Looking to switch careers? Want something more fulfilling?
If you want to get hired, you need to build connections, and a network of hiring managers and recruiters is one of the best ways to get there.
We reached out to LinkedIn’s top recruiters and hiring managers to find you the best advice.
We chose them because they align with our core values. They each come from a non-traditional background, and they’ve all found ways to make an impact and truly give back to non-traditional job seekers.
Some don’t have college degrees, and others have decades of experience. Some found their passion immediately, while others took the scenic route.
But they all have one thing in common: a passion for helping people reach their full potential.
In the list below, we'll briefly introduce each person, show you a LinkedIn post that highlights their work and insightfulness, and share their words of advice for current job seekers.
And remember, if you want personalized one-on-one help anywhere on your job search journey, check out our career services here.
Our tradition of being non-traditional starts with Elizabeth Morgan.
Elizabeth isn’t a recruiter anymore, but she still makes our list. Why? Because she teaches you to get hired without applying for jobs!
She just accepted a position at Amazon as a content strategist after they reached out to her. She’s never applied to any company she’s ever worked at, and she was a Google recruiter for 3 years, so her strategy seems to be working!
Here's one of her recent posts to showcase her insightful style:
Come up with three companies or positions you’re passionate about. Write down why you’re passionate about them. Create content around that on LinkedIn. Tell everyone you know about it. Try to meet people who work on the teams of your dream companies or positions. Stay consistent, stay excited, and don’t forget to eat healthy food so your body can reward you with focus and energy when it’s time to interview!!! :)
Up next we have Pooja Sund.
She’s spent 15 years in Finance, Engineering and BI, and she has invaluable advice for job seekers of all backgrounds.
Check out this wonderful post as an example:
Be bold, be brave, and be you. Embrace the growth mindset and show curiosity, passion, and a desire to grow and connect with people.
Maya’s a 2x VP of Marketing, career coach, and best selling author. She posts regularly about the job search process and helps us understand how to approach it mindfully.
I didn't go to an Ivy League school.
I wasn't born with a special talent.
Yet I was promoted 10 times in 15 years.
How? I did something most people never do:
I managed my career like I was the CEO of a one-person company:
- I adopted an owner's mindset
- I created growth opportunities
- I worked to increase my "revenue" consistently
- I built my brand
- I created a plan and followed it
Many of the people I worked with throughout the years
Are still doing what they did three, five, or ten years ago.
It's not because they are not talented or capable,
It's because they were never intentional about their success.
Instead of DRIVING their career to where they want to go
They took the passenger seat and cruised along.
Here is the thing:
You can't outsource your success.
No one will ever care about your career as much as you do.
If you want to grow your career,
start thinking like a CEO.
As a first-generation college grad from a low socioeconomic background, Heather found navigating college and entering the workforce a bit tricky. She attributes her career to trying out internships, student leadership roles on campus, and the leadership acquired in her part-time jobs.
She currently works in campus recruitment at IBM, primarily supporting graduate students.
Here's an insightful post about getting referrals:
You can learn something new from every opportunity. You don't need the top internship or top company to learn. By embracing the opportunities in front of you, you can find the right skills to develop for your future, now.
Adam Broda is a career transition specialist on a mission to make the world a better place by elevating the people, products, and businesses that shape it every day.
After 10 years as a hiring manager across tech and engineering firms, he chose to pursue his passion for coaching and helping others by starting Broda Coaching, where he teaches effective strategies for transitioning into tech and engineering companies.
Always take the time to measure the impact you've created in a specific role. Whether that ROI is big or small; understanding how to create value will drive your career.
Marie’s dubbed the Fairy Job Mother, and with her love for Disney and her recruiting success, we’ve gotta say it’s an apt title.
She loves to share tips to help job seekers stand out in their search, and she’s a cheerleader, advocate, confidence builder, and advisor who provides career search strategies to help others experience and land their dream jobs the way she was able to.
Stay authentic to you throughout the search. Know your worth and value and hold strong to them. Know what you can compromise and what you can't. Keep learning throughout the process. If something doesn't work, change strategies and find what works best for you. Lastly, have fun! It will be hard, stressful, and can bring your spirits down, but surround yourself with people who lift you up and enjoy the journey!
Linda’s a recruiter at Aerotek who loves to talk about mental health, vulnerability, and career development.
She doesn’t have a college degree, and she wants to show others how to succeed like she did!
It took me 100 applications, interviews, and rejections, to get one YES. Don't look at rejection as failure, but rather look at it as redirection. I came from a non-traditional background, with no experience, gaps in my resume, and no education, but I ended up where I was meant to be. All it takes is one person to see your worth and that person has to be you. You are good enough as you are, don't let a no from someone else stop you in your tracks. You will end up at the right company at the right time.
Sarena’s a University and Early Career Talent Acquisition Partner at iCIMS, so definitely follow her if you’re a college student looking to break into tech!
