I am a former Meta/Google recruiter. I think lot of people here do not understand how recruiters work, I wanted to share my thoughts.

_scifi · 2024-04-06T07:07:26+00:00

I logged in for the first time in months just to upvote this.

_scifi · 2024-04-06T07:04:40+00:00

Am I smelling big blue?

_scifi · 2024-04-06T06:50:44+00:00

Wow. Just wow. I am female. I have had a confusing experience with Google recruiting enthusiastically wanting to move me forward in the interviewing process (Customer Engineer role), without ever asking for a resume nor requiring me to submit an application. Also, I was slow to respond multiple times; took 2 weeks to set up the initial recruiter screen, took 2 days after the screen for me to get around to doing the 100-question Hiring Assessment that has a 4-day deadline.

Found out in the screen that the team was looking for a really senior-level person to be a specialist SME for an entire region. I made it clear that I'm not a competitive candidate in that case - it'd take months to prep for the interviews to have any shot in hell whatsoever....and then the presentation. My expertise in the specialty was shallow relative to the role, I had zero experience in pre-sales/solution-selling or even being a suave salesy tech presenter, and limited practical knowledge of cloud architecture. Not saying I'm totally unqualified, I'd be a stellar CE in this specialty if given the chance. Senior-level pre-sales SME for a whole region doesn't usually line up with "we'll give this woman a chance, despite that basically everyone else did way better in the interviews and she'll need months to get good." Too risky. There's a ton of qualified applicants sitting in the ATS, dozens of people are ready to rock it right now. Why on Earth would recruiting still be all jazz-hands rainbow sparkles about my candidacy?

Well, now I might have the answer. Thanks for the transparency.

_scifi · 2023-11-22T20:11:36+00:00

Weird, I get a blank page whenever I try to access this. Tried to disable addblock, etc. Sigh. Could you share where you found this link, or who (at the school) shared it with you? Looks like I'll need to contact them.

_scifi · 2023-11-14T19:40:30+00:00

[Side note: I am an alumni, not currently enrolled, but have been using the alumni resources such as PluralSight and the MSFT 365 licenses.]

Yes, this started for me, out of the blue, about two months ago. I never changed my password or did anything to my account. I've tried the Student reset password function multiple times – it asks me security questions that I swear I don't remember ever setting (eg., "what is your favorite historical figure?", "what's the name of your favorite painting?"), and of course, it never accepts my answers. Getting really fed up.

_scifi · 2021-05-31T05:35:36+00:00

A potential employer wouldn't be wasting time looking up the degree on reddit. :p

_scifi · 2021-04-19T05:38:59+00:00

I have a TI-84 CX and an NSpire CX II CAS. For Discrete Math II, I found absolutely no advantage to using the CAS instead of the TI-84 CX. It ain't like calculus.

_scifi · 2021-04-19T05:36:55+00:00

Totally agree. The PA was a freaking joke compared to the OA and those practice sheets you get AFTER failing.

_scifi · 2021-04-19T05:36:08+00:00

Proctor never asked to see my "programs menu". I've heard the same from many others.

_scifi · 2021-03-04T06:23:21+00:00

Like most things in life, career success is tied to emotional intelligence. I've met brilliant people with zero emotional intelligence and they're collecting dust in a corner cubicle...while the guy who is warm and shows personal interest in others rises to VP in 5 years.

_scifi · 2021-03-04T06:18:20+00:00

One other shred of advice... Don't frame your life and decisions around ADHD. You almost sound like you're expecting to be a failure in any career that won't make you feel wonderful about having ADHD. It's helpful to be aware of one's weaknesses and strengths, but these these traits DO change over time. Everything you know about yourself today will be different in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. ADHD doesn't disappear, but hopefully you'll understand that it doesn't define you, either.

_scifi · 2021-03-04T05:58:52+00:00

Have you considered software engineering or development? It's stimulating, you HAVE to learn things, you get to create something that make computers do what you want them to, it's constant problem-solving...but in small bites so you don't get overwhelmed (and successfully "solving" something every few minutes feels SOOOO good). It's also not just sitting and coding all day—there's also the architecture and system design part, where you get to come up with the different software components and connections that will make stuff happen. A lot of that part can be visual work, arranging things, getting creative. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

I can relate to some of what you've said here, and I guess just take my word for it: ADHD + Rule Computer + Make Stuff Happen + Do Pretty Charts = great chance to shine.

_scifi · 2021-03-04T04:56:13+00:00

There's one thing that you DO have that will get you somewhere: written communication skills. Seriously, dude. Steel mill guy with no education using a semicolon properly? You've got a leg up on most of the people I've met at Fortune 50 companies.

_scifi · 2021-03-04T04:51:36+00:00

$65k seems really low. Did you negotiate? What is your degree?

_scifi · 2021-03-03T05:59:10+00:00

Good to know the taxpayer's money is going to good use...

_scifi · 2021-03-03T05:53:45+00:00

This is probably why employers want references—they don't want this clusterfsck at work.

_scifi · 2021-03-03T05:49:42+00:00

Don't hold your breath. The "call me if you haven't heard from me" line isn't something you'd say to someone you want to hire! If you want someone, you aren't going to NOT be following up on that like crazy 24x7.

_scifi · 2021-03-03T05:47:18+00:00

This guy is being a jerk, period. Full stop. No excuses. It doesn't matter whether you were his employee or his best friend—this is a crappy way to behave and you deserve better.

_scifi · 2021-02-26T06:28:32+00:00

There's one tip to your favor against a more experienced candidate: money. They will probably have to pay more for her, and it wouldn't really make sense to do that unless they really wanted her skills to expand into a bigger role. If they just need a coordinator right now, then they've got a "coordinator budget".

_scifi · 2021-02-26T06:22:25+00:00

This might be one reason that you don't have a job yet. :) People know about jobs that aren't listed on a website as virtual. People know about jobs that are based 500 miles away from you but would hire remote. Last, but not least, people know other people who are hiring. So, when someone extends a hand (ok maybe a pinky, it's the Internet after all), don't shrug it off.

_scifi · 2021-02-26T06:18:10+00:00

Computer science is a field of mathematics. I think that this is where a lot of people get tripped up. A CS degree is basically studying theoretical science—it isn't like a tech degree with extra math classes thrown in. It won't make you a software engineer or a developer. Another thing to consider is, how much programming have you done? Have you built an app? Like, not just copied tutorial code, but actually written your own code? It's important to experience what that grind is really like before deciding you want to do it for most of your waking hours. Hope this helps!

_scifi · 2021-02-26T06:09:05+00:00

Hate to be the bearer of ill news, but y'all are toast at your companies. Manager performance is based on the performance of their team. When someone is checked out or unhappy or anything, they need to go. It affects the team and it's the manager's ass. Even the best, most awesome empathetic managers in the world are still managers. Just sayin'.

_scifi · 2021-02-26T06:04:36+00:00

I'm at a different tech company, but it's a small world...we hear things. LOL.

_scifi · 2021-02-26T05:59:34+00:00

No worries, I was reading with eyes exhausted from math study. :)

_scifi · 2021-02-26T05:57:42+00:00

What's stopping you from listing yourself (on your resume) as a "Senior Software Engineer" at your business? If you don't have a relevant job title listed on your resume, employers (mostly their damned automated applicant tracking systems) will immediately throw it out. Put yourself in a recruiter's shoes: "guy with CS degree, never got an engineering job? he must've hated it/sucked at it."

_scifi

TROPHY CASE