Staying in Touch, without the “Touch”: Life as Quarantined Recruiter.
The majority of my clients, and candidates, I have won over from being in the right place at the right time, and then placing the right people into the right roles. No BS. So what happens when you can no longer be in the “right place” at the “right time”? You have to figure out a way to stay in touch, without the “in-person” touch. And here is how I did it.
To be honest, in the technology space it’s not always about how much you know, but instead who you know. I’ve built my 15-year career as a tech recruiter and business development professional off of this notion. Of course, I am always learning; technology is an ever-changing industry so staying up to date on the trends is always important. I am in the know about the employment trends, the recruitment process pain-points of my hiring managers, and the hard to find “diamond in the rough’’ candidates who everyone is also looking for. To have a larger scope of the market, we also need to be using the latest and greatest search tools and software for the recruiting space.
And to be brutally honest, although it was my work ethic and productivity that won people over in the end as long-term repeat clients — in the beginning, it was all about developing real relationships, finding great personality matches, and being able to have meaningful face-time with my clients… then COVID hit. But I’d been remote for years, so my daily work wouldn’t completely change. But what would happen when the “people business” I was in could no longer be conducted in person? I had to find a new way to add my personal touch.
But what would happen when the “people business” I was in could no longer be conducted in person? I had to find a new way to add my personal touch.
Like many of you reading this, our family was in the middle of a life-changing decision already before the lockdown hit. Our house had been on the market for a few months, and in February it was listed as sales pending. The deal eventually fell through, but then we came upon renters who wanted a multiple-year lease, and we couldn’t say no. Moving in the middle of a pandemic only added to the overall chaos of distance learning, virtual meetings, and being thousands of miles away from my immediate family. But I’ve never been one to be surprised by a curveball, or to back away from a challenge.
If we flashback to five years ago, I was well into my career as an established VP and managing my own division of a recruitment firm in technology when I experienced the unexpected. The nightmare that several of you have gone through, or unfortunately one day will — I lost a parent. My mother was my personal and professional role model, my confidant, and a VP herself for 30 plus years (and who for the record when she retired a decade ago had to be replaced by not one, not two, but three people at her company). I made a promise to my Midwest family that in the next few years I’d come back to Wisconsin, and be within just a quick Miller Lite’s throw away.
It was about two years ago in 2018, my husband and I made the decision that we would leave California within the next 24 months with our three girls and our dog, and get back to my roots in Wisconsin. I never knew our big decision to leave the land of surf and sand to return to the world of cheese and football would come amidst a time of change, chaos, and unclarity in the world.
The good news for me was that technology had already allowed me to work remotely for the past three years. I’ve been using Zoom for interviews, slack for communication with my team, and of course, my trusted iPhone allowing me to literally have conversations anywhere, and at any time. Often my hiring managers want to talk early in the morning en route to work, or post-dinner time so they can have confidential conversations from the comfort of their home. For many companies and teams, it has taken a lot of adjustments to become fully remote. For me, it was honestly the difference of adding a spouse and a few toddlers running amuck my house while I’m on calls that really spiced things up. Pre-COVID it was just me at home. Like many of you that was the big adjustment. The gang’s all here — and not going anywhere for a while.
Meanwhile, I have more than enough quality time with my family, but that didn’t really make up for the missed face-to-face time with my clients. Pre-COVID I was still able to visit my SoCal neighboring clients, do my monthly “drop-offs”, networking, client meetings, and interviewing senior-level candidates over a nice steak dinner. In the recruiting world, we call what I do “working both sides of the desk”, which means in my job I am supporting both my hiring managers in their pursuit to fill technology roles, and also personally recruiting top-tier tech candidates to fill these vacancies. This allows me to find better fitting people for better fitting roles, and the matches work on both sides. What I learned early in my career is that often some of my best candidates soon became my best hiring managers, and some of my best hiring managers often became my best candidates. The circle of life (in recruitment anyways). And most of these relationships and conversations of “Hey, so we are looking to fill a role…” or the opposite of, “Hey I’m actually looking to find a new role…” occurred in person, and in confidence. Whether it was the 2nd glass of wine, or it was the 6 am coffee — it was all in confidence with someone they knew, trusted, and had face-time with. So what happens now?
Whether it was the 2nd glass of wine, or it was the 6 am coffee — it was all in confidence with someone they knew, trusted, and had face-time with. So what happens now?
Maintaining the Personal Touch
The term “Drop Offs’’ sounds like the area where sharks wait for the prey in the cove, but it’s actually an OG term for providing clients, or prospective clients, with monthly/quarterly/annual treats and surprises — a chance to potentially get some facetime or callbacks with them. (So now you know- it was a scheduled event when you got those assorted bagels and holiday socks from one of your vendors if you didn’t know that already!). Drop Offs for me often led to new business, or at least an emailed ‘Thank You for thinking of me’. Luckily in technology, we don’t have the burden of a Sunshine Act — so we can provide these gestures and reminders that “we are still thinking of you” whenever we want. Or at least we could until March hit. Now, most folks aren’t even in their offices anyways, and there is the uncertainty of when they will even be back. I had to quickly get creative to solve for staying connected while we were both also remote.
