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    Meet Hired’s Candidate Experience Team: Supporting Jobseekers Every Step of the Way

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    A top resource for jobseekers looking for Tech & Sales roles  

    A positive candidate experience is an essential part of a successful hiring process, so we have a team dedicated to supporting jobseekers on the Hired platform. 

    Get to know the Candidate Experience Team

    The Candidate Experience (CX) Team currently consists of six members whose responsibilities include: 

    Profile polishing at the onboarding stageCareer coaching and providing resources for navigating the job searchInterview check-ins and interview requests (IVRs) helpGeneral support using the Hired platform

    While the CX team is available to Hired jobseekers at any stage, we typically assign a dedicated CX team member after a jobseeker accepts their first IVR to ensure smooth sailing during the interview process. 

    CX helps bridge the gap between candidates and employers to create a streamlined process. For instance, if a candidate has not heard back from a company, CX can work with the organization’s account manager to get them back in touch with the candidate. The team advocates for transparency on both ends and encourages jobseekers to maintain clear communication with potential employers too.

    If candidates receive an offer, CX checks in again to congratulate them of course, and see if they can provide further support. This could be advice for an offer negotiation or to act as a sounding board to weigh opportunities. From coaching to even some much-needed encouragement (the job search is tough!), CX is here for candidates. 

    Here to help every candidate have a great experience

    First, the Candidate Experience Team is a resource for you. They’re here to help and they work hard behind the scenes too, constantly collaborating with every team across Hired to find ways to improve the candidate experience and help you land your dream job. 

    Second, are you subscribed to The Hired Download email newsletter? They’re the folks sending it! Third, have you attended a How Hired Helps: Ask Me Anything Webinar to get your job search questions answered? They help make those events happen too! 

    Speaking of Hired resources for candidates, we asked team members to share their favorite items to support jobseekers. Here’s what they recommend: 

    “My experience with Hired was great! I landed a job interview offer almost immediately and at the end of the day managed to land a new job via Hired! I also had some great assistance in both the form of website popups as well as regular emails from the team. I would be happy to use Hired again if I need to change my job.”

    Mykola Y., Hired User

    5 of the CX Team’s top tips to find new tech & sales roles on Hired

    Respond to interview requests quickly! Even if you aren’t available to interview for several weeks, you can always accept the interview request and schedule the interview in advance. Being responsive shows you’re interested and proactive. Employers respond well to quick communication.Be courteous when interviewing. Likewise, send thank you notes after interviews and follow up if you haven’t heard back from a company. Displaying a genuine interest in the opportunity and putting your best foot forward in the interview process is as important as any other skill you bring to the table!Be transparent and keep your profile and resume up-to-date. Include all relevant experience and make sure the information on your resume aligns with your profile and LinkedIn – employers check for consistency.Make sure to polish your profile so employers have all the information they need – any extra information is always a bonus! Use the “Must-Have,” “Nice To Have,” & “Do not Want” sections of your profile. Employers also love it when they’re able to get a glimpse of your personality through your profile. It helps them understand if you like working in specific environments, like pair programming. It also helps them personalize their IVRs to you if something in your profile (even interests and hobbies!) aligns with their team. Another reason is if they feel certain benefits or projects would resonate with you.Focus on hard skills when completing the “Primary Area of Expertise” section. Using skills as keywords helps us match you for available roles. Plus, most recruiters search this way using keywords as filters.

    Related: Get more guidance in this blog featuring a video presentation: Want More Interviews and Better Matches? 5 Key Tips! 

    Why the Candidate Experience Team loves what they do

    We’ve shared lots of reasons for you to love the CX Team so let’s wrap up with what the team loves about working with jobseekers: 

    “The CX role is a rewarding one. Navigating a candidate to a destination ‘dream job’ is what we do best!”“It’s an extremely rewarding experience helping people get jobs they’re excited about! A lot goes into the interview process and it can be tiring, so seeing candidates overcome that tall task to get a role they love makes it all worth it!”“It’s brilliant speaking to candidates daily to ensure they’re doing well on the platform and helping them where they need it. I think it really helps to have someone on the platform solely to support them and to assist where needed! It’s a great moment (and truly rewarding) when they secure a role and are thrilled about their new venture. That’s what Hired is all about: connecting great candidates to great employers!”

