5 Job Search Tips from Chief People Officer of Global Tech Company

I enjoyed this recent LinkedIn QA with Zenefits’ Chief People Officer Tracy Cote, who has her pulse on hiring. Here are the top 5 things she said:

1. My favorite tip: Do not raise any requests prematurely. Candidates often tell me they don’t want to waste anyone’s time so they want to raise deal-breaking issues at the get-go. But I agree with Tracy that you first must make a strong positive impression before making any asks. She notes: “it’s kind of like dating. You don’t want to put everything out there on the first date! Job seekers should wait until they find out where things are going before they start talking about things that might present a more challenging conversation. So, if a candidate really wants to work in Hawaii or something, and the company is traditionally based in San Francisco, for example, they might wait for a couple of conversations until the company really likes them before seriously drawing a line in the sand. If candidates do it right at the beginning, that might take them out of the running for the interview, quite frankly.”
2. My second favorite: Interact with recruiters and managers helpfully. They are often overwhelmed, so if ghosting happens, don’t take it personally (though I try to respond to everyone!). When following up with a recruiter, Tracy suggests making it natural and offering up some information: “What I like is when candidates send me a message, whether via email or LinkedIn, that just says, ‘Hey, here’s something that I thought you’d think would be interesting. By the way, I’m still interested if you’re still hiring’ – something like that. It’s not too pushy, but it also gives me something that I might find useful or relevant to my company or our conversation. That shows interest and keeps the candidate top of mind.” Definitely agree with Tracy. You want your gatekeeper to admire your intelligence and people skills.
3. Your LinkedIn profile will get viewed so make sure it’s tight. Hiring managers nowadays will check out your profile online before deciding whether to speak with you, so your profile should line up to the job in question. Tracy says profiles “should have an objective truth-teller take a critical look at it for them and make sure it’s free of typos and that it accurately reflects them. It’s also important to make sure their picture looks representative of what they want it to say about them.” Lawyers, you may be concerned about privacy, but you really do need to add a photo. If you don’t, people will assume you are in the dark ages and don’t understand technology or that you are odd looking.
4. Get the attention of the hiring manager by making your resume short and on-point. Do not cram too much info. Keep what the hiring manager cares about. Do not get “fun” or “creative.” This advice especially applies to legal resumes since we are in a conservative industry. Don’t add color, images, unusual fonts, etc. Even too many stylistic flourishes, e.g., multiple fonts and over-use of bold/italics/underlining/caps, is considered weird in the legal world.
5. Kind of obvious: In-person hiring has been replaced by video interviews since no one is in the office these days. Tracy notes some cutting-edge companies have been asking candidates for their video resumes, but I personally haven’t seen that and don’t expect it any time soon for legal hires. One unexpected benefit from video conference interviewing I’ve observed is a much shorter interview cycle. No one has to take a day off from work, and if an interviewer has a conflict, rescheduling is easy.