So now it’s June, my family and I move to Wisconsin. My network and client base has expanded nationwide in the last 5 years, so it’s no longer California I was concerned about. How do I literally keep in touch with my clients? Conferences and networking events are done. And my clients now have bigger fish to fry too — Are they going hybrid with their kid's distance learning? How are they going to retain key employees? How do I get my dog to stop barking during Zoom meetings?! I quickly realized we had the same newfound challenges, same struggles, and as a mama at home with three girls under the age of 7 — a lot to talk about.
The conversation changed: Not how are you? It was now- How can I help?
We’ve all received that Linkedin rando message in the last few months (I have a dozen in my inbox now). They always start with “I hope this email finds you well, and that you are safe….” Well I can still recall decades ago once the internet came out, the first thing my hard-working mother taught me was to not trust strangers on the “web” — so now these unsolicited ‘hope you are safe’ emails have broken all the rules, and all the potential trust. I easily decided to keep my network clear of these types of reach-outs, and to be honest, I had to find a way to help my clients balance out their circumstances as well. Women working in tech have been through the work-from-home thing before, but this is the first time that all our spouses, our parents, our loved ones, our children, our roommates, our dogs, are ALL at home at the same time as us. I thought this would be a good time to put some other women I have worked with in the past, and do a Women in Tech virtual happy hour. At the end of the day, although you may be Zoomed out, having a casual “cheers” with some ladies, who are in the same boat as you, is the next best thing to meeting up for apps and drinks after work.
The idea of asking others to do the virtual happy hours came from a referral actually. A hiring manager of mine referred me to a new HR recruiter, and we had our first phone call about my new company Teema Group, and how my partners and I could help her. I knew if we had a meeting in person we would have clicked — I could just tell over the phone.
So I asked her:
“ This might sound funny, but….do you want to schedule a Zoom happy hour? For just us?”
“ That would be a blessing. Name the time and the ‘place’ and I’m there!”
We had a good chuckle, but to be honest I was nervous to even ask. Our happy hour ended up a week later and having not one, but two of my children surprise guest by Zoom bombing the meeting (which she found hilarious, and as a single gal maybe she might have even felt some relief). We laughed for about an hour, exchanged stories, and it felt as in person as it could. And at the end, she asked me to work on a few of her open job reqs, including a confidential senior-level role that had just opened up at her company. I have led a few groups of gals since then, and I’m happy to continue to connect my network — even if it’s over the “web”.
Speaking of referrals, I’ve noticed that networking has changed too — it is now much more about good people helping out other good people. Pre-COVID I would often have to pry and use some tactics to pull out a referral from a conversation. Now people are offering to me their friends, family, former colleagues, college buddies, etc. without me even having to ask twice. Not only are they giving me the name, but they are also often emailing an intro to both of us. This is happening whether the referral is looking for a role themselves, or about to hire a new team. People just want to help each other out right now. What could have been a nightmare for recruiters with an overflowing pool of candidates and no new jobs to place them at, has really balanced out in the technology space for a good number of companies — from the Tech Giants to the StartUps- they are all needing good people. And needing them fast. And needing them remote.
As recruiters our product really is people, our customer really is people, and our content really is people.
As a recruiter, we actually are in the people business, despite the many industries and individuals that say they are. Our product really is people, our customer really is people, and our content really is people. The good news is that in technology not much has changed for the remote world. Luckily our industry has had the tools and resources necessary to be successful for years. Right now it’s the rest of the industries scrambling to catch up to us. We are actually doing fine, and according to the NYT the highly skilled workers are coming out on top in this market, link to NYT Upsides for Some Remote Workers; Lost Pay and Security for Others here.
What people don’t realize is the amount of opportunity there is in available jobs in the remote space currently. And for highly skilled candidates in tech, this is the time for you especially. And it is huge. Staying connected may be remote now — but having conversations from one person to another is still the best way to keep the personal touch with my clients, with my candidates, and of course with my industry friends. A remote coffee, a virtual wine, a social distanced round of golf, a Zoom happy hour, are all great ways to connect. But the biggest difference now is making the time to pick up the phone, and having that real conversation. And always be meaningfully asking, So how can I help?
But the biggest difference now is making the time to pick up the phone, and having that real conversation. And always be meaningfully asking, So how can I help?
Interviewing, hiring, and retaining in a fully remote environment, however, is the next big challenge that our industry and all industries are facing. Both on the candidate side, and honestly even more so on the hiring side. The real question for all of us now is — how do we solve that? I’ll dig deeper into that next article, but I’d love to hear your insight on how you are making it all work.
