đââïž Hi there, Iâm Austen, a former Senior Engineering Manager and Hiring Committee Chair at Meta where I did over 1,000 interviews and trained 100s of interviewers. I work with candidates 1:1 to help them rock their behavioral rounds at top companies. If youâre targeting Anthropic, OpenAI, or other big tech companies, check out my coaching page. And grab a copy of my best-selling book Mastering Behavioral Interviews to get a complete prep system.
I sat down with Marina PetroviÄâex-Google, ex-Meta recruiter turned career coachâand she spilled ALL the tea on how recruiting actually works at Big Tech.
Marinaâs been on both sides of the table: bartending in NYC (when java was a drink) and running hiring pipelines at two of the biggest tech companies in the world. There are some insightful segments in our conversation and I encourage you to check it out if youâre in the tech job market.
So, a recruiters friends or foes?
Recruiters are not working for you but they arenât working against you either. They work for the company but your success is their success. They have hiring goals. If you get hired, they hit their numbers. So theyâre actually hustling for you and you can make their advocacy for you smoother if you rock the initial call...
The recruiter call is a restaurant date
Speaking of that, you know how people say âwatch how your date treats the serverâ? Marina is watching how you treat her in that first call. If you open with âUgh, itâs been one of those days,â sheâs thinking: If this is how you talk to me, what are you gonna say to my hiring manager? Give the recruiter a pitch they can turn around and give the hiring manager as to why youâre the right person for the role.
Some hot takes from our conversation:
đ„ Never give your salary number first. Flip the script: âWhatâs the budget for this role?â Let them anchor, then negotiate.
đ„ At startups, ask: âIs this budget even approved?â Marinaâs seen hiring managers recruit candidates... only for finance to pull the funding. Donât waste your time on ghost jobs.
đ„ âPassion for Rustâ on your resume is useless. You either have Rust experience or you donât. Save the passion talk for LinkedIn.
đ„ Linked your GitHub on your resume? It better be green. âIf I go to GitHub and itâs empty, Iâm like... okay, so...â
đ„ No LinkedIn recommendations = red flag. Marinaâs internal monologue: âNobody likes you. Nobody likes to work with you.â I donât think I have any recommendations on my LinkedIn, need to fix that...
đ„ Keyword-stuffing your resume? âBoo.â Hiring managers may drill into every single technology you list. Only put what you can actually defend.
I had to ask about negotiation since Iâm so horrible at it personally:
Companies EXPECT you to negotiate. If you just say yes immediately, they think itâs weird.
Donât accept verbal offers on the spot. Get it in writing firstâthat begins your leverage.
Base salary is hard to move, but sign-on bonus is easier to negotiate since itâs often a different approval process.
If you want to get feedback on your performance:
Youâll almost never get written rejection feedback from a big company for legal reasons. But get your recruiter on an actual phone call and maybe theyâll tell you more.
Thanks Marina for such a lovely conversation!
Marina coaches mid-to-staff level engineers on networking, resumes, and interviewing, and works with them until they find a role.
Find her on LinkedIn.