Firstly, let me say, everyone’s a rock star and amazing but it was humbling to be smack in the middle of a list of people with tens of thousands and in some cases as many as one hundred thousand followers that the hosts introduced as “legends” and “heroes”. People who have been on the news and on tv shows and written books, CEOs and founders of companies and conferences and villages – and then me…
And they said, “We don’t know this KRENNER”
And I have to admit – I wasn’t prepared as this creeped up on me because, I measure time, if you will, by the events between dates and I had so many things to do between the time I signed up for this and now, ie my Toorcon talk and trip to New Orleans etc, that I kept thinking, Oh I’ll figure out what to talk about – and then something unexpected came crashing down on me, and it got away from me.
I saw reminder pop up, and decided to talk to some of my recruiters, about a ½ dozen of them, and ask for their best and worst candidates experiences – their years recruiting ranged from 1 to 20 plus yrs
I figured I’d keep it entertaining but not forget to focus on why things do or don’t work, as best as I’ve observed – and lets face it- that’s kind of phoning it in.
I realized while collecting the data from them, it was not going to be helpful to this audience- I should have asked, what good and bad things do you see consistently – over and over
Because we all should know that you should not to show up drunk for an interview or flip desks over (unless your trying out for WWF)
Although I did share a story about one creepy creeper and what they did to me after my first DEFCON, seriously just in case anyone thinks doing what they did is cool or impressive.
Overall, being helpful is the key to all of this – not just raising money for good causes – but being the type of community that helps one another. We teach, we share, we support, and I do think, as much as we can get caught up in drama at times, like any other group of humans on social media – we are a community that supports and helps each other and shares knowledge, and that’s what BeerCon is and all our conferences and villages etc.
On the subject of helping and volunteering, I intended to and the time slot got away from me, give a shout out to Kathleen Smith, who set me up for my first ever panel and volunteering opportunity about ten years ago and she taught me how to do it and it really shaped and influenced the trajectory of my career. I can’t tell you how many people I have coached and helped and its all because of her influence on me.
So there I was at 3am Sat morning, on twitter on my phone in bed – couldn’t sleep and out of wine – so what else would I do – and I saw Alyssa Miller’s tweet about crazy job postings – I see this a LOT – and decided to focus on and talk about that. How it happens and what to do about it.
If you’re looking for the posting I’m referring to I think the original post was by TProphet, but you’ll see it on my page and Ayssa’s page was well.
Here’s the story I told as an example of how a horrible job post can be born:
Although I’ve been in infosec for a decade, when I first started recruiting it was recruiting it was in telecom, and a good amount of candidates required visas
In hindsight I don’t know if we [hired people needing visas] for cost or necessity but I know that we had to – per OFCCP and other federally mandated employment law ordinances – we had to leave jobs posted for a period of days (length depends on each state) and then prove the individual who we selected, who needed a visa, was more qualified than the US citizens that also applied. Keep in mind we were still getting applications in the mail at that time and I remember having to keep the envelopes and staple them to the resumes to prove when we got them.
And I’ll be honest with you, without saying who I was working for at that time, I’ll say that if we already knew who we wanted, and they needed an H1B, for example, we’d customize the job posting as much as possible, whenever possible, around their qualifications – and frankly, hope no one else applied to it.
Hypothetically speaking, and let me first say, my company doesn’t do this – I run a legit shop – but if any employer knows who they want to hire before the job is posted- they absolutely will be create the job posting to make it harder for other and a perfect match for the person they want.
Can this bite the employer in the ass – absolutely
How you ask?
If you know that the person you want to hire was the captain of the lacrosse team back in college, you could say:
Requirements include CISSP, PHD and lacrosse experience, and if f someone that was qualified for the job minus the lacrosse requirement files a complain, and it gets investigated – the employer better be able to justify the lacrosse requirement with a business case.
But that’s not the only way a job posting winds up with an impossible list of requirements.
It could actually be a mistake. It could be an administrative error. The ATS could have converted sub bullets into bullets. The recruiter could have misunderstood. If it’s a huge company, this could have just been overlooked because they have hundreds or even thousands of jobs open.
My company for example is only just over 1,000 people, and we have over 150 funded jobs open.
So that a couple ways these job postings end up out there – what should you do about it?
Let me tell you my personal opinion of how to respond to these postings.
Are you interested in the company, in the job (title or idea) and do you really want to be considered or are you just so annoyed by how ridiculous it is that you want to apply just for mere sport?
No judgement either way – but I’m here to help the people who really want the job
Step one – Apply
Now you can quote me – One of the most untapped resources on a recruiters desk is the applications – it might fall into a black hole.
So THEN – go on LinkedIn (stay w me here) – look for the company – look for people that work there – find a recruiter – send them a message.
“Hi, I’m Jane Smith – I saw your solutions architect posting – I am a seasoned (or up and coming, whatever makes sense) solutions architect specializing in Splunk deployment with a strong foundation of Linux systems engineering. I noticed you had a lot of requirements in the posting and wanted to inquire as to how many of them are preferred verses actually required, as I don’t have lacrosse experience and don’t know many engineers that do.
I’m interested in hearing back from you.”
Then wait
One business day. Two tops
If you don’t hear back, you look for a director or VP in engineering.
“HI Mary, I noticed you head up the solutions division for XYZ company. I sent a note to your recruiter, Bartholomew, but haven’t heard back. Its possible they haven’t seen my message yet but I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be considered for this position as I’m very I interested blah blah blah
Please take a look at my profile and let me know if you think I might be a fit and I look forward to hearing back”
And since this is a beer con – I decided to throw out a challenge and say – IF YOU DO THIS – and you don’t hear back – I WILL BUY YOU A BEER (find me at the CHV at a con near you).
I know it might feel like I just put a lot of extra work on you but lets all give each other the benefit of the doubt and find ways to hack the system if you will
If I’d had hours and not minutes, I’d have gotten into this a lot deeper, and in more detail but the take-away is, there are many mere hurdles you need to overcome to get seen and hired – assuming your qualified – that means you have to get thru a few things:
- the resume,
- the application,
- the shitty job postings,
- the recruiters – good and bad
- the volume of other applicants
- the processes and software available to the recruiting teams
- and of course, the interviews
….and once you’ve made it through all these things – and with a stroke of good fortune – then you get yourself in front of the people with the hiring authority.
Ran out of time but would have liked to spend the last few minutes on tips for candidates:
– Networking is key – meaning conferences, villages, CTFs , social media, blogging, and volunteering helps
I cover this in my talks that I do and share my content for others to review and/or present.
Best of luck to all – and I’m always available on Twitter with open DMs
Nothing makes me happier than hearing I’ve helped someone get an interview, offer or job!!!
Thanks again
and
Don’t forget to DONATE everyone!!
Be Well,
<3 K
#HereToHelp
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