    A note from the team: We welcome feedback about our candidates’ experiences using Hired. That includes what works and what doesn’t. We encourage you to share your experience with us! We appreciate it and use it to continuously improve the platform.

    Get personalized job search support

    To conclude, the CX Team is ready to partner with you, so use them to navigate the job search process. In addition, Hired partners with organizations to support jobseekers with resume enhancement, technical interview prep, upskilling, and more. Discover organizations to fit your career advancement needs. Plus, many offer discounts on their services to Hired platform candidates!

    The Hired Summit

    Lastly, mark your calendar for April 26th, 2023, for Hired’s Summit. It’s a free one-day virtual event to share job search tips and tricks and connect top talent to companies. The Summit offers tech and sales talent a variety of workshops, panel discussions, networking rooms, and so much more. 

    Discover upcoming events to get job search guidance and connect with top employers. More

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      in Talent Acquisition

      What is DEI? How Does it Improve the Sales & Tech Job Search Process?

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      A survey of tech and sales talent revealed there’s some confusion around the acronym DEI, prompting some respondents to ask, “what is DEI?” In this article we’ll explain it as well as explain how Hired, as a company and a tech and sales career marketplace, helps jobseekers and employers experience more equitable hiring. 

      What is DEI?

      Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), together, are indicators of a progressive and supportive workplace centered around employee wellbeing and sense of belonging. In a field as forward-thinking and transformative as tech, DEI provides the necessary foundation for greater innovation through a range of voices, experiences, and backgrounds. 

      Diversity 

      The first pillar of DEI, diversity, signifies the presence of difference in characteristics including:

      EthnicityRaceGenderAge Sexual orientationDisabilitySocioeconomic statusReligion

      Diversity means everyone is welcome. In a less palpable sense, diversity also exists in the vein of thought. Different people bring different ideas and approaches spurring creativity and efficiency. In these areas, homogeneity can’t compete. 

      Therefore, to be competitive, it benefits organizations to consistently identify non-traditional talent. It creates more robust pipelines of candidates with new ideas to drive businesses forward.

      Equity 

      Equity helps level the playing field by ensuring impartiality and equal access to opportunity for every individual through recognition of biases and barriers. 

      In the context of gender, data from our 2022 Wage Inequality Report shows despite progress, women are still overall less likely to receive an interview request than men. This situation could be described as an “opportunity gap.”

      Equity means everyone has the opportunity to participate. A robust pipeline of diverse candidates will not have the chance to develop unless there are equitable processes in place to allow a variety of individuals to be considered.  

      It’s important to note that equity and equality are not interchangeable terms. While equality also aims to provide resources for everyone to succeed, it does not consider that people start on a different footing. Equity, on the other hand, accounts for these disparities by providing support, or opportunity, based on imbalances in power and privilege. 

      Inclusion 

      Inclusion, the last pillar of DEI, ensures the workplace is a safe space for every employee to engage and feel they belong. It means empowering employees to bring their most authentic selves forward and feel comfortable contributing their insights, knowing they will be heard. 

      Inclusion means everyone gets to contribute. It upholds diversity by embracing every identity and fostering a workplace for all individuals to thrive. 

      DEI gives everyone a seat at the table, creating opportunities for novel connections, pioneering conversations, and unprecedented insights.

      What does DEI mean to Hired as a company?

      As a leader in diversity recruiting and hiring tools, we have a direct impact on equitable hiring and are committed to building equity in the hiring process. We are on a mission to empower connections between ambitious people and teams, but can’t accomplish it without supporting a diverse workforce. Embracing diversity helps us live out our values and drives our mission forward.

