413. How to get recruited 🐳
Tips and tricks to get more recruiter outreach (and what to do when you get it)
Hi there 👋
I saw the Super Mario Brothers movie over the weekend. It was a thrill ride. 8/10 would recommend. I also watched a movie-length YouTube video of Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland explaining the psychology of digital marketing. Also a thrill ride! 10/10 would recommend. If you have 90 minutes and want to be entertained, you can’t go wrong with Mario or with #marketing YouTube.
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Kevan
(ᵔᴥᵔ)
Thank you for being part of this newsletter. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world and my time at Oyster, Buffer, and more.
Say hi anytime at hello@kevanlee.com. I’d love to hear from you.
How to get recruited (and what to do when recruiters come knocking)
A recruiter asks a candidate, “Why do you expect such a high salary when you have no experience in this field?”
The job applicant replies, “Well, the job is much harder when you don’t know what you’re doing.”
I have not had this exact conversation with a recruiter before, but I certainly understand the feeling! There are many, many times I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, and many of those times have come on recruiter phone screens when I’m being asked how I do what I do.
To be sure, there is a lot of privilege that comes with simply being on a recruiter call to begin with.
I think of it as quite the honor to be sought out for a job rather than having to apply for one. I have experienced both over my career — e.g., I applied for a job at Buffer multiple times before finally getting in, and I started getting recruiter outreach toward the end of my time at Buffer.
If you’ve spoken with a recruiter before, you probably know the feeling: a contradictory mix of impostor syndrome (“how do I explain why I’m good at what I do”) and ego boost (“this person reached out to me because they want to hire me!”).
If you’ve yet to speak with a recruiter, don’t worry. It will happen! In fact, before I tell a few stories and lessons from what my experience has been like with recruiters, let me begin with some tips and resources about recruitment in general.
First, if you want to get recruited, there are two things to do with your LinkedIn:
Change your status
Update your headline
For changing your status … you will go to your LinkedIn profile, and click the “Open to…” button near the top. Here you will say you’re open to work, then you can pick and choose the types of roles and requirements you’re looking for. The important part is, at the end, to mark yourself as open to Recruiters Only. This way, not everyone at LinkedIn — bosses included — will see that you’re available, and you won’t get the #OpenToWork photo frame attached to your pic.
Telling LinkedIn you’re open to recruiters allows your name and profile to show up in the premium recruiter version of LinkedIn.
For updating your headline … make sure you’re using this important real estate for saying more than just your current title. Stuff this with 3-4 keywords, separating each with one of those horizontal bar things = “|”
Here’s a video:
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My headline (which isn’t perfect at all) says:
VP of Marketing | Product-Led Growth and SaaS Leader
Once you have these settings in place, you will be well optimized for recruiters.
But let’s say you want to take matters even more into your hands. There are a ton of really, really great recruiting firms out there that specialize in marketing and go-to-market roles. Keep an eye out for these firms when you get them in your inbox, or feel free to go straight to their websites to reach out and let them know you’re available. Recruiters looooove building relationships. It’s their job!
I have had some really incredible experiences with recruiters from this list, but I also wanted to call out two special and unique ones that stand out:
Will Reed. We worked with Will Reed on an executive search at Buffer — for my role! This came as I was headed off to new adventures, and I got to be part of the beginning stages of our VP Marketing search. Will Reed works exclusively with early-stage founders, and they were among the very best firms at meeting our lofty expectations on DEI.
Faraday Partners. The Faraday team brought me to Oyster, and I have yet to experience a recruiting journey quite the same since. It started with a Loom video explaining the business, then the recruiter met with me over video before every interview to explain and prepare for me what’s ahead, and he even let me run through my case study together and helped shape my slides before the presentation.
What to do when you’re recruited
1. Respond!
This may qualify as a hot take 🔥 because many marketers will tell you to just ignore all the pitches until you’re ready to make a move. Not me. I respond to almost every recruiter outreach that comes my way. Then again, I respond to almost every email that comes my way, too, so maybe it’s just a “me” thing. (For those of you who emailed me and are awaiting a reply, it’s on my to-do list!)
Almost every time, my response is along these lines:
Thank you so much for thinking of me for this role. I’m quite happy in my current position, but I’m grateful for the outreach and would love to stay in touch in case things change for me down the road.
or
Thank you for the note. I’m really grateful you thought of me. Timing isn’t right for me to make a move now — there are still a few mountains I’m excited to climb at [current job]. But I really appreciate the thought and would love to stay connected.
2. It’s okay to hop on a call — if you know your “why”
If you happen to see a recruiter outreach that catches your eye, there’s no harm in hopping on a call. Taking the occasional call will help you build relationships and give you good practice about how you “pitch” yourself to others.
But before you say yes to a call, take a minute to understand your “why.” Here are a few possibilities:
You’ve yet to connect with a particular recruiting firm, and you want to be part of their database. Joining a call lets you tell the firm what kind of jobs you might be into some day and what stuff you’re great at.
You have your eye on a particular type of future job — say, a VP or CMO role — and you want to know what it takes to be considered for that type of position. Call it “research-gathering” for your professional development
You have your eye on a particular type of company — say, a pre-IPO company or a private equity-backed business — and are curious what marketing looks like there
3. Remember that the recruiter is on your team (and the other team)
A recruiter has your best interest in mind and is available to you as a resource once you get into the interview process. You can text them, email them, hop on calls prior to interviews — they are highly invested in getting great people into these roles, and you are one of their great people!
Of course, they are also getting paid by the company doing the hiring.
4. Also remember: the recruiter has a really hard job!
Speaking from personal hiring experience, sometimes a company isn’t sure what it wants in a candidate or the scope of the role changes on a whim. And the recruiter simply ends up being the messenger in these scenarios, telling great candidates (like you) that there’s no longer a fit. In these cases, it’s true: “It’s not you, it’s me.”
5. Some recruiters are hands-on and some are hands-off. Every process is different
I have been in processes where the recruiter makes the initial intro and then you barely hear from them again. I have been in others (like the Faraday Partners example) where they have been my closest ally and remain really good friends even after the process finishes up.
When you do get a recruiter who is hands-on and deeply invested in your process, take them up on their offer of advice and feedback. After all, they know better than anyone what a successful hire will look like.
6. The more organized the process, the more organized the team
Rarely — but sometimes — you’ll get into a process and at the end of your first call, the entire rest of the hiring process will be laid out before you, neat as a pin. This is obviously a very, very good sign if a company is this organized because it speaks highly the level of organization you can expect when you join.
7. Get ready to get a lot of text messages
Recruiters love to text. If you hop on a phone call for your initial recruiter screen, then you’re off and running as WhatsApp buddies from then on out. 🙆♀️
Over to you
What have you experienced with recruiters? Any advice or tips you have? It’d be great to hear from you at hello@kevanlee.com (simply reply to this email)
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Oyster. I previously built brands at Buffer, Vox, and Polly. Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. Not yet subscribed? No worries. You can check out the archive, or sign up below:
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