I had the opportunity to interview Amy Miller. Currently, Amy’s a Senior Tech Recruiter at Amazon. She has 20 years in recruiting, hunting everything from truck drivers to CFOs. She’s spent the last several years in big tech (Microsoft / Google) after many years in various agencies learning how “real” recruiting is done. She’s passionate about client AND candidate experience, and believe’s that good consulting sometimes looks like bad customer service. Overall, I hope you enjoy this Q&A interview I got to do with her!
“I’m flattered by every inmail I receive asking me if I’m on the market for a new gig, but be warned – the crappy ones turn into cautionary tale blog posts. I will also turn your snarky comments into t-shirts.” 😉 – Amy
1. Tell us about your work experience in recruiting – how did you get your start, how did you progress, where are you at this point in time?
I fell into it like everyone else totally on accident, I started out in agency recruiting for a small boutique firm in Seattle paying drivers $6.75 / hr to drive their own vehicles delivering auto parts and pharmaceuticals. Now I’m hiring engineers to launch satellites. What a wild ride it’s been! I worked my way up across several agencies, then in the big ’09 recession took a brief detour into the government which led to my first corporate gig. I never really “planned” my career – it feels like a series of happy accidents and being in the right place at the right time. I count my blessings daily!
2. What are the unique talents you bring to the field?
What I really have going for me? Tenacity it’s far from unique (I think most great recruiters have this personality trait). The ability to get back up again after being knocked down repeatedly is the key skill I bring. I would also add that I believe I’m pretty good at tapping into someone’s emotional currency – the innate drivers that cause people to make decisions, whether that’s a candidate considering an offer, a hiring manager choosing to work with me… I try to always position whatever it is I’m offering in a way that helps the recipient see how it BENEFITS them – not just me.
3. Share your biggest success story in recruiting so far?
This is easy. One of the recruiters I mentor (not a co-worker) was considering an internal transfer to a much more challenging role. I’m not sure it was a promotion, exactly – but doing a VERY different kind of recruiting for a difficult team. She would be the first “embedded with the business” recruiter as well as their first internal (they relied heavily on agencies up to that point). She almost backed out of the interview, but I coached her through it, and of course she nailed it / got the job. Several months later she is THRIVING – it’s 100% her effort and skills, I’m just so happy to be able to watch her grow. That’s one of the things I love most about internal recruiting – the people I hire today become co-workers or even hiring managers. It’s great to not only be part of their initial success but then help them build their teams, or advance in our company. Love it.
4. What is the best advice you’ve received during your career path, and from whom?
I could write a book of all the things I’ve learned over the years and it would take me hours to thank everyone who coached me. One stand out was my old boss at Microsoft, Michelle – who taught me my favorite mantra. Sometimes, good consulting looks like bad customer service. That’s a hard lesson for some of us, especially those who grew up wanting to “be pleasing” and make everyone happy. Not possible in recruiting! She taught me that I could be GREAT at my job and that doing the RIGHT thing sometimes upset people – never in an intentional or evil sort of way, but in a way that elevates recruiting to “advisor” not “order taker” status.
5. What’s your favorite recruiting tech tool?
I’m not a tools nerd and really don’t even source that much – but Hiretual, HANDS DOWN. I’ve saved hours upon hours by using the various functions and my hiring managers think I’m a damn genius because of labor market insights and some of the other fun features I get to play around with in this tool.
6. As an recruiting professional, how do you handle recruiting to achieve the best results?
Agency taught me to “work closest to the money” – I still live by that. Offers gotta get out FAST. Close ‘em if you got ‘em. Work the funnel – that’s another important one. BUT – it’s SO IMPORTANT to track data and really pay attention to what our funnel metrics and pass through rates are showing us. If you’re interviewing a ton of people but no one is getting an offer, you’re talking to the wrong people. OR, your interview process is flawed. OR – you get the idea. You need to sort that out and make whatever adjustments are needed to be successful. Stop throwing resumes into a broken funnel. It’s not always about one part of it, but too often the focus is put back on recruiting (or sourcing, if a separate function) with the old complaint “we’re not getting ENOUGH resumes!” That’s rarely accurate.
7. What do you hope to achieve in 2020?
At this point I just want to survive it! I started my new role in January, so while I feel pretty ramped up, I have a big hiring goal for 2020 – I’ve done the math and know what we need to do to achieve it – so my singular focus is on getting THAT done. It’s important, impactful work and I’m excited to celebrate our success with a long vacation around Christmastime
8. What’s your favorite Boolean String?
Another shameless plug for Hiretual I use the Boolean builder and honestly can’t remember the last time I wrote out a string without technological intervention! Oh, I take that back – it was during my interview! I was pretty sure I blew it because I stood there for a minute like “really? Don’t y’all have Hiretual?” ha! I could do it if I had to. But I don’t wash dishes by hand either so….
9. What’s your thoughts on Coronavirus? How should Recruiters should be responding to this crisis?
Oh man… what a mess. Empathy, first and foremost. As much as we ourselves are impacted by working from home, kids out of school, all that, remember so are your candidates and clients. We are all fighting a battle on some level with this pandemic. Relocation concerns, fear of change / leaving a stable job… our candidates are often operating from a place of hesitation and we need to be extra mindful of our influence. Our job involves a lot of convincing people to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do (change jobs, move, whatever) – we need to be SUPER careful about the emotions on the other side.
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New Book Launching SoonMy mission is simple: Help Recruiters learn about the latest Talent Sourcing Tools on the market! |
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