She double majored in psychology and sociology at the University of Georgia and eventually found her passion for human resources. She then saw a match in recruiting, and found that university recruiting was the perfect niche for her!
If possible, try to enjoy the job search process as much as you can. Take advantage of this time to reconnect with old acquaintances and establish new professional relationships. Have fun during your interviews and treat each interview as a learning opportunity!
Cara loves helping creative talent land their dream opportunities.
She’s currently working at TikTok where she leads recruiting across creative, content, music, marketing, and business development with a team of awesome recruiters. She’s even the leader of the Women Employee Resource Group there.
Know what you're looking for and network, network, network. Identify leaders in the organizations you'd like to join and recruiters focused on hiring for the teams you want to join to connect with and share why you'd be a great fit for the role. Find commonalities between you and the people you're connecting with (I see we are both alumni of X college/university, I see you're also a part of X group).
You never know when you'll reach out to the right person at the exact right time.
Jeff’s a technical recruiter at Amazon who moonlights as a mentor to college students. He doesn’t want them to repeat his mistakes, and he wants to show them that they can make it if they put in the work.
He took the scenic route on the way to his full time job as a recruiter at Amazon, and he didn't have a natural knack for it. Instead, he worked hard and put in a lot of hours to eventually get to where he is today.
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For my tech kids, FAANG/MANGA out of college is awesome but it is not absolutely necessary. Start ups and small companies provide amazing experience and help you grow during your first year in the industry equal to, if not more, than MANGA companies. Please consider them!
As the Recruiting Coordination & Ops Manager at Udemy, Yifan is always looking to hire new talent.
He’s passionate about lifelong learning, so it’s only natural that he’s working at Udemy where he gets to bring in awesome people to help the cause.
Trust in your answers; it's up to you to help connect the dots of your experience (especially if you have non-traditional experience) through storytelling and your interview answers. Sure, some questions ask "Tell me about a specific time you used XYZ software", but most questions are more geared towards your broader application of your resourcefulness and knowledge. If you're able to help an interviewer or a recruiter see the potential you have, it will help further validate their confidence that you can do the role.
Stephanie, AKA the Unicorn Recruiter, is the Head of Revenue Recruiting at Divvy, and building and scaling hyper-growth tech unicorn startups through talent acquisition is her jam!
Show up! Be authentic with who you are in and outside of the workplace so be you during your interviews too!
Melanie strives to use her people skills to continue to be an advocate for under-resourced and underrepresented job seekers.
She’s currently a Talent Sourcer at Highspot.
My word of advice for job seekers, is to never lose faith in what you want to achieve and to network network network. I have had 5 jobs since graduating college and they all came about through networking. I know sometimes it's hard as people of color, woman of color, and as first geners to send random emails/Linkedin messages to people but it pays off. I say choose your hard. Yes it's hard to send a random message and it's' harder to stay in a job you aren't growing in or being unemployed. So choose your hard. My last piece of advice is lift while you climb. If someone ever helped you in your career, pay it forward, you will be blessed multiplied.
Nicole is a recruiter at Wix.com who likes demystifying the job search process through her weekly career tips.
She kicked off her career in recruiting at Royal Caribbean where she focused on global recruiting and pursuing a certificate in HR Data Analytics at Cornell. With the changes the pandemic brought, it gave her the opportunity to move into tech at Wix.com.
Always come from a place of curiosity and excitement in the job search process! It can be an absolute roller coaster of emotions, but keeping a positive mindset is often the biggest differentiator of your experience.
Our list finishes strong with Harpreet Kaur, a 1st generation technical product and thought leader at Microsoft. In her decade long journey at Microsoft and her decade in management consulting before that, she has not only successfully led multi-billion dollar products and teams globally, but she’s also passionately advocated for diversity, inclusion, and bringing one's whole self to work.
She lives by the motto, "Why blend in when you are born to stand out."
When you are looking for a job, don’t just look for the best fit based on what you know now, look for what’s the best fit where you want to be and what will also grow you to be ready for the next one too. Also people and culture are as important as compensation too. On top of that, look for where you are able to bring your authentic self without covering, because it is less about just climbing the ladder but also defining your success based on your own story and that may include rejections and failures too.
The best recruiters and hiring managers know the job market, the economy, and have specialized, industry specific knowledge that makes their voices stand out.
Hopefully this list can serve as a valuable resource for anyone looking to gain insights into the inner workings of the job search process.
If you want to go the extra mile and get personal, one-on-one attention to help you advance in your career, you're on the right website. Here at Wonsulting, we have a team of hiring managers, recruiters, and industry professionals that are ready to help you find a job. We provide one-on-one guidance for every step of the job search journey.
Need someone to teach you how to find jobs on LinkedIn? We'll revise your profile and give you our proven strategies here. Need to identify your dream job and strategize your path there? We have a service designed for just that.
Tired of applying for individual jobs and want us to apply for you? We do that, too.
No matter where you are on your job search journey, we can help you advance to the next step.
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