      By putting people first, we prioritize development and wellbeing. Doing so helps people flourish and feel valued, knowing they can bring their best, authentic selves to work.

      At Hired, we find strength through inclusion because what makes each person unique makes us all strong. 

      How Hired embraces DEI as an employer

      As a company, we’re always evolving, but some of the ways Hired demonstrates DEI is following the principles when attracting and hiring talent. 

      For example, when we create job descriptions, we use tools like Textio to identify any language considered counter to our DEI efforts. 

      We support an employee resource group, or ERG, called Unite. They lead internal efforts in partnership with the People Team in the form of professional development, open discussions, and building awareness. 

      This year, one of Unite’s activities has been to host a book club featuring books by diverse authors. They also sponsor philanthropic activities. 

      Interested in working with us? See open roles here.

      5 Specific DEI features and tools on Hired’s platform to help jobseekers and employers 

      One of the reasons leading talent organizations use Hired is to drive diversity in their hiring. Here are some of the features we’ve developed based on data and insights to reduce bias. 

      When employers use them, it creates greater equity for jobseekers and a more DEI-friendly environment. Along with our policy of including salary upfront in interview requests, these help improve gaps in expectations, wages, and opportunities. 

      1. Diversity Goals

      We launched Diversity Goals last year as a new way for employers to prioritize outreach to underrepresented talent, without removing relevant matching candidates. Updated filters easily surface these jobseekers to recruiters and hiring managers. 

      Diversity Goals makes the impact of DEI in hiring clear. Companies with open positions using this feature more than doubled their pipeline of underrepresented candidates. Companies using Diversity Goals also had both a lower wage and expectation gap compared to companies who didn’t use the feature. 

      More good news is the amount of employers using Diversity Goals continues to grow rapidly, meaning companies and jobseekers will continue to see the benefits of DEI in action.

      2. Salary bias alert

      Our data continues to show groups who are paid less also expect lower salaries than their white, male counterparts – even if they have the same experience. In our 2022 Wage Inequality Report, we found race contributes to the expectation gap – with Hispanic women and Black women only expecting $0.91 to every $1 salary of their white male counterparts in 2021 Hired data.

      The Salary Bias Alert feature addresses wage inequality goals by notifying employers if they are offering a lower salary than they typically do for a given job role. This helps eliminate the impact of bias on a job offer and holds employers accountable.

      3. Bias reduction mode

      Bias, even when it’s not conscious, can impact sourcing decisions. Activating this mode removes jobseekers’ profile pictures and names so employers focus evaluations solely on skills and experience. 

      4. Salary Calculator

      Hired’s Salary Calculator determines salary benchmarks based on real interview requests, helping jobseekers know their worth. It is a great tool to compare salaries in some of the top cities worldwide, depending on your years of experience. See what you could be making with a company on Hired!

      Related: Evaluate the Job & Negotiate the Job Offer You Deserve

      5. Assessments

      Hired assessments enforce skills-based hiring by helping employers evaluate applicants’ skills remotely with customizable relevant, valuable, and consistent questions. These assessments help reduce hiring bias by leveling the playing field and standardizing evaluation processes.

      “Technical assessments are a valuable tool for candidates to showcase their skills to employers because it goes beyond explaining what you do on a resume…it shows the employers how skilled you really are!”Lupe Colangelo, Employer Partnerships Manager @ General Assembly

      Jobseeker resources: partners who support DEI

      Numerous Hired partners promote opportunities for underrepresented jobseekers across upskilling, cross training, and community. By supporting and partnering with organizations like these we can help connect employers with a more diverse pipeline of employees: 

      Related Blog: Coding Bootcamps Non-Traditional Education for Tech Talent

      Are you an employer looking to drive DEI in your organization? Hired is here to help. By leveraging our platform’s innovative DEI tools and transparent salary data, build diverse teams and close critical wage gaps—one hire at a time. 

