's just 100% shenanigans for the next 3 months. My team and I, nay, all of Microsoft devotes the days of summer to our interns. I spend a lot of my days doing 1:1s with the kiddies, getting to know them better and helping them make the most of summer. My office is home to many a therapy session during this season. Throughout the summer I'm organizing, attending or supporting 2-3 evening events per week. In addition, I help run the Intern Social Club (ISC). The ISC is a coalition of 100ish kickass recent college grads (aka the raddest baddest people at Microsoft) who pair up and host a random group of interns for the summer.  You can think of us as camp counselors or spirit guides. The ISC Program is totes one of my favorite things about my job. Always back to the people- it's so legit connecting with some of the most energetic, motivated whipper snappers at the company. I feel like the summer is just one giant bonding experience. Bonding with my interns, bonding with my teammates, bonding with the ISCs. It feels fucking magical. The summer reaches its peak in mid-July when UR throws a stupidly epic event for ALL the interns #sigevent. It's one of the moments where everyone comes together and I just have hit pause on my life to revel in awe of what my team is capable of and pinch myself to make sure my life is real.

And then the interns go home, we say our goodbyes, and a few weeks later I'm back on campus chasing them down with my best friends in the fall. And that's it! That's all there is to it! #NBD

It's worth mentioning that at Microsoft, we split our recruiting into two different functions. Everything I've just laid out is typical of a finder. Finders go out and find the candidates. The second half of recruiting (honestly the most important half) is handled by the fillers. Fillers advocate for our candidates once they receive their offer, helping them to negotiate their offers with the hiring team and guide our candidates through the offer process. I'm eternally grateful to everything fillers do for my candidates.

So, in case you need more food for thought…

Things I seriously love about my job:

• Microsoft: I am legitimately proud to recruit for Microsoft. Personally, this company means a lot to me. There's a reason why I chose to start my career here and I really believe in our mission, our culture, and most important to me, our people. I can't really see myself recruiting for any other company.
• Dream Maker: Some people literally describe Microsoft as their dream company and a lot of people work extremely hard to get to where they are. It is an emotionally rewarding experience to play a small role in helping someone achieve their dream. It's some inspirational shit, y'all.
• Coaching Opportunities: I can't help it, I love the mentorship aspect of my job. I'm an older sibling through and through and I really like being able to bring that to my relationships with my candidates.
• Job Autonomy: How many other jobs out there virtually give you free reign? I have full control over how I recruit at my schools and I get to set my own schedule.
• SO MUCH FUN: Like sometimes I can't believe I #getpaid to do some of the shit I do. Attending rad conferences, throwing super cool parties, hanging with amazing people, like wtffffff.
• I was born to do this: but actually. My job is basically to be myself. Ain't no better way to live your life.

Things I am not into:

• Unpleasant people: I wanted to use an expletive, but Larbear insists that I try to be more creative with my language. Okay but for reals you know what's not awesome? Being subjected to entitled assholes. I hate to admit this, but having a negative interaction with someone can seriously ruin my whole day. I'm learning to not take things personally, but the struggle is real y'all. It's especially hard when you're working so hard and someone decides to shat all over you. At the end of the day, part of my job is being a gatekeeper against people who suck so better for them to reveal themselves to me sooner rather than later. #ughbutstilllllllll
• Being away from home (for too long) - Okay, so work travel makes me feel hella VIP and kind of feeds my ego in an unhealthy/awesome way (that corporate credit card tho!). A big part of me really enjoys being on the road and doing my thing with my recruiting team. However, it's rough times being away from bae, my friends and my own bed for weeks at a time. It gets taxing.

Along the lines of things that aren't my favorite, I wanted to share some other things you may want to take into consideration if you're contemplating this job. I'm not trying to deter you away from recruiting but I think it's only fair to lay everything out on the table. Actually, when I was interviewing for this job, I felt like ALL of the managers spent a good portion of their time playing the no-but-really-are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-this game and making sure I was aware of all of the difficult parts of the job.

• Work/life balance is nonexistent during certain periods of the year. For the last several weeks I've been putting in 12+ hour days and working weekends. It's a necessary evil and honestly, for the most part I'm happy to do it because I'd rather be on top of my shit at work but you should really evaluate if this kind of schedule is a good fit for your lifestyle. MAD RESPECT for the parents on my team, so legit.
• Repetitive - I was able to lay out my entire year as a recruiter in a glorified 1 page essay. There are many opportunities to shake it up and tweak your processes and although some new challenges may present themselves, you're essentially going through the same motions every year for your core job. This is probably a pro and con. On the one hand you know exactly what to expect and can refine your technique year over year, but on the other than you might get really bored.
• Unclear Career Trajectory: There isn't a clear career path beyond recruiting. In engineering, there was a clear leveling scheme to go from engineering I to II to senior to manager, etc. If you want to climb the corporate ladder, you're going to have to forge your own path from recruiting. It's meaningful to make intentional decisions about taking on new roles in your career, but you may feel like you're missing out on a career roadmap that most people get to have.
• Projected Short Lifespan: Most recruiters last 3-4 seasons before they need to move on to something else. The lifestyle is really suited to someone who has flexibility in sacrificing personal obligations (or has a phenomenal support system). I would maybe go as far as to say that this job isn't sustainable for the long haul. Although, there are a few shining examples of recruiters that have been going strong for 10+ years (shout out to you, Andy Gottlieb!). I think I might be one of those #recruiters4lyfe, but only time will tell.

Okay, now knowing what you know, are ready to pursue this career path? HECK YEA LET'S DO THIS.

Some thoughts on next steps:

• Meet other Recruiters: As many as you can! A natural place to start is the recruiting team at your current company (or school). People are really flattered when you want to know about them. LinkedIn is crawling with recruiters and the thing about us is- recruiters are always recruiting and would be happy to talk to you about what we do and get you plugged into the community.
• Determine where you want to recruit and what you want to recruit for: Each company has their own style and philosophy on recruiting. As you meet other recruiters, take notes and start forming your own opinions. Do you want to recruit for tech companies? For business firms? For a big company? For a small company? For college students? For industry candidates or executives? What are the processes at each company and which styles resonate most with you?
• Build your personal brand: Okay, you've done the research and have figured out what you want to recruit for and have a top 5 list of where you'd want to do it. YAY! Now it's time to do some self-reflection. Articulate  your superpower in a way that makes it clear why you'd be amazing for this job.

Examples of attributes I've seen in my most successful teammates:

• Genuine Passion for the Company: Your job is to convince super smart, super awesome candidates that your company is where they should start their career. This is not a conversation you want to hold without true conviction for your company.
• Persuasive Public Speaking: Presentations to 100+ people are more than a weekly occurrence during the fall. The ability to craft and deliver a compelling story that makes your company relatable and desirable is an invaluable skill.
• Organizational Skills: Okay but for reals. Tracking 1000+ candidates each year is insane.
• Abundance of Energy: Do people describe you as the energizer bunny? The ability to turn it on when you're running on empty or the ability to recharge efficiently will be necessary at critical points in the season.
• Confidence:  As with most things in life, confidence is key. It can be intimidating to deal with super savvy, cream of the crop candidates. Having confidence helps you hold your own among coveted talent (that know they're coveted). My gal pal/personal hero, Mindy Kaling, has an incredible perspective on confidence. 

If you're interested in my personal journey to recruiting, this post probably lays it out best. 

Anything I didn't cover? Sound off in the comments or shoot me an email: hellokimwin@gmail.com