      Want to learn more about how to advocate for DEI and be an ally? Watch the 2022 State of Wage Inequality in Tech: Close the Gap with Advocacy & Allyship Webinar below.

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      in Talent Acquisition

      How to Stand Out Behind the Screen: a Guide for Remote Candidates

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      Part of a Series: Setting yourself up for success as a remote candidate

      Editors note: this article was previously posted on LeadDev on behalf of Hired as part of a content series for remote jobseekers.

      Before the pandemic, the job market was split into two uneven parts – office work and remote work – with hardly anything in between.

      Two years later and we now live in a world where you can be, say, 92% remote, visiting the office twice a month. The binary of home and office work no longer exists; ‘remote’ is a variable, and every company has its own baseline.

      Some are offering remote positions on top of office ones. Many are taking a hybrid approach, giving the flexibility to work some days remotely and encouraging folks to come in for ad-hoc team events or sensitive one-on-ones. I was recently involved in a company effort to design that hybrid culture shift and it changed the way we recruit as well.

      If you’re searching for a partially or fully remote role, how can you navigate through an uneven and saturated market? Here I’m sharing my guide for remote candidates looking to stand out by mixing new ‘remote’ tricks along with proven winning strategies.

      1. Boosting your profile

      Cut through the noise

      It’s important to clearly communicate your personal baseline for working remotely. Let recruiters know if you’re willing to come to the office at all, and specify how often. Put this information on your LinkedIn profile and CV. Otherwise, you’ll waste valuable time talking to recruiters who are looking for something else and miss other opportunities due to a lack of focus. It’s also a good idea to highlight if you’re open to relocation and what your baseline would look like in the new country.

      Plan for limited attention

      As a hiring manager, I look through CVs every day. Attention is the most valuable resource I have, and so my task is to extract essential information as fast as possible to decide whether to start the recruitment process. I only take a deeper look when I’m preparing for the interview.

      This isn’t just me. Some studies suggest you have only 7 seconds to attract a recruiter’s attention. That may be an exaggeration, but most recruiters I know settle on a 60-second interval. To increase your chances, consider structuring the most vital details on the first page and use an E or F pattern.

      Showcase the most valuable details

      When I scan the applicant profile, I personally look for:

      Is it a remote-only candidate? If so, what is their timezone range availability? I hope to find these details at the top of the page, together with their LinkedIn URL and personal website or GitHub.Is relocation needed? Relocation adds an interval on top of the notice period, so if I am proceeding with such a candidate I need to plan accordingly.What can this person do, and what do they like to do? A lot of candidates barely mention what they excel at and what kind of opportunities would make them happy. I get very excited when candidates include this in a summary.What was their last job role in detail? Here, I expect a clear distinction between responsibilities and achievements. When I was refactoring my own CV a few years back, I was surprised by how hard it was to separate achievements and tie them to numbers, let alone business outcomes. It’s no wonder that many candidates fail to paint a clear picture of their recent roles. However, doing this will get you bonus points.Is it written in sufficiently good English? I also use the CV to estimate English proficiency and attention-to-detail levels. This is especially important for remote candidates who rely a lot on written communication. And of course, it may not be applicable to neurodivergent individuals.

      Treat LinkedIn as a minimalistic version of your CV

      Recruiters rely on LinkedIn more and more as a sourcing tool where they can find and reach out to attractive prospects. Moreover, if your profile is detailed and up-to-date, they may treat it as a mini CV. Sometimes, I interview candidates without seeing their CVs, just based on their LinkedIn profiles.

      Consider keeping sections like your ‘Summary’ in sync between your CV and online profile. Often, candidates don’t have any description of their roles in the LinkedIn ‘Experience’ section, which renders their profile semi-useless from a sourcing perspective.

      Remember that exercise of writing down your achievements? These would shine on your profile too. Because of the spam, you would still get irrelevant proposals occasionally, but less so. Having your online profile in check may lead to some of the most promising and well-targeted recruitment invites.

      2. Making the right impression

      Think through your video appearance

      In a remote work environment, the way you present yourself matters. It’s not about how you look. It’s how you impact the experience of others. When we come to the office, we want a comfy, quiet space with a nice interior. In a video chat, each participant’s video and audio stream contributes to the overall environment. It forms that virtual office space. Your own contribution should improve it, so the interviewers can see it would be comfortable for them to work with you remotely.

      Do you have everything listed below? These represent the hygiene minimum:

      Good sound. Don’t use an internal microphone.No background noise. You can also try to bring it down via software.Non-cluttered background. The real one is better, yet you can also resort to a virtual background.Non-blurry webcam. A cheap webcam also might do a better job if you increase the amount of light in the room.Good internet connection. Also, arrange for a backup connection.

      If adjusting your current setup is entirely impossible, consider renting a meeting room through a coworking space or taking an interview from a friend’s house with a better setup.

      Related: Video Interviews 101: How to Impress in the Digital Age

      Demonstrate remote professional traits

      Every company has different needs, so there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the personal qualities you should demonstrate in the interview. Some companies may consciously allow for specific traits as a part of their D&I strategy. A good trick is to ask the recruiter what kind of remote candidates they’re looking for.

      That said, there are a few common things that would highlight your capacity to work remotely

      You come across as an organized person. To the extent that you are on time to join interviews, responsive to recruiters over email, and appear composed when speaking.You have good written communication skills. The typical signals are your CV, online profile, and any written content you generate during the recruitment process (e.g., email exchange with a recruiter) or posted online earlier (e.g., your article).You can be concise when speaking. This means you don’t take too long to deliver a point. Folks who can’t do this tend to bloat work meetings, increasing zoom fatigue. If brevity and structure don’t come naturally, you can practice in advance (try using the STAR or PARADE methods).You can bring results autonomously. This is especially important if there’s a timezone difference. The ability to organize and unblock yourself while your colleagues are asleep becomes crucial.

      3. Applying the secret sauce

      Highlight what makes you special

      Every person is special and can contribute in a unique way. As a hiring manager, I also have to be very pragmatic. Ultimately, I will prioritize hiring those applicants who are already aware of what makes them stand out. These folks write about it on their profile and highlight it during interviews.

      Things I would look for include open source contributions, pet projects, tech articles, non-tech initiatives, and public speaking. Your personality and past experience can also make you interesting. I’ve hired pilots and poets, architects, and party people. Carefully growing a team and adding diverse personalities into the mix can make it incredibly performant and creative. It also makes for a fun place to work. Consider what kind of community you want to join, and make your profile stand out in that way.

      Reflections on standing out as a remote jobseeker

      One thing I haven’t mentioned at all in this article is tech skills. Those alone could get you a job, and there’s a magnitude of resources dedicated to perfecting them. But it’s a shame that so many people overlook the importance of presenting themselves in a clear, appealing, and authentic way. By boosting your profile, making the right impression, and applying a bit of secret sauce, you’ll surely increase your chances of swiftly getting the best offer from the company that’s right for you.

      This article was written by Matthew Gladyshev as part of a content series for LeadDev.

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      in Talent Acquisition

      Interested in Sales Development? Jumpstart Your Sales Career with a Great SDR Resume

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      As a sales development representative (SDR), you know all about identifying high quality leads worth pursuing. When it comes time to write yourself a new resume, however, you’ll be switching roles. Now you’re the prospect being assessed, and it’s your resume’s job to tell hiring managers why they should keep reading. In other words, your […] More

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      in Talent Acquisition

      Interested in a Sales or Customer-Facing Role? Here’s Your Resume Guide

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      Like many things, resume styles evolve over the years. In this blog, we’ll focus on best practices for the classic style, whether you’re interested in sales or other customer-facing roles such as Customer Success or Customer Experience. Stay tuned for our upcoming series on Resume Guides when we dive into variations, but for now, we’ll […] More